Vickathon – Visual, Virtual Hackathons

Galit Zamler is a serial entrepreneur, the co-founder of Galiel3.14 Ltd., and of Vickathon - Virtual Visual Hackathons. She graduated with an M.B.A in business administration and a B.A. in social sciences.

She provides high-level counseling to elementary, junior high, and high schools on various topics related to entrepreneurship education and preparing students for the real-life in a dynamic world.

She has founded the Israeli Entrepreneurship for Kids Program in 2009. The program has been taught so far in dozens of schools all over Israel as well as in the USA, China, Hong Kong, India, and Vietnam. Through this program, students instill the required skills for life in the 21st century, all based on Galit's experience and knowledge gained working as a business entrepreneur over more than a decade.

She is also a professional Hackathon events leader.

Hackathons are considered to be events that encourage innovation, creative thinking, teamwork, and more.  Usually, hackathons are held in a specific venue where all people come along and gather together. Such events in the real-world are a great entrepreneurial experience for all participants. But when people can't gather in one place or are away from each other, there is no experiential solution for running hackathons from remote. Here comes the VICKATHON - A visual, virtual solution for online Hackathons.
Impact: Vickathon allows people to keep collaborating and innovate even when they can't physically meet, because of a pandemic, physical disabilities, living in the periphery, or in another country, etc. 
With Vickathon, we all can express our creativity and be part of the innovative ecosystem, almost the same as in real hackathons.

Hackathons in the real-world are a great experience for all participants. But when in isolation, or when away from each other, there is no experiential solution for running hackathons from remote, especially for school students. We solve this problem with VICKATHON - A visual virtual solution for online Hackathons that can be tailored to any niche. With Vickathon, those who usually everyone can participate in such innovative events no matter where they are. 

Our solution allows schools and other organizations to hold joint hackathons and broaden their horizons and hear various opinions. In this way, we also create a connection and closeness between participants from different backgrounds.

Vickathon is the first internet application for running online Hackathons that provides a similar experience to real ones.

 With Vickathon

  1) You can lead a virtual Hackathon for an unlimited number of teams and users simultaneously.

  2) The interface is friendly, visual, and intuitive.

  3) The online venture form includes short ready-made tutorials by professionals. You can also integrate your own tutorials.

  4) The teams can embed all related files of their venture into the venture's document and present them all (not just links).

 5) All team members can work on their venture in parallel with any device, from anywhere and at any time.

 6) Real-time updating of the online shared document.

 7) You can adjust the design, content, and tutorials to any audience niche and to any age.

  8) Easy customization and migration to any language.

  9) As the Hackathon owner, you can allow participants to be exposed and see all groups' projects. As well as open the ventures for online voting so that participants can vote for their favorite project ideas. Once the judges decide on the winners, you can display them on Vickathon, so all participants will see who the winners are.

Vickathon can serve those who wish to hold hackathons and competitions from remote for different reasons like the need to stay at home because of a pandemic, or because they have employees or students in different locations, or because they want to have the experiment of a hackathon but without all the expenses of the gathering everyone in one place.

Such clients can be schools, colleges, entrepreneurial centers, municipalities, big tech companies, and innovative organizations.

Before we released Vickathon, we talked with school directors and teachers. This way, we made sure to adjust Vickathon for school students and their educators. After launching, we kept listening to our users and made all changes needed to make its market fit.

The same we did with the Technion institution. 

Vickathon allows people to participate from remote in innovative events, where they can express their creativity and work in teams. This way, we enable those who are usually not part of the innovative ecosystem because they are on the social or geographical periphery to participate equally as those who live in the center and are evolving. This way, we reduce gaps in communities.

Mrs. Galit Zamler is the founder of the Entrepreneurship for Kids (EFK) Program, which has been active since 2009 in dozens of schools in Israel and in the USA, China, Hong Kong, India, and Vietnam as well.

Due to the Coronavirus, governments around the world have closed schools and universities.

  Galit recognized that in the new situation:

  1) Students stay at home bored.

 2) Children and youth want to express their solutions for issues that this situation has created but cannot find an outlet to do so.

 3) Highly experienced people are willing to help others as mentors.

  Galit checked with school directors, parents, teachers, and students what they thought of such an online event, and they were all enthusiastic.

 Galit also realized that many other companies and employees are in the same situation.

 This is how the Vickathon was born: An online application for visual virtual Hackathons tailored to any niche.

I am passionate about Vickathon because, on the one hand, it is very easy to use, even third-grade kids participated in the virtual hackathon I led. That is, it also encourages non-technology people to be part of the entrepreneurial and innovative community. On the other hand, it can easily reach and influence many people around the world and allow them to express their ideas. With the help of the teamwork, mentors, and connections made online through Vickathon, those who are sometimes inaudible can become meaningful in our world and get the stage they deserve.

Vickathon enables collaborations and brainstorming between people who are away from each other and between students from different schools. I see these connections as the future in every aspect, economic, social, global... 

Galit has a lot of experience with entrepreneurship education in schools. She and Eldad are serial entrepreneurs; they have developed several technology ventures. Some of them succeeded, and some of them failed. Galit knows the education market closely in Israel and abroad. She is a hackathon events leader. Her hackathons are considered to be very experiential. She also has experience as a business development manager of their technology ventures. Eldad is a full-stack developer, who got several prizes for his program developments. The combination of two of us helps us deliver this project successfully.

Galit hosted a national virtual hackathon for students. One company offered Galit to use its platform for free on the summit day, in which Galit announced the winners. In return, the company asked for recognition on Galit's website. 

They guided Galit on their platform and opened for her a license for hosting hundreds of attendees. 

Galit checked everything before the summit day, scheduled on the 1st of May 2020 at 12:00 PM. Everyone received an invitation to the online event. All students were excited and so Galit. 

But when starting the event, it turned out that the company gave the license only for April, not for May. Participants couldn't join the event because it was limited to 6 participants. 

Galit tried to call the company, but no one answered. Galit, who hasn't hosted an online event before, called her sister, a teacher, to help her organize the event over Zoom. 

The event was held two hours later and was very successful. 

Galit explained the students and all attendees what happened and that things like that can happen when you do something for the first time. But this should not stop us from doing. 

Galit is considered a pioneer in the entrepreneurship education domain in Israel. She started doing this in 2009, while she wasn't an educator or one of the education system. At the time, almost no one in Israel talked about entrepreneurship education, and no one thought of allowing an entrepreneur who is not part of the system to teach in schools. 

Galit is considered a breakthrough in both the knowledge and the method of learning. Galit has trained many teachers and school staff to lead and empower students through the entrepreneurial arena. 

The technique that Galit has developed requires minimal training hours with the teachers, yet it gives them knowledge and confidence in teaching the subject in classrooms with the students. Many people were skeptical about the effectiveness of her method. Still, once it has proven itself over and over again, others tried and are trying to follow the method and implement it in other domains.