A recent two-day creative hackathon called for design school students and digital industry creatives, developers and business strategists to showcase their talents to industry leaders.
Brainchild of MD Natasha Williams, the initiative formed part of a launch campaign for Tiger Tail Digital, a newly formed company within the Adcorp Professional Services group of companies that matches corporates seeking digital specialists with candidates with the right skill sets.
Tiger Tail Digital ran a creative hackathon - a 48-hour brainstorming think-tank in which 16 teams competed, pitching ideas to design the company's logo, brand identity and Web site.
#CreativeHack2017, managed by HackON, took place on 25 and 26 March at the V&A Waterfront's collaborative space, Workshop 17. Ten mentors from the digital marketing, development and design space worked closely with the groups to help them deliver an outcome during the two days.
Three finalists to pitch their work
At the end of the second day, the panel of judges, including Alistair King, founding creative partner of King James Group, Sabine Heckmann, Natasha Williams, Farai Madzima, Dean Broadley and Julie Maunder, selected three finalist teams.
"Our initial plan had been to choose two teams, but the quality at the hackathon was exceptional and we ended up selecting three," explained Williams.
The finalist teams will be flown to Johannesburg to pitch their work to South Africa's digital and design leaders at the official launch of Tiger Tail Digital on 11 May. At the launch, the company's clients will play a prominent part of the selection panel to decide the winner with prizes to the value of R106 000.
Competition and collaboration seem on opposite sides of the spectrum, but when thrown into the same pot with millennials challenged to disrupt, magic happens.
John Sanei
Trend specialist and business innovation strategist John Sanei spoke at the hackathon, and was impressed by the high level of creativity at the gathering of young minds.
"Competition and collaboration seem on opposite sides of the spectrum, but when thrown into the same pot with millennials challenged to disrupt, magic happens. I was so impressed with the contestants that since the hackathon I have been advising all my clients to get a few millennials to sit in on their exco meetings to give us their perspectives, wisdom and insights on the future," said Sanei.
Unique method
Tiger Tail Digital is as unique in its recruitment strategies as its method of designing its brand identity.
Often the talent pools that suit the transition from old world to new, just don't exist.
Natasha Williams
"Because we're small and focused specifically on building digital teams, we use quite alternative methods of finding potential candidates," says Williams. "In the fast-changing world of digital, broad IT recruitment is no longer sufficient to source the perfect fit between role and skills.
"Many of our clients are going through huge digital transformations and don't have the skills to get their programmes running as quickly and effectively as they would like," ads Williams. "Often the talent pools that suit the transition from old world to new, just don't exist. Clients and recruiters need to think more laterally, examining skillsets rather than CVs. We're not generalists, we're not high volume. Instead, we truly understand the key roles that data scientists, cyber security experts, and other specialists play in the digital marketing or design space."
Share