A hackathon is a sprint-like design event where teams or industries from various sectors get together to collaborate intensively on solving challenges. A portmanteau of the words hacking and marathon, the event was originally designed for coders doing software project. However, the hackathon has been adapted now to many different industries as a way to solve many different challenges. There are hackathons of various lengths and types, but one common characteristic of them is that they are centered around a specific theme. For example, this one focuses on different areas of FoodTech (Food Security, Restaurant and Service, Food innovation) during CoVid-19 times and post-CoVid-19.

The hackathon will take place on June 26 to 28. You have 48 hours to collaborate and build a solution for one (or more) of the challenges). We’ll start with a kick-off session on June 26th and end the hackathon on Sunday, June 28th. The exact timetable is still subject to change. However, you will be hacking for about 48 hours followed by a live pitching presentation of your work. So assume the event will take your whole weekend.

Our hackathon will take place exclusively online. We will use the Remo 2D virtual event platform as the main platform for the event and the Discord community has the main chat and communication channel before, during, and after the online live events. These services are completely free to use for attendees. Join our Discord community here

Anyone can participate in the Ideation days, and you are under no obligation to join the hackathon if you do not find a suitable team or idea you are interested in working on. No point in holding you hostage, after all, if you are not so enthusiastic about your teammates or topic. For the hackathon, you will need to register as a team of 2 or more people. If you already have a startup company, great! Please register as such. Please note that to need to be the minimum legal age in your country to use and be processed by our online services (Discord, Hubspot, Remo, etc.). In Europe, this is typically 13+ years old.

Yes, all international participants are welcome! This hackathon is a good place to find team members, resources or information if you are looking to enter the Finnish market. The challenges will be focused on Finnish problems, but I imagine many of those problems are similar to what is happening in other countries.

See https://foodtechies.fi/challengeprizedetails

Of course! The organizers and volunteers will always be around to answer any technical questions you have about the hackathon itself. And we have mentors that have generously offered to give up a few hours here and there to give you more clarity on your concept. So whenever you have hit a wall with your concept, just find one of the mentors floating about.

You do not have to be present for the entire hackathon. It is just recommended that you be present if you want to get the best experience and increase your chances of winning. You do have to meet the final submission deadline on June 28th and someone from your team should be present for the final pitch in order to win the challenge. We suggest having at least 1 person from your team being present/active in the event so they can keep you up-to-date on what is happening. You do have to register your team by June 25th. So make sure you at least do that.

These events are specifically targeted towards individuals who want to participate in the hackathon/explore the world of FoodTech, but don't have a team yet or not sure what problem they want to try and solve. The purpose of the ideation days is to help you find a team and problem idea/problem you wish to explore during the hackathon. Before the hackathon begins, you do not have to have your solution fully decided, but you should try and get at least 1 team member and know the topic you want to explore. For the sake of optimizing time, ideation days will consist of 2 live remo events + networking and matchmaking on the discord community. Some sponsors may ask to hold additional events for their challenges. If so, we will update the schedule asap.

Yes. Startups may also use these events to find team members, re-validate their current solutions, and explore new problems if they wish.

You can search for teammates on the Discord channel and attend the Ideation days to help find a new teammate

Attendance for the ideation days are all optional. Attendance for the Hackathon from June 26th to 28th if you want to win the prizes, is mandatory. Specific times and dates of all events will be announced on the website and in the discord channel. If you signed up for our subscriber mailing list, you will be getting email notification about the events.

No. All attendance is completely optional for all participants. Attend the days that you think are suitable.

No worries. We will record every presentation we make. We will also try to have repeat sessions running concurrently if we feel there are enough people want it. For example, if there are 10 or 20 people who missed the brainstorming workshop from the last event, we will just open up another room and have the session again.

**UPDATE** Due to the nature of the challenges our sponsors have given, there is no need to compete as a team. If you wish to compete as a solo hacker, you may. However, to get the most enjoyment out of the experience, we recommend you join as a team of 2 or more people. If you already have a startup company/team, great! Please register as such. There is no limit to the number of team members you can have. However, keep in mind that you will have to share your prize with the whole team, so keeping the team relatively small is probably a good idea.

If you register before the deadline, we can guarantee your place. If you register after the deadline, we may be able to accommodate you, but we're not sure if someone will be able to process your application. So the best thing is to do is simply register ASAP. Deadline to register is June 25th at 11:59pm. You can always cancel your registration if you situation changes.

At this point in time there is no limit. Of course, the services we are using might have a certain capacity level based on the servers they are using, but we are unlikely to hit that limit. So join away!

Minimum team size is 2 people. There is no limit to the number of team members you can have. However, keep in mind that you will have to share your prize with the whole team, so keeping the team relatively small is probably a good idea.

Yes, please do. Our main target is early-stage startups, but teams and startups of all stages are welcome.

Each member of your team should fill out the registration form here

We accept participants of all levels and all stages. Therefore, if you successfully register, you can join the hackathon. No evaluation/pre-requisites required.

Given the nature of the challenges our sponsors ended up giving us, yes, you can. However, we recommend you try finding at least 1 other team member before the hackathon begins. You can come to the orientation on 25.06.2020 if you failed to make a connection on Discord.

You can find the mentor registration form here

We are looking for all kinds of mentors with expertise in a variety of fields: business development, startup development, service design, sales, programming, etc. We also are looking for experts in the food industry. For example: chefs, restauranteurs, farmers, agricultural experts, foodtech experts, researchers and scientists in the field of biotech and food, etc. The best innovations happen when fields emerge or overlap. So if you are unsure whether you are a suitable candidate, feel free to contact us and ask!

Yes, absolutely! We recruit both our volunteers and mentors in 4-hour shifts. We are quite flexible and can accommodate different schedules, so just contact us if you have special requests.

We are looking for: Online moderators Event support Onboarding and orientation support Digital Marketers

You can compete in as many or as few challenges as they are available. You can compete in 3 if you like. In order to qualify to win the sponsor prize, you need only complete the submission on Sunday @ 12pm Finnish time for it to be considered to each of the challenges you want to compete in.