Over the weekend, the Technovation[MN] competition culminated in the Appapalooza event that celebrates the achievements of young women in technology. The competition inspires girls to pursue opportunities in STEM-related fields.
During this three-month-long competition, participants are tasked with dreaming up, designing, coding and pitching mobile apps as they are encouraged and critiqued by panels of industry professionals. The event was held at the Minneapolis Convention center.
As in previous years, MentorMate was one of the media sponsors for the program. Many of MentorMate’s own helped to guide the competitors to the celebratory finale of the twelve-week program.
Eve Poeschl, MentorMate Director of Solution Design, has worked with Technovation[MN] for three years to inspire the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs. She spent her first two years judging the work of middle and high school groups. This year Eve worked as a board member and also as a volunteer beginning with the competition kick-off twelve weeks ago, advising girls as they sought digital solutions to problems in their community.
Sarah Rockholt and Ryan Pena, the MentorMate event team, have worked throughout the last three months to spread the word about the competition and highlight participants. Sarah documented the event, capturing the energy of the 250 excited participants. Meanwhile, Ryan livestreamed interviews with the young competitors throughout the day. Chandler Larson manned the MentorMate booth, providing answers to attendee questions about our role in the community.
Apart from providing media coverage, MentorMate Experience Design Lead Anna Dehn also helped steer the girls. Her guidance in ideation and research, branding, UX and presentation helped teams put participants’ best effort forward at Appapalooza. Nick Curran and Robin Thomas offered support emceeing some of the breakout sessions.
In the hours leading up to the final event, MentorMate also served as the Technovation[MN] 2017 home base, where volunteers stuffed goodie bags in advance of the competition.
