 From the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, it's the Q. At the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, here is your host, Jeff Frick. Hi, Jeff Frick here. We're on the ground at Phoenix, Arizona at the Phoenix Convention Center. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is 8,000 women and a couple hundred men, really in the 14th year of this event, which includes inspirational speaking, it includes an education component, it includes a job, fair components, there's a lot of stuff going on at the show, so we wanted to come out and bring you the story. So I'm joined next by Catherine Krim, she's from the marketing group, she's got a long title but she said that was good enough at Microsoft and you're involved in the hackathon and all of these big shows now have a hackathon component. So tell us a little bit about the hackathon component that's going on here. Yeah, I'd love to. It's so exciting to see what's happening here at the event. We have, there was an open source codathon yesterday and we're continuing that with a hackathon on Saturday that is the kickoff for the International Women's Hackathon. We'll have among 20 universities and 2,000 women coding on Saturday worldwide and they're all connected via Skype and Link. And what we're working to do is really encourage women to just get started in coding at their universities and know that they can make a difference. So we have a coding for a cause, we have three great challenges. One is for direct relief, one is for the nature conservancy and one is an open challenge to make the world a better place. And what we're doing is really starting out with toolkits where women can go back to their university, keep that energy alive from this event and host their own hackathon at their university. So we were talking a little bit offline before we came on camera and it's interesting, you know, your perception and really using the hackathon thing, if you will, the hackathon mojo to help people understand that coding can be fun and it can make a difference and it has that collaboration effort. So talk a little bit about, you know, your experience with that and how that's played out in other examples. Yeah. So I'll give you a little background. I think you heard that this morning that only 18% of women, 18% of computer science graduates are women and, you know, we, all of us collectively want to help balance that out. Right, right. So we want to help. Right. So they don't know that they can make it in computer science, they don't know that they can make a difference and make the kind of impact they want in their careers. Right. But really coding is the ultimate creative canvas. And if you look at what is happening in technology, this is a chance to change the world. Right. And it's really writing, right? I mean, coding at the end of the day is kind of basically writing. It's like writing. You know, it's creative, you do it in kind of your own flavor and you create something. Exactly, yeah. And I think the thing that's interesting about all of the hackathons that are happening now in the world, they, they're one day and they're really about getting together and learning. Right. And what we're also trying to do is how do you then bring that forward? So we have opportunities now like, I don't know if you ever heard of the humanitarian toolbox. I have not. That's a program that has been designed to help people bring their code forward after hackathon. So they can go to a hackathon, code for a cause, check in their code, and then we have engineers, volunteer engineers that will help bring that forward, pick the best code. And right now they're writing a crisis check in app that is going to be used by NGOs worldwide for response after a disaster. And is this a Microsoft initiative or is this a separate kind of an organization? It's a separate organization. We were supporters and some of our people are on the board, but it's a nonprofit that's kind of been just supported by us. And that's kind of the same model we're doing with the International Women's Hackathon. We're working to get it kicked off, but then we're just providing a toolkit and resources and mentors and technical support and training so that women at universities can host their own hackathon and bring their communities in and just kind of get it off the ground. Yes, so dig into that a little bit more. We talked about it before we came on air. And it's kind of interesting. So you're literally giving them a toolkit. If you want to host a hackathon because it's a cool thing to do and you can change the world and you can hang out with your peers and your friends, you're basically giving them a hackathon in a box, right? Exactly. So and what are all the pieces that are in there? It's the same sort of thing you'd see like in a startup weekend toolkit, not quite as well polished as theirs is, but we kind of use their model. We have everything from here's how to do mixers and introduce people to here's how you get sponsors to pay for the food for your event. Yeah. And you know. The real basic stuff, right? Real grassroots to help them get it off the ground. Exactly. You got to have pizza. You can't have a hackathon without pizza. Without pizza. Exactly. And then, you know, how to get prizes. And then what we really want is we want to see what people are building, help them build their resumes, help them bring their projects forward. So we'll provide mentors if requested. Our MVPs, we're getting volunteers for mentoring everywhere. And then we're asking people to post their projects up to Challenge Post so that they can share it with the world. That's great. And, you know, like you said, hackathons are such a big part of all these shows now and usually they have a whole dedicated rooms and prizes and this and that. But the other thing, like you said, usually it dies, right? The conference is over and everybody goes home, they take home their awards. You guys are really trying to keep it going, keep it going, keep it going. You got it. Yeah, that's great. Well, Catherine, thanks for stopping by. And on short notice we kind of grabbed you out of the hall, which is what we like to do. We go out to events. We extract the signal from the noise. We try to find really smart people, ask them good questions and bring that information back to you. So, Catherine, again, thanks for stopping by. And so where are you going to be on Saturday? I'm going to be in Phoenix at the hackathon, kicking it off. Like a big knock with all the watching the Git code come in. You got it. Yeah. LinkedIn and Skype. I'm so curious to see what's happening around the world on that day. Excellent. Well, thanks again. Thank you. So, Chef Rick here at the Grace Hopper, celebration of women in computing.