Introducing Leaptakers, a celebration of IT’s great leaps

IT teams are the masters of modern marvels, behind some of humanity’s greatest feats. From the first circuits, to quantum computing, to the cloud, tech experts have taken great leaps to engineer the seemingly impossible. 

In the past year alone, IT has moved mountains to keep the world working. Digital transformations that may have previously taken years were finished in a matter of weeks. 

At Google, stories of IT’s tenacity, passion, and tech ingenuity have captured our attention. We’ve heard about teams who have solved complex, one-of-a-kind problems to help so many others. For example, the IT lead who saved tens of thousands of jobs by preparing their business for remote work overnight. The DevOps team who transformed a hospital network so anxious families could see their doctor during a lockdown. The innovators who helped governments deliver emergency supplies by drone. 

These people are the Melba Roy Moutons of the modern world. Yet, too often, their remarkable achievements go unrecognized or unappreciated. Even though they work incredibly hard behind the scenes, IT teams regularly remain invisible. We want to change this.

Celebrating the extraordinary stories

To help remove this cloud of invisibility, we're incredibly excited to introduce Leaptakers. Our mission is to collect and share stories of how IT keeps the world working – and, in doing so, change the way the world sees IT. 

It’s time to shine a spotlight on IT, and show the world how awe-inspiring, lion-hearted, innovative, and ingenious DevOps, sysadmins, CIOs, and IT teams are. Without them, so many people across the globe would have faced even more disruption and hardship this past year. We want to celebrate the important impact IT has on all our lives.

Taking a moment to reflect

We know that busy IT teams can find it hard to look beyond the day-to-day and see the broader impact of their work. If you’re in IT, how often do you stop and think about how many people your solution helps? Chances are, you move on to the next project before you have the opportunity to celebrate the one you’ve just finished. 

We’re encouraging you to pause and reflect on the inspirational work you’ve been doing. IT experts are a humble bunch – many need some coaxing to talk about their achievements. This is what Leaptakers is all about. A platform where everyone can share their own stories or nominate others to share theirs – and, with our help, get these stories heard.

Helping us reshape how the world sees IT

Anyone in IT – or, indeed, anyone who knows of a great IT project – can visit Leaptakers to submit a story of how they’re keeping the world working or how they’re making a difference to people’s lives. 

After submissions close on July 16, Google will select key projects and turn them into powerful videos which we’ll share with the world. Other stories will be shared and celebrated on a Leaptakers hub, which will continue to evolve as more inspirational and remarkable stories emerge. 

You can help by sharing your own story, nominating another IT team to share theirs, or spreading the word about Leaptakers. The more stories we can collect, the more noise we can make about how awesome, inspiring, and important IT is in our world today. 

Find out more at goo.gle/Leaptakers.