I do a lot of jobs as CEO of Rocket Software, but one of my favorite things to do is sit down with tech professionals to discuss new ways to transform the software industry. I got to do that today when Rocket Software had the honor of hosting a session as part of the 2017 NewCo Boston Festival, a celebration of technology in New England. NewCo is sponsored by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) and has been going strong since 2012, and this year was the first time the event spanned two full days.
This year I joined several of my fellow Rocketeers to talk about Rocket.Build, an internal hackathon we’ve held since 2014 to help get our engineers and programmers thinking about technology in new and creative ways. Hackathons allow all of us to reimagine who we are as a company and how we can build products that matter to our customers and partners. Hackathons help us find creative solutions to problems by reaching beyond our regular teams and circles. I’m proud to say that several of Rocket’s successful products have been inspired by developments at Rocket.Build.
I chose to start Rocket in Massachusetts and kept our headquarters here because the local tech community has always been – and continues to be – creative, passionate, and vibrant. MassTLC does a great job keeping local industry leaders engaged and interested to create a true community with events like NewCo. Hackathons inspire professionals in the field to always search for new horizons and to drive innovation rather than sticking to our comfort zones and official job titles.
I look forward to participating in NewCo again next year, and to seeing what new solutions Boston-area innovators come up with. But more than anything, I hope that the people who came to Rocket today to learn about how we work and what we do go back to their own organizations and incorporate our approach to innovation with their own models for breaking the mold and coming up with solutions that make a difference.
This post also appears on the Rocket Software blog.
