Hundreds of employees around the world collaborate, ideate, and innovate using advanced technologies to bring to life new expert solutions that will help professionals work smarter.
For the eighth consecutive year, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting held its annual Code Games, a friendly two-day internal coding competition that brings together employees across the globe to collaborate, innovate, and have some fun. An event that began in 2014 with a small group of developers in a single office to drive collaboration, innovation, and use of the latest advanced technologies has rapidly grown in size over time. While still held in a virtual format due to the pandemic, the 2021 Code Games encompassed over 500 participants across more than a hundred teams in 17 countries from the Tax & Accounting Division and the Digital eXperience Group at Wolters Kluwer.
Combining intense coding, collaboration, and teamwork with fun online activities like yoga classes or chess matches, art contests for children, raffles, food, and prizes, the 2021 Code Games saw teams innovate by taking their initial ideas and developing them into working prototypes. Participants chose from a variety of existing projects or created their own greenfield ideas to develop the expert solutions of tomorrow. After 48 hours, teams presented their idea prototypes to a panel of judges. The winning team in each virtual location advanced to a champion-of-champion round for an opportunity to move their idea through for further research and development.
“It’s been so rewarding to see the Code Games grow and evolve over the years,” said Karen Abramson, Chief Executive Officer of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. “Each year, I am excited to see our talented and creative employees bring innovation to life in an environment that encourages collaboration and friendly competition, with customer needs at the center of our focus. Last year our Health division joined the games and this year our Digital eXperience Group joined. As creative as our teams have been with the virtual format, next year I am really looking forward to being able to have the games in person.”
“This was our first year joining the games with participation across DXG, and teams have already expressed positive feedback about the experience. The ingenuity, technical skill, and creativity of our teams was on full display, showing how programs like this fortify our culture of innovation at Wolters Kluwer,” said Dennis Cahill, Chief Technology Officer for the Wolters Kluwer Digital eXperience Group (DXG).
What has made the Code Games so successful over the years is its focused purpose, emphasis on cross-functional engagement, and continued program innovation.
Combining intense coding, collaboration, and teamwork with fun online activities like yoga classes or chess matches, art contests for children, raffles, food, and prizes, the 2021 Code Games saw teams innovate by taking their initial ideas and developing them into working prototypes. Participants chose from a variety of existing projects or created their own greenfield ideas to develop the expert solutions of tomorrow. After 48 hours, teams presented their idea prototypes to a panel of judges. The winning team in each virtual location advanced to a champion-of-champion round for an opportunity to move their idea through for further research and development.
“It’s been so rewarding to see the Code Games grow and evolve over the years,” said Karen Abramson, Chief Executive Officer of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. “Each year, I am excited to see our talented and creative employees bring innovation to life in an environment that encourages collaboration and friendly competition, with customer needs at the center of our focus. Last year our Health division joined the games and this year our Digital eXperience Group joined. As creative as our teams have been with the virtual format, next year I am really looking forward to being able to have the games in person.”
“This was our first year joining the games with participation across DXG, and teams have already expressed positive feedback about the experience. The ingenuity, technical skill, and creativity of our teams was on full display, showing how programs like this fortify our culture of innovation at Wolters Kluwer,” said Dennis Cahill, Chief Technology Officer for the Wolters Kluwer Digital eXperience Group (DXG).
What has made the Code Games so successful over the years is its focused purpose, emphasis on cross-functional engagement, and continued program innovation.
- Participants remain highly engaged and focused on what matters most - helping customers take advantage of advanced technologies to modernize and transform their practices and become better strategic advisors to their clients
- While coding is the technical skill necessary to deliver the output of the Code Games, engagement from multiple functional teams enables problem solving and ideation needed to achieve tangible results
- Originally held inside office locations around the world, the Code Games continued in a virtual format this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with participants collaborating and presenting to judges online
Watch this 2021 Code Games video to get a taste of the collaboration, energy, and innovative thinking that made this year’s event special.
