How to Win a Hackathon: The Importance of Storytelling in Tech

Abstract

Have you ever wanted to participate in a hackathon but weren't sure how they worked? Or are you a previous hackathon attendee who wants to increase your chances of winning? In this talk, we'll review how hackathons are judged, with a special focus on storytelling—how you choose your problem statement, what judges are looking for, and how to frame your story for different audiences. We'll go beyond the hackathon to address basic skills that are useful in every part of your tech career. Whether you're speaking in public or writing a design doc to persuade your fellow engineers, the principles presented in this talk can be used by anyone.

Bio

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Maritza currently works at Google leading a portfolio of ML infrastructure products. She brings 13 years of experience building products in high performance computing, computer networking, cloud computing, and machine learning applications.