Technology & The Future of Bakery Sales for TWB
The Women’s Bakery satellite office in Denver is based in The Posner Center for International Development, a co-working space that houses over 60 international organizations. From Guatemala to Rwanda, from China to Syria, the building hosts a multitude of organizations and enterprises seeking poverty alleviation around the world, with a particular focus on cross-collaboration. Each year, the Posner Center hosts a “Poverty Hack” to bring together experts across sectors, leaders in international development, and Posner Center members to work together on various challenges faced by international organizations.
Recently, TWB was a finalist and the selected winner for the 2016 “Posner Poverty Hack.”
With a desire to increase automation in sales for business optimization for our Rwanda-based bakeries, TWB presented a challenge to develop text-based mobile tool. Over the course of three days (from July 10-12, 2016), over 15 individuals worked to brainstorm, develop, and innovatively build a contextualized and innovative solution.
When final pitches took place on the last day of the competition, the panel of judges, including Eleanor Allen (Water for People), Dr. Ann Hudock (Plan International), and Asad Aziz (Colorado State University), chose TWB as the organization with the solution that held the most potential for impact, collaboration, context, and scale.
As the winner, TWB receives funding from sponsor and funder Cognizant Quick Left for implementation. TWB will be working to roll-out a plan with input from TWB women, local developers, and hackathon participants. Our team expects to integrate a mobile sales tool early next year.
A special thanks to The Posner Center for International Development and all Hackathon participants for The Women’s Bakery: Yona Brodeur, Patrick Smith, JoJo Aggers, Jordan Smith, Monica Wright, Micah Gurard-Levin, Sam Lindstrom, Regina Peyfuss, Stephen Richardson, Maxwell “Wolf” Reichard, Amy Greene, Natalie Schreffler and Katie Hile.
