Behind The Scenes

Inside ESPN Digital Media’s Third Annual Hackathon

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wephrpvQRY&w=615&h=390]

Innovation, progression and the evolution of competition.

That sounds a lot like the X Games, but in this case we’re referring to ESPN’s third annual “Digital Media Hackathon,” held in Bristol, Conn. a few weeks back.

More than 85 ESPN developers, designers and engineers were given 48 hours to submit working prototypes of what could be ESPN’s next top-ranked digital product.

ESPN’s SC Feed, which launched last year, started development as the winner of ESPN’s first Hackathon.

This time, ESPN invited four Silicon Valley partners to its headquarters — Facebook, Klout, Social Flow, Twitter — and committed to making the winner into an actual ESPN digital product.

More than 150 initial ideas were submitted, and the top 15 were selected for the competition. Teams were spread across all parts of ESPN, including Bristol, Seattle, New York and Bangalore, India, with a panel of judges made up of the company’s top executives, including ESPN president John Skipper.

Certainly, the pressure was high and the competition was fierce. But like everything at ESPN, it was all in the name of innovation and serving sports fans whenever, wherever.

The video above takes you inside the process. Last year, Front Row went inside the second annual ESPN Digital Media Hackathon.

Third annual ESPN employee Hackathon. (Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)

Video produced by Tonya Malinowski.

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