Celebrating innovation with Makeathon 2024

It’s time for ideas from anyone, made for everyone. Next week, Pinterest will host its twelfth annual Makeathon, our take on a hackathon. Each year, employees across all roles collaborate for three dedicated days to pursue projects that will make Pinterest stronger! It’s a tradition that energizes and inspires our team to create innovative ideas that they’re passionate about. Discover what’s in store for Makeathon 2024. 

A peek at the Makeathon agenda 

Weeks leading up to Makeathon 

Along with workshops discussing Generative AI, there are office hours with experts who brainstorm ideas, help employees get started and answer questions. These experts also “diagnose” issues and “prescribe” solutions. At Pinterest, we call them Hack Doctors. 

Makeathon Week

For the first three days, Pinterest employees are collectively bringing their ideas to life within their project teams. Hack Doctors continue to support employees while they’re building, and you might find them running around the office or jumping on virtual syncs wearing white lab coats. 

All employees, regardless of participation, have the opportunity to engage in Make Break Challenges. They’re optional activities that are meant to be a fun way to take screen breaks and win Pinterest swag. Sources tell us the first prize is a succulent lego set that will get the creative juices flowing. 

Showcase and Awards

After all projects are submitted, we host a virtual watch party called the Innovation Showcase. Together, we celebrate the creativity of the team and all the project submissions. 

On the final day, we cheer on the winners in the Award Ceremony and acknowledge the hard work of each project team. This year, in honor of the 34th Anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act, our PinAble employee resource group will host an educational session about screen readers to further our commitment to create belonging both online and offline. 

Excitement from the Pinterest team

A'Dream Starkey, Sales Enablement Partner, North Carolina: Makeathon is my FAVORITE thing about Pinterest. This is a place where everyone is encouraged to build and contribute to the product, regardless of our primary role or engineering skills.

Brodie Gullic, Software Engineer, San Francisco: I love having the chance to work on innovative ideas that are outside my role, but that would help Pinterest users and Advertisers. 

Erin Crum, Manager II, Legal, San Francisco: I'm looking forward to watching everyone's creativity in action. It's a great reminder of how much talent and creativity we have here at Pinterest.

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