Earlier this month, West Virginia University’s Reed School of Media hosted MediaShift’s latest ‘Hack the Gender Gap’ event for women in media and technology. The event brought together college-age women from across the U.S. for a weekend smart-media “makeathon” focused on the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential impact on journalism and media.
Participants attended sessions with industry leaders and spent the weekend working in teams to develop their own startup ideas, which they presented to a panel of judges on Sunday. We’ve rounded up a collection of photos, videos and coverage, as well as a Storify, to capture the highlights of the makeathon at WVU. Did we miss anything? Please add it in the comments, and we’ll update the post.
Photos
Photos by David Smith / WVU
Video
Video by Susan Kirkman Zake
Coverage
Maker Spaces, Gender Gaps and Helping Young Women to Succeed, by Susan Zake
Turning Uncertainty into Magic: How We Won the Women’s IoT Makeathon, by Antoinette Yelenic
Makers Gonna Make, Innovators Gonna Innovate at WVU’s Womens IoT Makeathon, by Jillian Clemente
#EdShift Chat: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs in Media
Hack the Gender Gap: A Women’s IoT Makeathon at WVU (information page)
Feedback
“I really loved this event! It was an amazing opportunity filled with wonderful people. What an incredible experience, to raise your voice and actually be heard. Thanks for that.” -Lydia Owens, WVU
“This was my second makethon, and it was great. I love working with a team of all women, and I love learning about new technology through the event. I wish the weekend could continue! I think it would be great to see virtual speakers, networking events and more community development in between events. Or it could be cool to provide seed funding to teams. The biggest challenge after the event is that everyone on your team is too far away from each other to really continue work after an event.”
“I think the competition time is perfect, but more workshops beforehand to really delve into the topic would be amazing. With maybe some time for networking among the groups/mentors/etc. afterward?”
“I’d like to see 5 minute lightning talks by students or professionals before or after lunch so that participants can be inspired by other cool work that people are doing. I really wish that there was a presentation about business and marketing. That was the biggest hurdle for my group because none of us knew how to address revenue or how much money we would need to create a sustainable business.”
Storify
Ben DeJarnette is the associate editor at MediaShift. He is also a freelance contributor for Pacific Standard, InvestigateWest, Men’s Journal, Runner’s World, Oregon Quarterly and others. He’s on Twitter @BenDJduck.