Innovatif! 🌚❤️

​DAY 1.

Five people. No draft. Competition in 24 hours. 

This was exactly how we felt when we got to the event and found out our initial idea wasn’t what they needed. We sat ourselves down and started asking each other:

‘Where do we go from here?’

Our team lead, Ibrahim put his head down in his hands, suffering from lack of sleep trying to build the initial project. He had been up all night, trying to finish up with the initial app and found it quite annoying that we had to come up with something else. 

It was the E-Government Hackathon. A competition where people had come far and wide to attend and show off their technological skills. Different challenges had been listed and initially we took the Data Capture Challenge, well until we read the requirements and what we built, wasn’t exactly what they were asking for. 

That was our sole aim for coming too, atleast to win the money also but in one second, our hopes and dreams were crushed and the ashes were lain below our feet. We looked around and we could feel the competition watching us back. They were all making finishing touches with their designs or listening to the music unbothered because their designs were ready. 

I shivered, both mentally and emotionally. 

The team started thinking of a way to tweak the app to get the necessary features but a small voice in the back of my head told me it wasn’t going to work. 

‘Can we check that Correspondence Tracking System Challenge?’ I said, trying to check if it was something we could work on and get ready the next day unfailingly. The VIP of our team scrolled upwards from the Data Capture System we tried to implement, to the Correspondence Tracking System. Everybody read through and the brainstorming session started. 

It was unreal. The ceremony was about to begin it’s opening session and ideas were pouring in left and right. 

‘There will be a section to send memos?’

‘What about confidentiality?’

‘Alright, what colour?’

The creativity was seeping in through the ashes below our feet and settling in a warm abode in our individual bodies. We were buzzed, electrified and sure that we could create something. The opening session began and soon enough, they started to introduce the contestants. 

I remember them calling the Team Inovatif and I was considering sitting down. Not standing up at all. We didn’t have a plan yet, were we really innovative?

But oh yes we were. One thing about time is time always tells. 

After the on-boarding, we were asked to move to the cafeteria- really the left side of the banquet hall demarcated for eating. It was obvious that we all had so much to work on.  Esther, our UI/UX Designer who started designing this year, got her laptop and was already working on the drafts. Moh, our darling backend designer was brainstorming how the web app was going to be, Miss Hamdallah, our system analyst, was analyzing the system sections and helping out in anyway she could, our beloved Team Lead, Ibrahim sat there, his laptop in his hand, wondering how he was going to start the frontend from the beginning. 

I offered to help him but if, we’re being honest, I’m yet to finish my course. I’m only proficient in html and css, wat would that do?

It was one of the moments I wished I was more consistent with my course. 

I had to start working on the slide show and the pitch but I sat,confused. 

How would I sell this product we just invented over the one we’ve been working on for over a week now?

I sat and summoned all creative juices I had and began to work on the introduction. Could the introduction be challenging? My mind was filled with different questions, when Esther called me

‘Aisha I want to get a cup of coffee, should we go together?’

‘In like 5 minutes, please’ I replied, trying to get out of my head and begin to write a pitch. 

I drafted an introduction, showed it to Miss Hamdallah, who quickly became my best friend in the team. We ate together, prayed together, laughed together and worked together.  With her, I felt a sense of happiness, 

Shoutout to you, Miss Hamdallah and your beautiful children!

We continued pushing until an announcement came in. 

We had a pitch, they told us it wasn’t going to be graded but at-least it’ll leave an impression? The pitch was by 7pm and I was the one to pitch, along with Moh. Moh curated the slides and I started to brainstorm. 

Let’s get a little backstory about me out there:

I’m a shy person, my entire body shudders at the thought of being in a crowd but y’know? Fake it till you make it!

I immediately began to work with Moh and began on the pitch. We had rehearsed about a billion times when an announcement came through the microphone. It was clear and the entire summary was that we weren’t presenting that day, due to technical difficulties. 

Relief washed over me, I ordered my bolt and was on my way to my hostel!

 

DAY 2. 

My bolt driver looked back at me and asked 

‘Are you okay?’

I shook my head slowly wondering how I’d explain to him that pressure and tension are landing at the forefront of my mind, choking me and restricting my airflow. 

‘Whats wrong?’ He asked again, trying to listen to me and drive well, at the same time. 

‘I’m just tense’ I replied.

‘You have a competition or a debate?’ he inquired

‘Yes I do.’

‘Listen, no one can do it like you. You’re doing it for a reason, go there and give it to them.’

It was weird that a stranger who heard me rehearsing my already drafted pitch thought so highly of me. I was motivated, to say the least. 

We got to the banquet hall and he looked me in the eye again and said 

‘Remember, give it to them!’

Wherever you are, Mr Adeniyi, I DID, GIVE IT TO THEM!

I stepped in the banquet hall, looking for my team table. I sat down and our team lead and Miss Hamdallah were already on the table. We exchanged greetings and I proceeded to rehearse my pitch with Mrs Hamdallah. At that point in time, we planned to use the slide show Moh created the day before to present, until Miss Hamdallah informed me that before I came, they’d made an announcement and we really couldn’t use the same slide show. 

This was by 12:56pm, day of the competition. 

We immediately started working on a new slide show. The pitch was by 3pm and we had just 2 hours, approximately. At that point in time, I had thought I would present with Miss Hamdallah but oh, how wrong I was! 

If only I knew then that I would be on that podium alone, soaring high and laying our points to the judges, I wonder if I would still be anxious? If I would still be drinking water like a donkey, trying to drown my anxiety in fluids?

We had a presentation down by 3pm and we were ushered out to take team pictures! Whew! I just wanted to be done. I sat down, drinking water until my bladder couldn’t take it anymore then I’d go to the restroom, return and begin my water spree all over again!

‘Can the speaker for team inovatif come here please?’

With how fast my heart was beating, I thought it was going to come out of my chest and plop on the ground. 

‘You’re next.’ She said to me. 

I muttered an okay under my breath and whispered a little bismillah before I started to climb the podium. The first thing I did on stage was take a deep breath. Then I started. 

One thing I personally loved about my presentation was that it was challenging, I found myself asking the judges

‘Don’t you want to make life better for the nation at large?’

The applause was really loud, now that I think about it. When I was done with the pitch, my entire body was shaking but I walked with so much poise, even I, am still shocked. I got down from the stage and the male MC said to me ‘That was really good.’ 

And yes, re-watching the videos, I realize that it was actually really good. The hunger that took over after I was done presenting was intense. Miss Hamdallah and I went to pray and then went to eat. I had different people coming to greet me to acknowledge my pitch and this specific guy that came up to me and said:

‘You are fire.’ 

I was happy, happy I was able to deliver. We went back to our seats and the judges started coming over to check our app. The first judge that came, was male. We pitched a little to him, showed him a demo and he asked asked for some features. We showed him all but one and told him we’d incorporate it in the next version of our app. 

I mean, c’mon, how would we have everything for an app we start building the day before? 

He smiled and walked away, The next judge came looking for us. 

She saw me and smiled and came to ask about our app. We showed her and she left. Some other guests came up ‘we love your pitch’

The closing ceremony had begun. It was crazy because the one thing in my head was 

‘God, even if its just 100k let us take it for our stress.’

Who knewwww?

They called most sophisticated, it wasn’t us. 

2nd runner up, it wasn’t us. 

At this point, my team lead gave up already.

1st runner up, Team Inovatif!

Words are just too mid to explain what I felt in that point. 

We had come second for a project built in just 24 hours. 

SECOND!

Howwwww? I remember asking myself. How, out of all the billion teams who had their projects ready since forever, we had come second?

Whew! Lord have mercy on the ears around me because I screamed. I screamed.

We did it guys!

Team Inovatif, we did it!

 

 

 

Whew! Sweeping off all cobwebs on this blog, I’d love to say Happy New Year Guysss! The previous year was such a rocky one for me but I’m genuinely glad I made it through! Hearing my team lead say to me ‘I’m so glad I have you on this project.’ must have been one of the most awesome moments of last night. But, this is a memory I’d keep in mind for a long time and I thought to share it with you. 

 

Don’t give up guys, it gets better. 

 

-Your most annoying relentless inconsistent writer

-A.