Internet of Things Hackathon for Bosch… Going beyond the buzzword

OBJECTIVE

As the Internet of Things (IoT) became an area for increased opportunity and investment for many tech firms, Bosch sought to crowdsource innovation by creating an open hackathon for university students, local startups, accelerators, mentors, and entrepreneurs in China. The goal of the hackathon was to generate new use cases for Bosch IoT technology, engage specialists, and build Bosch’s reputation and employer brand in the IoT space.

APPROACH

Preeti was brought on board by Shanghai-based innovation firm CollabCentral as a lead strategist and project lead. Her strategy for creating and onboarding a community of stakeholders and students focused on the popular Chinese social media and messaging app WeChat and building a unique landing page for event information and registration. The site offered clear judging criteria and additional promotion for a full-day boot camp scheduled for the week prior to the hackathon to build pre-event enthusiasm. The WeChat community was actively managed and designed to create an immersive and engaging experience.

RESULTS

The hackathon resulted in six teams presenting ten-minute pitches and a prototype/MVP (minimum viable products) after 48 hours of rigorous hacking, with the winning team earning a unique internship with the Bosch IoT team to improve upon their use cases. Bosch subsequently developed a continuous engagement plan with universities to identify and nurture talent in the IoT space.