CryptoChicks ~ How to Champion the Hackathon: From Team Formation to Presentation

[Music] so as I mentioned technical talent usually because we working on the technical issues the majority of the people will be of course let's say 60 70 % maybe even 80 percent of technical talent and you will be working on the specific application and doing that then we going to the marketing and design this is something what I mentioned that you need to have people who will see this from the visual perspective the ones who are going to put everything together a little bit of color a little bit of the design that is just simply very also transparent the important thing is when you're presenting that everything is transparent not that it's crowded too many words because when it's too much on the screen whoever is in the judging panel or whoever actually says it's very difficult to read and you're concentrating what's on the screen instead of the person who is speaking and then public speaking that's also very important who is going to present your project not necessarily the one who designed the project or works on the technical issue it's a very good presenter sometimes it's good to have a sales person sometimes it's just simply good to have a person who is a very good speaker and who actually presents everything well in the coherent way but also the one who understands your project this is actually very important that those three this abc123 it's actually carried forward and you don't have to have a very big group for the marketing or for the public speaking but it's very good to have the presence of those individuals in your team now who is your audience when you actually preparing your project for whom you are preparing to that project who is going to use it how they are going to use it and of course at the same time if the project is well prepared right from the start you can use it eventually for pitching to the investors and of course to presenting to the hackathon judges so who are the end-users like how you what problem are you solving and what is the what is the solution and who is actually going to use your application or that your technical solution then when we talking about about the public again who is the public those ones are the ones who are just casual people attending the conference they are the fellow members of different organizations and future potential investors as well and and maybe here in between some judges who are going actually to you know eventually have a look and everything and this is what is very important that again you following those three things that you trying to have the answer with your project this particular issues problem clearly outlined the problem your project is going to address this is a very important thing when the judges are listening to your presentation some judges have technical background I personally have a financial background so I will be paying close attention to the technical solution but rather it is like how your technical solution reflects outlines the the solution to the potential problem and that would be paying attention who are going to be your users and how they are going to use it and how this is going to actually to help them with your application it is also very important that you showcase how actually that product product fit into the market just because the solution is fantastic and is very innovative is it really a solution which solves the problem or is that solution in a way that creates additional problems and makes judges aware oh there is a problem about which we didn't know what judges are doing at that particular moment is just a not concentrating on your solution but they trying to figure out and and about this particular problem it's just like okay is that problem really in existence how we can address it oh I didn't know it and is that starting even to question themselves that actually causes a confusion for the judges so it's very important just to make sure that what you are doing it actually pertains to the actual well known problem which can be addressed and it's like well understood for everyone sometimes it is also good to use data when you showcasing your project it's not always the case and it's not always applicable but when it does it's actually very good to know what are the statistics and how actually potentially that your solution can resolve certain problems we it comes to the issues which are very well now let's say that there is a financial app and how this is going to help people like statistically or even like from the region perspective like my approach to blockchain is that the origins in the world which are really wound blockchain but like for example in North America financial system in a way is well-established and they are the regions which want blockchain and the ones which need blockchain and just when we talking about South America like recent events like even in Argentina they started to use a Bitcoin to pain for for example for tickets for for tram tickets for bus tickets or for example there's a lot of usage of applications in Africa just because it's a peer-to-peer b2b and it's very important for them and they don't trust the system so for example showcasing those statistics it helps the judges and to whomever you are presenting your project to understand how your technical solution is going to resolve certain things how it's going to speed up certain things and how this compares between what was in the past and how it can be done in the future with your application when we're talking about approach to your solution what are the benefits of using your product so as you can see when I'm speaking actually one follows the other it's just your data how everything he's going to resolve the problem around around the world well blockchain is around the around the world it's a global global trend global issues so at the same time how this is actually going to benefit the ones who are going to use your product and important thing when we talking about data is also to know who is your competition what are they doing and how your product actually compares to the competition in the evenin the hackathon it might be that your project your your application your product might be very similar to group which is also presenting to the judges if that is so like how you can really make your product stand out what is actually the difference from your competition or even from existing applications how you can up this up and and showcase it to the judges that what you're doing is truly innovative or if in the way your project addresses the issues which are already in existence how it is better from your competition climbing the mountain you pick which one you want to climb but at the same time it is very important that you showcase your team and how you can showcase your team is through the storytelling Jeff Bezos actually was saying that he hates PowerPoint and there's a reason for it and we also there's a reason why children for example like fairy tales or all those stories because it's catching it's just bringing your attention to certain things gives you certain comparisons highlights the main point recently the two months ago I was in the conference in Vancouver and I've been interviewing doing some exclusive interviews for a few representatives of different innovative companies and in particular one company stand out when I was interviewing the CEO and the product manager for this particular company he actually highlighted its its application which talks about real estate just to give you the example and the investment in the real estate and tokenization and he actually compared historically how everything was happening like the lens before I belong to the Kings and to Nobles only right now when we getting into the talking economics how regular people can invest in different real estate ventures and also he described how they started the company that it was just simply that they started to talk about real estate around the world and it happened that his friend's mother was in the real estate and she was actually thinking about it about something and a certain innovation that he started to talk together and this is when the idea for the project came up the ones who are listening to it in a way reflecting themselves so it's important that you highlight what actually brought your team together like what was actually the reason what you wanted to solve what kind of the challenges you were going through that it made you to think about this particular project or this particular application or technical solution so the storytelling is actually very important at the same time when you have a story telling don't try to write down the entire book it's all about a few sentences as I said it's about this 1 2 3 or ABC keep it short keep it simple keep it elegant and now when we talking about perfecting a final touches as I mentioned you can wear just simple like suit but and then you can enhance it and embellish it with little tie like with tie or a little jewelry or different pair of shoes and then you bringing something extra and this is the important thing that keep it everything at the core that like judges whoever listens to you is not distracted from your main focal point of your project and this is when pay attention to visuals in your presentation when you're talking when we were talking about marketing team when we were talking about visual designers when they actually can put everything together and make it attractive and also making judges to focus on your presentation that everything as I mentioned needs to be transparent that it's easy to read and at the same time remember that your presentation is just an addition people will be listening to what you are saying and this is just [Music] just a main point of what you are saying and when you're doing a final presentation and when you're doing actually qni section I've noticed that a lot of people sometimes when they presenting they taking simply too much time and all of a sudden they are just focused on one particular detail or they want to showcase how technically good the solution is and they keep talking about it and at the end like nobody really remembers what was said so it is important to make main points and we leave the rest to the Q&A section if something was intriguing in your presentation judges will catch on that and they will ask you the question and if they do then it's a moment then you can dwell a little bit more on this particular issue and showcase your expertise when you answering the questions this is again so important to have diversified team because some questions might be pertained to marketing some questions might be pertaining to technical issues then of course technical person can answer this particular question and provide the answer or something might be just a general question or about statistics or about the data and the person who is a fantastic speaker who knows your product who knows your company will be able to answer that in the very short in a very short way then final advice what is important believe in your project because sometimes people are just like standing can they of course the understood it is well understood that hackathon it's a couple of days sometimes things are not finished but be proud of your what you are doing and be confident and it's like very important that you just stand by your product and even if you in the end you can even say it's ok like I didn't finish that or that needs to be worked upon and we are going to work on those things and we are going to massage that and that it's it's very important that one way or another when you present Inc you believe in what you've done it and you've done your best at this particular moment make it sure that it's that it's that it's nice that it's eye catching and it has a focal point and showcase it and then of course don't forget to smile because that actually in the way it catches the attention just melts the ice bridges with the audience and at the same time well just even for that reason it just relaxes your jaws and your vocals are much better as well so those ones are very key points and we will answer your questions if any very shortly but also in the meantime we would like to say a few words about our group crypto chicks and what are the incoming events and I will just share it my microphone like who will present that thank you Anna that was great I hope you guys learned something from this if you have questions about anything in the presentation feel free to ask us after all so if you want this presentation we can send it to you by email so just you can take a picture of this you have Anna's email right there and you can email us we'd be happy to share it with you my name is Karla and I'm part of the crypto chicks group as well I am doing marketing social media everything that's online and also preparing for the events so I I join crypto chicks about one year ago and I just want to tell you about what what we've been doing since then we're group that started in hmmm okay we're a group that started in Toronto the main reason why we started is that we wanted to make blogging more accessible for all through education and events and mainly we wanted to focus on woman because we felt that there really needed to be more women in this space we were going to conferences and events and it was so many guys and it just felt overwhelming and there was no space for women to you know raise their hands and that's stupid question like how do i buy my first Bitcoin or how do I set up my wallet because I don't know how to do that so we thought like we're gonna find a solution for them so we started organizing meetups which were just for women at the beginning simple subjects like how do you set up your first wallet how do you buy on it on the exchange and we did it for six months it was very successful which led us to do our first annual event in Toronto it was a hackathon and conference so the hackathon only for ladies and conference for all we had a hundred and twenty girls who register and hacked in Toronto and we had 300 attendees at the conference and everything was very educational presentations like this we asked companies to talk about their solution and not pitched a project so it was really really good after that we continued around the world we have ambassadors now who represent us in Switzerland even Pakistan we have ambassadors in Russia and we partner with a lot of events like for example at Khan hackathon we will be organizing the hackathon with them and again the one I want to mention again is that we're doing our annual conference and you hack it on again in Toronto from May 31st to June 2nd and if there are girls in the room or if you know girls who will be interested to take part in the hackathon like please refer them to this so they can register and for guys we invite you to attend the conference and also if you have technical expertise that you want to share you can be a mentor at the event so we really want to create a collaboration between everyone to make learning more fun so I think that's it if you have questions if you have questions we can actually take a few questions right now we still have a time and we just also want wanted to mention that yes the hackathons are for women only but we are expounding and we are in cooling right now youth and even kids and during our hackathon in Toronto we are going to have actually family day so we trying to incorporate truly everyone right now to know and understand everything what is possible about blockchain so if there are any questions we are more happy right now to answer them and if Carla mentioned you can contact me via email as well to follow up if you have actually any questions during the time when you're doing your project we are more than happy to answer that and even look at your look look at your presentation and help you out just in case if you don't have right now enough members in your team who are there market or visual artists or or like even like looking from outsiders to look at your project so any questions right now well I gather that I said at all if there are no questions I answered everything I guess but here it is the question yes [Music] yes of course it's a very good question as the matter of fact just that was in November at the end of November we've been also in at the DEF CON in Prague and we've been hosting the hackathon over there and it was actually very much open for everyone including transgender also we've been last year that was in May two thousand eighteen we've been a part of at con conference which was at that time in Toronto and we've been also hosting the hackathon over there and was like open for for everyone and every single attend attendee and we have also upcoming events right now again at Con in April in Sydney Australia which is open as well the same situation we have it actually at our hackathon in Toronto transgender people are very welcomed and they can apply for for to participate in in our hackathon as well this is on diversity so our goal is to diversify the audience as much as possible and make everyone understand what this technology is so what we don't want is have one single type of audience so that's that's our main goal at the end yeah any other questions great thank you everyone thank you everyone and once again please do not hesitate to contact us drink actually those three days at Denver and we are more than happy to look at your projects and help you out if you need so okay thank you thank you very much let's hear it for the crypto chicks [Applause] [Music] [Applause]