by Mike Derheim and Ginger Sorvari Bucklin | at MinneBar 11 | 9:55 – 10:45 in Gandhi | View Schedule
The Nerdery is considering piloting some changes at the 2016 Overnight Website Challenge -- the 24-hour competition to build websites for non-profits. Perhaps teams will take on a larger-scale nonprofit organizations looking to do more than just build a new website. Or, maybe something completely different than that. It’ll still be about doing good – just more.
Help us identify opportunities to make the challenge more impactful for our communities and more engaging for the software developers participating. In this session, please share your thoughts on how the Challenge could evolve. We can do so much more with our nerdy powers; the “why” is because we should – but what should we do? With the power of the development community, what can we do now that we never could have done when the challenge was born? Ideas, please. Your thoughts can help more nonprofits level-up in new ways, and help nerds change the game in corporate philanthropy. Again.
Co-founder of The Nerdery and Prime Digital Academy
Mike Derheim, co-founded his custom software development company in 2003, and The Nerdery has since made Inc. Magazine’s list of 5000 fastest-growing private companies each year since it became eligible. Mike personifies The Nerdery’s belief that passionate Nerds are the driving force behind business breakthroughs. Headquartered in Minneapolis, The Nerdery has offices in Chicago Kansas City and Phoenix. In 2014, Mike co-founded Prime Digital Academy, school for software engineers. Prime has gone on to become part of The White House’s Tech Hire initiative. Mike promoted then-Nerdery President Tom O’Neill to take his place as CEO in 2016 and remains a guiding force as Chairman of The Nerdery’s Board. Mike made Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list in 2012, was honored as a Minnesotan on the Move in 2012 by Minneapolis Finance & Commerce, and also named to Minnesota Business magazine’s The (Real) Power 50 list in 2013. Among all individual and corporate awards, Mike is most proud of The Nerdery’s #1 ranking on the Best Places to Work list published by Minneapolis-St Paul Business Journal. In his TEDx Talk, “What if everyone at your company was a Co-President?” Mike talked about the power of distributed leadership, and urged everyone to make themselves Co-President of whatever it is that they’re truly passionate about, in work and in life. Mike is a native of Minot, ND.
Ginger leads The Nerdery Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that works to activate technologists to use their talents and skills to better our world. Through its flagship event, The Overnight Website Challenge, over 1200 volunteer web pros have donated about $6.4 million in pro bono services to 183 nonprofits. In 2017, it is expanding to offer more events and services to connect tech pros with volunteering opportunities.
In addition, Ginger is a Founding Partner at Cimarron Winter, a digital innovation consultancy. Whether engaged by enterprise Marketing, IT, or the Business team, Cimarron Winter strives to deliver a great customer experience based on a solid technical solution and an effective business operation.
Ginger has a passion for volunteering, is active in Minnesota's nonprofit community, and remains forever a Nerdery Fangirl. She spends her offline hours in the Boundary Waters.
