STRATEGY + MARKETING + CREATIVE + EXPERIENCE

Henkel DX Ventures
Categories
Client acquisition & retention

A 3 day hackathon, equipping female founders with the skills and knowledge to develop their business ideas

The challenge

As an official Henkel dx Ventures event delivery partner, we have supported the Henkel dx team across all elements from content & programme curation, event strategy, creative & technical production, project management and the design of both virtual & physical assets

2020

Our end-to-end virtual experiences services, programming, content creation and thought leadership communications strategy for both the UK and German press created a hugely successful experience, supporting 100 early stage female founders safely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The agenda consisted of motivational talks and keynotes from sector experts, inspiring leaders and entrepreneurs. It was followed by high-pace sprints designed to deep dive into the founders’ business ideas and prepare them for a chance to present their pitch to the jury and win a prize of €25,000.

 

2021

Now spanning seamlessly across both virtual and hybrid formats, we delivered our second Xathon event across 5 hubs and 3 days. 4 of the hubs were spread across Berlin, and 1 was virtual for attendees joining remotely.

Amongst the inspiring keynote sessions and knowledge sharing, we heard ‘Female Empowerment through Networks’ by Alexa Gorman (SVP, Head of SAP.iO Foundries EMEA at SAP); ‘Building an Early Prototype & Establishing Product Market Fit‘ by Clare Jones (CCO, what3words); and ‘Pitching for Investment’ by Fridjtof Detzner (Co-founder of Jimbo, Founder of PlanetA).

 

2022

The key to Xathon 2022 was differentiating it from years previous and incorporating feedback from founders to once again improve and maximise the event.

In line with the client’s health & safety requirements, Xathon 2022 took place across two hubs, separating the founders across two venues in Berlin, having taken place virtually in its first year of Marble management and in a hybrid format in its second year. We recognised the value of one-on-one workshopping and mentorship offers to founders taking part in Xathon, so we flipped the traditional Xathon format on its head. The focus for its new format was to reduce the usual number of speakers and instead hone in on bespoke sessions designed to target the founders’ specific needs and increase one-on-one time with their mentors for more personalised feedback.

86
attendees
15
speakers
12
VC and angel investors
26
hours of content & workshops
18
mentors
€25k
prize money