Over this past weekend, the Digital Lounge hosted a team of 6 innovative, young women who competed in the USC Annenberg-hosted Women’s Hackathon. Aimed at promoting more women in technology and bridging the #gendergap, Mediashift launched this weekend of girl-hacking madness to see who could come up with and pitch the most innovative and viable idea within the realm of immersive journalism. Each team included 5-7 female students, a mentor, and a plastic farm animal to mark their moniker.

The Digital Lounge was thrilled to host “Team Giraffe,” who hit our whiteboards hard and brainstormed their hearts out until the concept for “Likely Media” was born! After hours of research, they landed on the idea for research-driven, predictive VR experiences. Virtual reality has been used to take us into events of the past, including USC Professor Nonny de la Peña’s One Dark Night, which puts the viewer at the scene of the Trayvon Martin shooting. What if, they imagined, you could take current data to envisage and experience a possible future? What would it look and feel like to stand in Santa Monica 20 years from now, if the projected forecast for rising ocean levels were to prove true? What would a world look like without honey bees? At Likely Media, researchers and data analysts would work alongside a robust creative team to bring these alternate worlds to fruition.

Over the course of 36 hours (with only 10 of them dedicated to working), they developed a brand, marketing strategy, investment projections, and built an entire website in addition to launching a social media presence for Likely Media. According to the panel of judges, which included Laura Davis from BuzzFeed and Violet Mae Lim from the Media Operations team at Facebook, their start-up is feasible, utilizes immersive journalism and their presentation told a compelling story. Hence, they received one of only two honorable mentions from the panel of 7 judges. Since there was only winner, and over a dozen other teams, we have taken the liberty of calling that 2nd place. Way to go, Giraffe Girlz!!