Overview

Have you ever had an idea to solve an issue in our community? GiveBackHack is the next step. Attend to partner up with the community and find the resources to make that idea a reality.

The event kicked off Friday night, where community members of all backgrounds who are eager to make an impact on the city around them met and exchanged ideas. The crowd favorites were identified and teams were formed around them. Participants then spent the weekend mentored by top social entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, venture capitalists and prominent business men/women as they vetted their ideas and built them into real products – physical products, smartphone applications, websites and a variety of solutions for the issues we face in Columbus.

View Our Press Release

Stay in touch!

Moving forward, we at GiveBackHack want to help teams succeed. If you were on a GiveBackHack 2016 team and need help, or you or someone you know want to help, send an email to success@givebackhack.com.

Schedule

Friday - February 19th

5:00pm

Doors open

6:00pm

Dinner & networking

6:30pm

Welcome & speakers

7:00pm

Idea pitches start

8:00pm

Attendees vote on top ideas

8:30pm

Start forming teams

9:00pm

Formalize teams

10:30pm

Wrap up!

11:00pm

Facilities close

Saturday - February 20th

9:00am

Doors open & breakfast to start the day!

11:00am

Morning business/mentors arrive

12:45pm

Community updates - circle up and discuss progress

1:00pm

Lunch

3:00pm

Afternoon Mentors arrive

5:00pm

Yoga break w/ Kelsey Langdale

6:00pm

Dinner sponsored by CoverMyMeds

10:30pm

Wrap up!

11:00pm

Facilities close

Sunday - February 21st

9:00am

Doors open + breakfast to start the day

10:00am

Business/mentors arrive + community updates

12:00pm

Lunch

1:30pm

Pitch practice

3:30pm

Presentation tech check

4:30pm

Dinner

5:15pm

Community arrives + final presentations

8:00pm

Judging and awards

8:30pm

Wrap up and celebrate

Judges

Jen Bowden

Director of Social Impact, IGS

Jen Bowden is the Director of Social Impact for the IGS Family of Companies, where she works to carry forward the company’s purpose of building a meaningful energy future together. In this role, she’s responsible for investments into the communities where IGS does business including philanthropic investments, volunteerism, sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion. Additionally, she has ... Read More » responsibilities on IGS’s corporate innovation team. Before joining IGS, she was the vice president of community relations for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Columbus’ professional hockey team. Jen has also held roles as the director of corporate and government relations and capital campaign manager for Mid-Ohio Foodbank. Prior to her time with the Foodbank, she spent several years in charitable fundraising in Washington, D.C. She received a degree in International Studies from The Ohio State University. She serves on the Conscious Capitalism Columbus board and as a leader for the HRC Columbus Gala. She lives in Upper Arlington with her husband, Josh Flynn, and daughter, Parker.

John Rush

CleanTurn, Freedom a la Cart

John is a social entrepreneur with a distinct focus on leveraging business as means for creating training and employment opportunities for individuals with significant obstacles to employment, including prior incarceration. After serving as a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps, John focused his career on empowering those impacted by poverty and incarceration. He is very active in the non-profit community ... Read More » and has served on several nonprofit boards including Accion Chicago, RefugeeOne and NHS Redevelopment Corporation. John currently serves as President/ Board Chair of Freedom a la Cart, a social enterprise focused on providing training and employment for survivors of human trafficking in Central Ohio. He holds five Master’s degrees focused on urban studies, religion, history, non-profit management, including an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Emerald Hernandez

Director of Government Affairs & Labor Relations, City of Columbus, Office of Mayor Andrew J. GInther

Emerald Hernandez has experience with the Ohio Department of Veteran Services, Legislative Liaison, where she represented the Dept. of Veterans services to the Federal, State, and local agencies, as well as outside stakeholders. She has worked as a legislative liaison for the Office of Governor Ted Strickland and the Ohio Department of Public Safety. She has also been involved with The United Way of ... Read More » Central Ohio and the American Society for Engineering Education. She is actively involved with initiatives that seek to empower and educate Latino youth.

Jerry Dannemiller

VP, Strategic Communications and Marketing, United Way of Central Ohio

Jerry Dannemiller is United Way of Central Ohio’s Vice President of Strategic Communications and Marketing. In his role, Jerry leads a team committed to raising awareness and engagement year-round through campaigns and events focused on United Way’s work of improving lives, strengthening our community, and helping people build pathways out of poverty. Prior to his joining United Way of Central ... Read More » Ohio in October 2014, he was Director of Marketing and Communications at the Wexner Center for the Arts (wexarts.org) where he oversaw all tactical and strategic planning for the center’s outreach, publications, media relations, advertising, CRM and data analysis, digital and social media efforts. He guided the center’s brand and reputation, partnering with internal university groups, external vendors and community partners to develop programming, messaging and key annual campaigns. Prior to the Wexner Center, he was with University Communications at Ohio State where he served in several roles including writer, editor, producer, and Assistant Director within the university’s Publications and New Media Unit. Jerry also has written for several publications and online outlets including The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus Monthly, National Public Radio, and the Ohio State University Alumni Magazine. He’s active in both the arts and community organizations in Columbus, volunteering with Greater Columbus Sister Cities (Africa Selection Committee), the Columbus College of Art and Design, the Columbus Music Co-op, and has helped organize art events and festivals big and small throughout Columbus. He holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Wesleyan University.

Greg Ruf

Managing Partner, Robert Gregory Partners

Greg has a degree in Finance and Economics from Bowling Green State University (cum laude) and worked in banking for 18 months after graduation. For the past 25 years he has launched and financed seven separate entrepreneurial ventures, six of which have been financially successful. He has been interviewed extensively by major business publications on global recruiting trends and has authored several ... Read More » white papers in this area. In 2011 he launched Robert Gregory Partners, an Executive Coaching and Leadership Development firm which has 40 coaches and consultants across the globe and has many Fortune 500 companies as current clients. RGP is a rapidly growing and profitable firm. Greg is actively involved in the RGP daily business where he oversees the strategy and business development functions. Also in late 2011 Greg joined Acceptd as Executive Chairman, consultant and investor. In a very short time Acceptd has become the global leader in University Fine and Performing Arts application and audition technology and over 450 universities became Acceptd clients in their first several years of operations. Greg most recently has been an advisor, Board member and investor in EduSourced, a firm that has created the technology and services to stream line the rapidly growing experiential learning market in higher education. He enjoys being involved in his wife’s and three children’s activities, fitness training and civic activities.

Mentors

Calvin Cooper

Associate, NCT Ventures

Calvin is an associate on the NCT Ventures investment team and focuses on identifying and evaluating new investment opportunities. He specializes in raising capital, market research and intelligence, due diligence, and portfolio management. Prior to joining the NCT family, Calvin served in an executive role at OMSDC where he conducted the merger due diligence and integration of two regional organizations. ... Read More » He has experience in supplier diversity and business development, connecting diverse owned companies to Fortune 500 corporations. He also founded and launched the MBE Academy in partnership with the City of Columbus. Additionally, he has public relations and marketing experience that includes creating and publishing the Connections Magazine, government affairs, strategic marketing, and branding initiatives. Calvin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Capital University in Financial Economics and has presented economic research at national conferences.

Evelyn Burnett

Vice President of Economic Opportunity, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress

Evelyn Burnett is vice president of Economic Opportunity at neighborhood Progress, an intermediary whose mission is to foster communities of choice and opportunity throughout Cleveland. Burnett oversees programs and initiatives integrating education, leadership building, community engagement, workforce and economic development and wealth building into the community development industry, and she coordinates ... Read More » the organization’s human development efforts to integrate with a region-wide place-making agenda. She sits on the board of several organizations, including Walsh University School of Business, Credit Builders Alliance and In Our Back Yards. Burnett holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Akron, where she also earned a bachelor of arts in business and organizational communications and public relations with a double minor in sales/marketing and dance.

Kevin Mack

UI Designer/Developer, User Experience at Cardinal Solutions, Co-Organizer & Co-Founder of Columbus Web Group

Kevin Mack is a developer, designer, and consultant that is focused on creating user interfaces and user experiences for large-scaling websites. Kevin is also a co-founder and co-organizer of The Columbus Web Group where he actively participates in growing and educating the community around design, development, best practices and standards for the web. You can find him on Twitter (@nicetransition), YouTube, CodePen, ... Read More » or GitHub.

Jay Bobo

Developer at CoverMyMeds

Jay Bobo is a software developer and serial entrepreneur. He is the creator of Cards For All People, a cultural casual gaming company, principal of Good Produce, a digital solutions consultancy firm and founding mentor of Pair Columbus. He has spoken at SXSW Interactive and worked with a host of companies including SapientNitro, Microsoft (MSN), Nike, State Farm and Scion/Toyota among others. His ... Read More » work has been featured on CBS News, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Essence Magazine, ESPN and similar media outlets.

Dan Rockwell

Big Kitty Labs

Dan Rockwell is the cofounder of Big Kitty Labs (BKL), a digital software agency in Columbus Ohio. With over 20 years experience building and shaping technology solutions Dan is an avid futurist, strategy and ideation technology specialist. His clients include fortune 500 companies such as PG, to Honda and has helped build numerous startups in the central ohio region. Known for his passion for hustle, ... Read More » he's an active mentor for startups across the midwest region, and helps organize such events as Startup Week, Startup Weekend, and Wakeup Startup. He spent 5 years working at THE Ohio State University in the intellectual property and commercialization group working with staff, faculty in students to help realize their ideas. Before getting into software development Dan worked in Japanese animation, broadcast video, and market research. He's the guy you want to meet when you have an idea and you want it realized.

Jay Clouse

Founder, Unreal Collective

Jay is a writer and entrepreneur from Columbus, Ohio. Jay fell in love with building products through his first software startup, Tixers, which was acquired in 2015. After a stint in product management at a venture-backed healthcare startup, Jay founded Unreal Collective in 2017 to combine his interests in product and community building. Unreal Collective is an online accelerator for founders ... Read More » and freelancers to find community and grow their businesses. You can connect with Jay or receive his daily email at jayclouse.com.

Leah McDougald

Design Research & Strategy

A Design Strategist with a focus on experience research. Ten years of gathering and translating consumer insights to improve human and design interaction on both emotional and functional levels. Leah provides the voice of the user within the innovation process to promote positive interactions where people live, work and play. She helps key stakeholders to achieve alignment for successful business strategies ... Read More » through the lens of their consumers. Passions include public speaking and providing user insight to inform great design / brand messaging, or to fuel innovation. Global travel and immersing in other cultures when possible is food for her soul.  

Steven Moore

The Columbus Foundation

Steven, in addition to working with donors and their professional advisors to identify charitable goals, plays a lead role in supporting and growing organization endowment funds and philanthropic activities beyond central Ohio. Steven serves as a liaison to the Pickaway County Community Foundation, the Dublin Foundation, and other regional community foundations.

Matthew Goldstein

Besa Community, Inc.

Matthew launched Besa, a Columbus-based charity that connects people to community service. In its first 2 years, Besa has curated 250 service projects and contributed $225k in goods and services back to local nonprofits. Matthew is originally from Philadelphia. He graduated from Ohio State University with degrees in Marketing and Political Science. 

Benji Michalek

Sr. UX & Innovation Strategist @ FUSE by Cardinal Health

I approach new products by championing wonder, humans, and precognition.  All that other technical stuff, I picked up along the way while creating several startups, and being semi-professional.  It's been swell, but the swelling's gone now.  My last ad-venture was a game company named Derpy Games.  We won a couple of awards for our first game.  It was neat.  I have an affinity for orange cats, ... Read More » and making things fancy. Stuff I'm good at: UX, strategic communications, design, operations, mass production, software development, app gamification, marketing, innovation processes, business development, and game design. You should say, "hi."

Arnab Nandi

Entrepreneur & Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University

Arnab works on human-in-the-loop data infrastructure, with the goal of empowering humans to effectively interact with data. This involves solving problems that span the areas of data management, visualization, human-computer interaction, and information retrieval. At Ohio State, Arnab has co-founded initiatives such as The STEAM Factory, a collaborative interdisciplinary research and public outreach ... Read More » network, and the OHI/O Informal Learning in Tech Hackathon Program. Arnab was also the founder of Mobikit, a connected vehicle data infrastructure startup which was acquired by Azuga Inc. (now a Bridgestone company). Personal homepage: http://arnab.org

Event Sponsors

Lead Sustaining Sponsor

IGS is driven by a set of core beliefs that moves us toward an energy-independent United States, powered by domestically-produced, environmentally-responsible resources. And just as IGS seeks disruptive innovations in the energy space, they take a similar approach to their community investments. For this reason, the company has made social enterprise a primary focus of their philanthropy. IGS is proud to partner with GiveBackHack to invest in entrepreneurial solutions to complex social issues – improving lives by harnessing market forces to get innovations to the people who benefit the most.

Key Sustainability Partners

Community Leaders

Event Partners

Community Advocates

In-Kind Partners

Teams