Off The Grid Sign Ups Are Open!

Shannon Emery · June 2018

Calling all Blackbaud Customers!

It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in Off the Grid, Blackbaud’s annual hackathon event, being held from July 25-27, 2018. As a customer representative, you have the opportunity to collaborate with a team on a project that could end up solving problems for customers like you. And if your team is one of the three finalists, you win a free trip to bbcon 2018!

If you are interested in working with a team for this event, please fill out this brief survey and we will reach out directly to coordinate participation details with you.

How can I help?
Connecting interested customers with teams is essential to making sure we’re creating solutions that will benefit you. We will pair you with a team prior to the event itself so you can decide together the best way for you to be involved. Generally speaking, we are looking to you to provide valuable input and feedback along the way, potentially test what your team is working on, and share why you believe your team’s project will be valuable.

Our teams will help prepare you to work remotely (or possibly onsite if you’re local to the team) during the event.

What do else do I need to know?

Time commitment: in addition to working with your team during the event, you may want to be available for your team’s presentation which will be scheduled sometime between 11am-2:30 pm on the 27^th. If you are a finalist, there will be a presentation at a yet-to-be-scheduled time the following Monday the 30^th or Tuesday the 31^st.

Please keep in mind:

All projects and content are CONFIDENTIAL to Blackbaud. Because this is an internal event and we want to keep our unveiling of OTG at bbcon a surprise, we ask that you not publicly disclose details – so you’ll need to keep any project details off social media.
There is no guarantee that your team’s project will end up in our products and/or solutions.
Other than the joy of teamwork as well as global visibility across Blackbaud and potentially beyond, you will not be compensated for your input on the project. If the idea ends up going into production, you will not be paid for your involvement.
You are welcome to, but not expected to work the full 48 hours of the OTG event. You and your team can decide together on the scope of the role you would like to have.

Please note that participation may be limited based on the number of teams that register, and that completing the survey does not guarantee your spot on a team. As it is our sincere wish to involve as many of our customers as possible, we will try our best to align as many customers as we can with available teams.

Robert Brown · June 2018

I have to question the timing of this as it is occurring during the K-12 conference in Seattle. This is something I would love to take part in, but because I am attending the conference it is impossible for me to meet the time requirements and I'll be flying home during the presentation time.

Claudia Sauers · June 2018

Oh rats, this falls on my two actual days of vacation this summer.

Arielle Hendel · June 2018

Do you need to know how to code or is this brainstorming around an idea and possible solutions?

Shannon Emery · June 2018

Hey Robert! I'll make sure to let our team know for next year's "Off the Grid" since we definitely want you to be able to participate around our K-12 Conference!

Shannon Emery · June 2018

Sorry about that Claudia but I would say enjoy that time off even more - you deserve it!

Shannon Emery · June 2018

Hey Arielle! I will follow up with our team and find out for you.

Barb Gill · June 2018

What Robert said!!!!!!! The timing is so disappointing.

Shannon Emery · June 2018

I have let our teams know about the timing for next year so it hopefully doesn't overlap with any of our conferences next year.

Shannon Emery · June 2018

For Arielle - you do NOT have to be a developer to participate. Your feedback, ideas, etc., are what is needed for Off the Grid to be successful.

Melonie AllynSchwerin · June 2018

Any idea (realistically) what kind of time commitment this requires? I'm interested, but that's the same week as one of our major events and I'll be doing a lot of number crunching to get my quick and dirties done.