Mircea Motogna: My #Yonderful moment to remember

30 years of continuous innovation. 30 yonderful moments to remember shared by 30 of our colleagues from Cluj and Iași. We were beyond excited to hear Mircea’s story, not only because it’s about an event that marked the beginning of something beautiful and meaningful for our company but also because right now, preparations for another one taking place in May both in Cluj and Iași are underway.

Since 2016, when we successfully held our first hackathon, Yonder organized such events also in the following years, till 2019. Unfortunately, the pandemic stopped this series, and afterward, there were only smaller hackathons managed by different Yonder business units.

But let’s find out what the first hackathon event looked like through Mircea’s eyes, the colleague with the most years of service in Yonder (28!)

“The idea of having a Hackathon with our customers was discussed several times, but in 2016 it happened. Since Yonder is part of TSS and CSI, during all management meetings, there were always talks about ”innovation”, ”new initiatives”, and ”the best ways to address the need for organic growth for our companies”. Yonder’s proposal to organize a Hackathon was simple and effective in addressing these problems. Customers were supposed to come up with ideas and Yonder would provide the teams responsible to find solutions. For 2 days (and nights, for some enthusiasts) those teams were working to build a first version of a product or a prototype that could be used later in demos for final customers.

Like any genuine Romanian initiative, a Hackathon would start on a Friday with a dinner with all participants and our Chief Technology Officer, Remus Pereni, making an official opening of the event. Saturday and Sunday were working days – with no or few hours of sleep. The office space was arranged to provide all conditions and catering was ensured. On Sunday evening we had a festive closing dinner with short presentations of teams on what they have achieved. Most of the customers sent representatives to participate in person and they worked together with our teams but also found time to get to know the Yonder people better.

What was unique about Yonder Hackathon is that (almost) everybody was involved. Teams had volunteers from all business units (Cluj and Iasi), Delivery Managers were in contact with customers for gathering proposals and ideas, techboard members were developers or consultants (we called them THE SWAT Team), the IT Department was on standby for the whole event duration, Facility Department solved all the other necessities, including catering and the office arrangements, Marketing and Communication prepared presentation materials and messages to promote the event.

The Hackathons are incredible occasions for knowing each other – with customers or between us, Yonder colleagues from different Business Units, or from Cluj and Iasi. The last big hackathon (2019) was organized in 2 places (Cluj and Iasi), and even then, a video connection was established, where colleagues from one side could see the other side and talk from time to time with each other.

Nothing strengthens team cohesion like getting into problems and solving them together – and a Hackathon usually comes with many problems to solve in a short time. It requires creativity, working together and making quick decisions. But even more important, it means having a lot of fun. Testimonials and surveys sent after Hackathon’s confirmed that all Yonder and customers’ participants enjoyed it a lot, even if we were all a bit tired in the week after the event. But nothing comes easy. Looking forward to attending the next one, taking place on May 12-13.”