Monthly Mentions recaps my publications, citations, and appearances for the month. My goal is to share broadly my thoughts on women in technology leadership, cloud technology, entrepreneurship, and more.

In the press this month, I published:

 100% Cloud? The Role Skeptics Play in nojitter

Are Hackathons Changing the Way We Do Business? on the Huffington Post

RingCentral’s Whirlwind Week at Launch.co on the RingCentral Blog

On my blog this month, I wrote:

 This Week on the RingCentral Blog

This Month on HuffPo: Are Hackathons Changing the Way We Do Business?

ITBOB published an interview with me:

RingCentral EVP: Opportunity in Cloud-Based Communication

I spoke at:

Launch.co, where I announced the RingCentral Connect Platform

San Francisco Women in Leadership Symposium

If you are interested in inviting Kira Makagon to guest-author a piece on your site or to speak to your organization, please contact Evie Goldstein, RingCentral’s public relations manager,  via e-mail, evelin.goldstein at ringcentral.com. Thanks!

This month on the Huffington Post, I celebrate hackathons. Recently, I represented RingCentral at the Launch.com hackathon and greatly enjoyed the energy of the experience, which showcased of two of my passions: innovation and entrepreneurship. It was especially thrilling to see my company’s product, the RingCentral Connect Platform, become part of innovative solutions in the form of apps and tools that we had not imagined.

Are hackathons changing the way we do business? I believe they are, and in exciting ways. The experience of a hackathon illustrates how entrepreneurship has become much more dynamic, fluid, and integrated. The climate is ripe for innovation, as there lots of opportunities to try things out, fail fast, collaborate, learn, and try again. Nothing fosters critical thinking like pressure and competition, which is part of the reason I’m such a big fan of hackathons. The time is right and ripe for those with good ideas to gather a team and start joining in the fun and benefiting from the resources the hackathons provide.

For more of my thoughts on hackathons and on the Launch.com event specifically, please click here to read my original piece on the Huffington Post.

This week, I ask my readers to check out RingCentral’s blog, where I posted about our whirlwind week at Launch.co. Soon after launching our RingCentral Connect™ Platform, I greatly enjoyed taking the stage at the Launch.co event, proudly sharing how our company is disrupting business phone systems. For more from my presentation, including some slides, please click through to read my piece about Launch.co, or click here to read my piece about our new platform. Enjoy!