Inspired to find innovative, technology-driven solutions to opportunities within our business, we challenged our technology team to a hack-a-thon competition. The “Shark Tank” themed event, Innovate.19, was a 48-hour countdown to find the best technological solutions and create working demonstrations to present to a panel of judges.
“We have all of these ideas so we thought let’s get the teams together, have some fun and see what they can do,” said Mike Rodgers, Chief Strategy and Information Officer. Recently recognized by Business Insider as one of the top 20 most innovative CIOs, Mike Rodgers and his team continue to drive the company forward with technology innovation and this event was the perfect setting to enable their creativity.
To encourage collaboration and giving back, 10 cross-departmental teams competed on behalf of a local nonprofit organization focused on STEM. Project topics ranged from food to guest services, to fueling and parking. By working together in a fun and focused event, great ideas were brought to life to improve the experience for our team members and guests.
“I think it was excellent to see everybody be able to jump in and truly be able to focus on a solution rather than the problem,” said Adam Neubauer, a project manager with Pilot Flying.
Team members presented their ideas to a panel of esteemed judges in the “Fuel Tank” and were judged on functionality, design, extensibility and innovation.
Impressed by the quality and creativity of the solutions, the judges elected to recognize three teams as winners of awards in the categories of: Guest, Team Member and Impact. The winning teams, named COUNT on us, Safety Se7en and the WINners, proposed IT solutions for real-time truck parking capacity, human trafficking detection and a dynamic communications portal for team members.
The charities represented by these three teams each received a $10,000 donation from Pilot Flying J. At a ceremony held at our Sales and Support Center in Knoxville, TN, checks were presented to TN FIRST, Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge and Pellissippi State Foundation Bill Haslam Science Center for Math and Science.
“I was surprised at the number [of projects] that were so well thought out and designed that they could be implemented,” said Mike Rodgers. “There’s almost nothing that we throw at these guys that they can’t figure out and do. If we unleash the power of a team, we can get things done in a really quality way a heck of a lot faster than we have in the past.”
Perhaps the most exciting part of the event is seeing many of the proposed solutions continue to be developed and pursued for implementation. To learn more about the impact of IT and how Pilot Flying J is leveraging technology, check out this recent interview with Mike Rodgers on Mulesoft’s IT Visionaries’ podcast.
Click here to watch a short video recap of Innovate.19.
