To further its goal to support more women in the tech industry, award-winning data and analytics company, TrueCue, launched its ‘Women + Data Hackathon’ for the second year running in November 2021. This event, held in partnership with computer software company Alteryx and the Institute of Directors (IoD), brought together 250 women from around the world to craft and solve research questions around global data sets on the topic of sustainability, following the previous year’s focus on Covid-19 data.  

In light of the fact that only 26% of all computing-related jobs are held by women, TrueCue’s Women + Data Hackathon – which won a Lord Mayor of London’s Dragon Award for its 2020 event for Inclusive Employment – aims to address this problem by providing women an opportunity to build skills in data analytics and join a supportive community.  

The event is designed to be as inclusive as possible and is open to women of all backgrounds from anywhere in the world. Participants range in their experience, with 77% self-identifying as ‘beginners’ or ‘intermediate’ concerning one of four different analytics domains: experience in manipulating data; interpreting data; visualising data; and advanced analytics.  

Participants were guided by a team of mentors and were provided with training as well as access to speaker events in which women shared their career experiences in the field of data, as well as sustainability. Over two weeks, those taking part in the Hackathon worked together in teams to analyse data on sustainable development, improving their analytics capabilities and presentation skills in the process. The judging panel – which included Olivia Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of Alteryx, Cecelia Isvén, Manager, Sustainability Analytics at Deloitte, and Emily Blandford, Augmented Insights Manager at Accenture – received 26 final submissions and selected the following winners:  

• Team Violet, awarded ‘Best Advanced Analytics/Predictive Modelling’ for their focus on reducing inequalities within and between countries;  
• Team Last2Standing for ‘Most Impactful Story-telling’, with their inspiring portrayals of the challenges of breastfeeding for working mothers;  
• Team NewsUK, winners of ‘Best Presentation of Analytics’ for their investigations into how to increase the overall happiness and wellbeing of populations back to pre-pandemic levels. 

Sophie Decelle, Consulting Manager, TrueCue said: “Running the Women + Data Hackathon for the second year in a row has allowed us to continue building an inclusive environment for women interested in the field of data analytics. The initiative has already yielded great results in bringing women together into a supportive professional community, and it has also benefited TrueCue in its search for new talent as the company has onboarded two women who participated in the first hackathon.” 

Olivia Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer & Co-Founder, Alteryx said: “As a member of the judging panel for the Hackathon I was so impressed by the creative problem-solving of the participants and by the breadth of issues they had chosen to address under the sustainable development goals umbrella. The passion for their subjects shone through and the depth of analysis achieved in the short timescale was fantastic to see.” 

Esther Teeken, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member at the IoD, said: “The Women + Data Hackathon is an event that champions inclusion and diversity, demonstrating the value of bringing together people from varied backgrounds to share their perspectives and creative ideas. All businesses can benefit from embracing greater diversity and fostering an inclusive environment, and events such as this Hackathon are a great way to discover hidden talent and open up opportunities for those who may previously have lacked a clear pathway into their chosen career.”