Beeline Georgia Employee Wins Global Digithon

A Beeline employee from Georgia, along with five other colleagues from Veon Group’s operational companies won the Group’s global hackathon in Amsterdam. The winners of the contest will have an opportunity to visit Seoul, South Korea, in early 2020, a country where the Southeast Asian innovation and technological progress can be witnessed live.

For the third year in a row, international group Veon, a telecommunications and internet service provider, presented as ‘Beeline’ in Georgia, ran the innovative competition DIGITHON for its employees from the 10 countries where Veon is represented. DIGITHON serves to create or improve already existing digital products and services. At the first stage, a local competition is held in all ten countries of Veon. The winning team from each country then heads to the group's global headquarters in Amsterdam for the global DIGITHON. This year, the participants worked on the creation of innovative digital services and products that rely on the new 5G technology.

This is what Nini Rekhviashvili, PR manager at Beeline and DIGITHON, winner from Georgia, had to say regarding her experience at the contest: “Global DIGITHON was one of the most exciting events in my career. It started with a local contest where my teammates and I won the first place, and continued with a trip to our headquarters in Amsterdam. According to the rules of DIGITHON, the initial five members of the local team were split into different groups with the employees from other countries’ winning teams. I ended up working with an amazing team with five other employees from the various operational companies, all with different cultural backgrounds, knowledge and experience. Therefore the first challenge and part of the DIGITHON essence, was to go through a teambuilding process. The most stressful period was the 24 hours after the challenge was announced. The team had to make many important decisions in this short time on which our defeat or win depended. Together with my other teammate, I ended up acting as a speaker for the group and after an initial pitch and making it to the shortlist, we had to present in front of the Director’s Board. To win the DIGITHON is an amazing feeling, though I think the main achievement is to withstand the stress, anxiety and tiredness and to pitch your idea the best you can. I am proud to say that like myself, all of my colleagues from Georgia who were on the various teams, not only did a good job presenting the ideas but also gave our country, Georgia, a promotion to the great international audience present at the event. DIGITHON gave me an enriching experience, which allowed me to come back to work even more motivated and grown - I am lucky to be working at a company where a lot of attention is paid to motivating employees, helping them grow personally and professionally and even to compete on a global level. I would like to thank all my colleagues, our CEO Andrzej Malinowski and the whole team for the amazing support I felt all the way before, through and after the contest.”

Main photo: Nini Rekhviashvili, second on the left