I have been a fan of Hackathon for a long time and I know when I wanted to do the first hackathon in Iceland in 2012, I was laughed at. Now even the food startups are doing hackathons in Iceland which is great. We hosted a hackathon last year sponsored by Startup Iceland, Digi.me and AngelHack. I took the liberty to invite the AngelHack team to come to Iceland and more or less run the hackathon because I realized I was not the best qualified to do it. I was so impressed with the AngelHack team that came, that I decided right away that we will partner with AngelHack to run all hackathons organized by Startup Iceland. In continuation of that, I invited the CEO of AngelHack Sabeen Ali to speak in Startup Iceland 2018 and she agreed! And we are also hosting a hackathon sponsored by our Platinum Sponsor Digi.me, watch this space for more details. Mark your calendars for May 29th and 30th if want to participate in the Hackathon.
Sabeen is an accomplished speaker and an inspiration, watch her give a TEDx and the commencement speech in University of San Francisco.
Sabeen is a great spokesperson for something that I am passionate about, bringing diversity and equality to technology, startups and the startup community.
Here is a brief bio of Sabeen:
Sabeen Ali is Founder and CEO of AngelHack, female-owned and majority female-operated company that organizes hackathons and various innovative initiatives around the world.
Prior to AngelHack, Sabeen founded and sold her own leadership training and organizational development company; Team Building ROI, which provided leadership and organizational development training to companies such as Google, IBM, Blackberry, NetApp, Cisco, and others. She holds an M.S. in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco and is an expert in change management.
Sabeen also founded Code For A Cause, a nonprofit organization that aims to make technology and coding accessible for all, and to bring the tech community together to make the world a better place. Founded in 2013, CFAC has organized events and initiatives designed to connect developers, support women and girls, minorities, veterans and other disproportionately disadvantaged communities.
She speaks internationally to corporate, nonprofit and student audiences on rapid innovation, entrepreneurship, acceleration, women in tech initiatives, and more. Most recently, she spoke at 4YFN with Mobile World Congress, Money 20/20, Shoptalk, and delivered USF’s commencement speech in 2016. She has received numerous accolades for her work, most recently including the Harari Conscious Leadership and Social Innovation award. Her work with AngelHack and CFAC has been highlighted in Inc., Fast Company, Voice of America, and featured in the hit documentary: Seed.
