{"id":615,"date":"2019-11-01T16:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nleby.com\/longform\/?p=615"},"modified":"2021-08-14T17:20:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:20:42","slug":"2019-dare-mighty-things-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nleby.com\/longform\/2019\/11\/01\/2019-dare-mighty-things-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Dare Mighty Things Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ulta’s first Hackathon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This year Ulta teamed up with the Google Cloud Chicago team to create a fun challenge for our first-ever<\/strong> hackathon! The hackathon was part of the Dare Mighty Things conference, if you’re unfamiliar with this great Chicago conference, check out http:\/\/daremightythings.co<\/a>. McDonald’s co-sponsored the event and graciously hosted the hackathon at their Chicago headquarters \u2013 my dream of having unfeathered access to their fountain drink machines came to fruition! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We supplied the participants with multiple sample data files, representing our complete product catalog, store inventory, and store details and challenged them to create a voice-powered experience. The winners would receive up to 5 Google Stadia Founder’s Edition package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 53 teams involved, 15 chose to work on our challenge and we were delighted with the results. Some of the entries included: Google Assitant for Ulta, Product Recommendation for Ulta, Speech Analysis Platform to make Conversation Smarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also some pretty interesting team names: “Big Brother is Watching,” “I Like Chicken,” “Nuggets,” “Hopper”, “Ultrasist,” “Sushi Sahworma,” “Serving Looks,” “@therealDMI2019,” “ISU Seniors,” “Team Van,” and “Kangaroos”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Rago kicking things off!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n