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Introduction
Hackathons create a unique, high-energy environment where top talent—developers, engineers, and tech enthusiasts—come together to pitch new ideas or solve set challenges within a specified time. These events, which can be hosted online and in person, are ideal for fulfilling internal goals and reaching out to wider communities with separate sets of interests. 80% of Fortune 100 companies host hackathons, and out of them, 50%, with time, turn out to be recurring events. For companies, hosting a hackathon is a tangible way to explore what their community has to offer. Also, these events pose exclusive opportunities to learn more about industry developments – generate fresh ideas, and identify the brightest talents.
EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024 – Recap
The EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024 was an in-person three-day long hackathon event featuring 10+ use case-specific hands-on labs delivered by CloudLabs to dive deep into cutting-edge Microsoft technologies, like Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Studio, Document Intelligence, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Synapse, Cognitive (Azure AI) Search, Copilot (GitHub, Studio, M365), and more. Each lab denoted an individual session and came pre-configured with a set time schedule, lasting for an average of 2 hrs with consistent breaks between each session.
Our labs were innovative, interactive, and fully managed – in fact, they came tailor-made and backed by real-time, on-spot technical support from experienced proctors at CloudLabs.
One of our instructors in action – helping attendees set up their labs
Further, our experienced instructors made a point to deliver the most interesting sessions based on various topics, diving deep into cutting-edge technology. They did focus on real-world practical applications of the same, helping attendees improve their productivity at work. The sessions were interactive, with attendees being able to converse and participate in fun games – solving puzzles or answering quizzes.
The EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024 ignited a wave of innovation as 100+ attendees across different teams with various skill levels from EY gathered to attend three days of dynamic sessions over hands-on labs. In collaboration with Microsoft, CloudLabs proudly supported this inspiring event—designed to foster the next generation of innovators and accelerate EY’s product development goals.
Team CloudLabs at the EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024
At CloudLabs, we specialize in helping organizations host scalable technical workshops and hackathons with integrated labs. Our in-lab controls, backed by dedicated support professionals, help eliminate the stress of event management and monitoring.
Key Moment for CloudLabs
A standout moment was the “Time Travel” experiment by one of our instructors! It was able to spark an engaging discussion between Gen Z and Millennials (participants attending the event). Attendees got to explore core values that can be learned from older generations and identified areas where the new generation can strengthen creativity and curiosity to drive future innovation.
One of our instructors from CloudLabs is conversing with participants
By the end of the session, everyone did conclude, with the takeaway being – that while generative AI like ChatGPT can streamline tasks, the ongoing need for content creators to come up with fresh and original ideas remains quintessential. Reading, logical reasoning, and problem-solving skills continue to be a constant mandate. Though AI continues to enhance efficiency, balancing technological advances with foundational knowledge is crucial for sustainable innovation, and that is only possible with expert human interference.
The CloudLabs Experience: Organizing An Impactful Hackathon Event For EY
EY focuses on building a better working world, assisting in creating long-term value for clients, people, and society – building trust in capital markets. A hackathon event turns out to be a seamless opportunity for the organization to help interested minds tap into their exclusiveness, unleashing innovation, and creativity. While “EY Techathon 5.0 2024 – annual flagship campus event invites students to harness the power of AI to address real-world challenges and drive Bharat’s progress,” the organization made sure its in-house employees also got a chance to dive deep into the latest AI-driven technologies over guided sessions hosted by CloudLabs at the EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024. Overall it turned out to be quite a success, with talented minds brainstorming towards solving some complex real-world challenges.
Felicitating the best performers at the event
Continue reading to understand the exclusive inputs by CloudLabs that turned the event into a great success:
- Hands-on Labs: Pre-configured, ready-to-deploy lab environments were made available at the time of the event based on the requested number of participants. The labs were time-bound, ensuring optimum resource management and cost-effectiveness.
- In-depth Participation Reports: Admins got access to in-depth insights – on participation, attendance, and the total time spent by attendees using the labs.
- Leaderboard Views: Cumulated reports indicating top performers in a hackathon event were available. Making it easy to recognize emerging talents and consistent efforts.
- Experienced Professionals On-Demand: Our skilled in-house lab instructors and proctors were present in person, assisting attendees with the labs throughout the event.
- Guided Interactive Sessions: Experienced instructors and dedicated proctors from CloudLabs made sure attendees got to leverage the labs to their fullest. Our instructors made sure to discuss emerging technologies and tap into their real-world applications. Proctors made it all look seamless, helping attendees throughout the event.
- Engaging and Informative Activities: As an added interactive experience, the CloudLabs team organized an OpenAI-themed quiz for attendees. This not only tested participants’ knowledge but also provided them with the latest updates on AI advancements.
CloudLabs: Adding Convenience & Control to Technical Hackathons
Attendees engaging with CloudLabs instructors
CloudLabs helps organizers host technical hackathon events – backed by controlled lab environments. Instructors, proctors, and stakeholders have complete visibility of every lab that is being consumed and can monitor the whereabouts of the same as needed. There is more that adds to the awesomeness! Continue with the reading task to find out all the reasons why CloudLabs is deemed a premium choice – trusted by leading organizations globally.
- Custom Registration Pages: Organizations can share their own agenda for an upcoming hackathon event.
- Pre-Configured Labs: Choose the lab of choice from CloudLabs’ pre-configured lab catalog, including Microsoft technologies – Azure, Copilot, Generative AI, etc.
- Multi-Cloud Compatibility: Host hackathons from any cloud platform of choice – Azure, GCP, and AWS.
- Add New Users: Admins can add new users to a pre-scheduled hackathon. The roles include event admin, proctor, attendee, speaker, track admin, and event partner admin.
- Monitor Registrations: Add/edit hackathon details (date, time, agenda, instructor details) for a scheduled hackathon. Accept or reject participant registrations as per requirement.
- Over-the-Shoulder View: Get access to an over-the-shoulder view of the participants’ lab environment with the Shadow VM feature enabled. Offer real-time feedback and support.
- Leverage Rapid Scalability: Host events with the required number of seats as per your requirements. Scale by requesting on-demand labs during live events.
- Control Lab Uptime: Have full control over the maximum uptime of the cloud resources backed by customizable-automated features to shut down idle labs, optimizing event budgets.
- Download Granular Reports: Download a complete report for the whole batch or monitor a particular participant with his/her individual report.
- Access Participation Reports: Insights on participation, attendance, and the total time spent by each attendee using scheduled labs are also available.
- Complete Data Security: Active compliance with RBACs and GDPR policies ensures complete data protection for all participants in the hackathon.
- Multi-Track capabilities: Hosting multiple tracks simultaneously within a single event saves time, offering complete liberty to attendees to choose the track based on requirements.
- Industry Leading Support: A dedicated support team from CloudLabs offers real-time support throughout the live event, providing aid for technical issues within the labs.
Wrapping Up
CloudLabs, with completely managed labs, advanced VM schedules (start/stop/pause), smart cost optimizations, and a streamlined admin sign-up process has turned out to be a one-stop-solution for running online technical events and hackathons, helping businesses create an impact that lasts. Nonetheless, sufficing for all the reasons why the EY Olympiad InnovateX Hackathon 2024 was a major success, offering participants dynamic experiences to learn and innovate.
Interested in leveraging all the awesomeness for yourself?
Connect with us today!
Harshal Charde is an accomplished Principal Cloud Solution Architect at Spektra Systems, with extensive expertise in Microsoft Technologies, Hyper-V, Cloud Computing, and Virtualization. His proficiency in these areas allows him to design and implement cutting-edge solutions for clients, driving business growth and innovation.
