‘Make the leap’: How I turned an idea into a corporate AI hackathon for young people

For Kasheef McLennon, a young degree apprentice at Microsoft UK, what started as a random scroll through LinkedIn ended up morphing into a Copilot hackathon that brought early-in-career employees at Microsoft, Accenture and Avanade together to learn and share ideas.

The whole story started while I was looking at my CEO’s LinkedIn page. I came across a post about Accenture rolling out Copilot to 740,000 people – a massive story.

But as an early-in-career person, my mind went straight to my peers at Accenture. What would that experience be like for them? How would apprentices and graduates learn to use it? And how could we help them do that in a way that felt relateable and accessible? 

This initial curiosity eventually became a full-blown hackathon event that was terrifying and rewarding in equal measure.

Building something new

Copilot is my bread and butter as an Account Technology Strategist. I use it every day and regularly advise customers on how to make the most of it, so I know first-hand how useful it can be. Rather than thinking about adoption from the top down, I was interested in what it could look like from the bottom up. 

That idea led me to Chidinma Iroegbu, a technology apprentice at Accenture. We connected through our networks and started exploring whether we could create something together, hatching the idea of an event – a hackathon aimed specifically at early-in-career colleagues.

I was incredibly motivated to make it happen because the benefits felt real. Microsoft early-in-career employees would get to see how our technology is used outside of Microsoft, learn from another organisation’s approach, and build relationships with peers from a different company. 

After a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears – organising Copilot specialists, judges, communications, catering, certificates and much else besides – the event took shape., 

Designed for our generation 

From the beginning, we wanted to make sure this workshop felt different. We spent a lot of time thinking about how people learn. We talked about cognitive overload, the unfortunate (small!) attention span of our generation, and what would keep people engaged throughout the day.

We kept sessions short. We avoided heavy pre-learning requirements. We focused on hands-on activity rather than lengthy presentations.

But most importantly, we wanted everyone to leave with something practical they could take back to their teams, whether that was a reusable prompt, an idea for an agent, or enough confidence with Copilot to teach their manager something new.  

This was our first hackathon but also the first early-in-career crossover event between Microsoft and Accenture, so the pressure was on to set a high standard.    

The big day 

The day itself was structured around learning, building and collaboration. The challenge we set was simple: How could teams use Copilot to reduce friction, improve access to information, support decision-making, and help deliver better outcomes with big impact?

Around 40 young people (aged 18-25) attended Accenture’s Fenchurch Street office in London and heard from Avanade – the Microsoft/Accenture joint venture – about customer projects and practical Copilot use cases. Before long they were building AI agents to solve real-world problems, creating presentations, and pitching their ideas to technical judges from Microsoft, Accenture and Avanade.

I was amazed by the creativity and innovation my fellow early-in-career colleagues displayed. One project involved an agent that could write a Request For Proposal (RFP) – or pitch document – from start to finish. Another was a Client Template Agent that pre-populated documents with all the known information about a client to help speed up projects.

A fireside chat, featuring senior leaders from all three organisations, gave the young attendees the chance to hear inspirational career stories – the mistakes as well as the successes.

We finished with awards, and of course, a bit of much-needed networking.

Feel the fear, do it anyway

I’d never run anything like this before or been responsible for so many moving parts. I don’t mind admitting I was terrified at times. There were late nights, room-booking challenges, logistics issues, and plenty of moments where things could have gone pear-shaped – not to mention the nerves associated with hosting, keeping energy up, managing the day and handling any slip-ups. 

But seeing people fully engaged made it worth every minute – it gave me a real buzz and a sense of pride that even though I’m junior at Microsoft, it’s the kind of company that rewards and supports good ideas.    

The feedback was probably the most rewarding part, with people describing the event as “authentic”, “engaging” and “very insightful”.

The most common request was for more time: more time to build, more time to network, and more time for questions.

I took that as a pretty good sign that people had enjoyed themselves.  

Crucial support 

Even though I was an apprentice and early-in-career, I faced very few barriers to making it happen. My managers, Paul Maniatis and Clare Brown, supported me throughout.

When I joined the leadership team of our early-in-career inclusion group, MOSAIC, they also backed the initiative and helped provide the budget needed to make it a reality.  

At every stage I was trusted to take ownership, make decisions and deliver. And that freedom made a huge difference. I learned how to organise an event, manage budgets, coordinate stakeholders, communicate clearly and capture feedback.

But more than that, the experience taught me what can happen when you stay curious and keep pushing through the inevitable difficulties.  

If there’s one thing I’d say to other early-in-career professionals, it’s this: Be curious, ask questions, make the leap, and find people who share your enthusiasm.