One sprint. One challenge. Ship something with a clear user, a clear value-add and a credible path to production. The top 10 teams will demo live on stage, and winners take home prizes across 4 award categories! 🏆 We are bringing together some of Canada's most ambitious AI builders for a virtual AI build sprint, followed by an in person Demo Day in Toronto for the top 10 teams. Rally your team (or join solo), pick a problem that actually matters and ship the idea you've been thinking about all year, with hands-on technical support from our partner teams along the way. This could be your shot at turning it into a real business with real momentum! Winners walk away with prizes, API credits, merch, and a golden ticket from Georgian: a pitch session with experienced investors and a warm intro to an early-stage fund. Who Should Join Builders creating AI products, agentic tools and ambitious side projects. Teams up to 4 (solo welcome) Open to all builders across Canada, from students to senior engineers All members must be 18 or older, and at least one team member must be available to demo live in Toronto if selected for the top 10 Starter Package Every team, including solo builders, gets access to: Starter templates and resources Partner credits and perks, including $100 in Anthropic API credits per member Free early access to Era by Eon for testing and benchmarking AI agents Hands on support from partner teams throughout Build Week Packages go out at kickoff on October 16. The hackathon Discord server will be our main communication hub for registration details, kickoff updates, submission instructions, and everything else you need throughout the event. Timeline Registration (Closes Oct 16) — Virtual Every participant registers individually, with team captains submitting the project idea and team details (solo builders can list themselves as captain). Final teams of up to 4 must be confirmed by kickoff on October 16. Build Week (Oct 16 – Oct 25) — Virtual Kickoff + tutorials Oct 16 at 12 PM ET; submissions due Oct 25 at 11:59 PM ET Online Judging (Oct 26) — Virtual Top 10 announced and notified on Oct 26 Demo Day (Oct 29) — In person Live demos + winner announcements, 5:30–8:30 PM ET (detailed agenda announced after submissions) What You'll Submit: The following are required for submission: A demo video up to 2 minutes (shareable link, no login) showing what you built, how it works and the key technology behind it A public GitHub repository plus a live link (deployed app, App Store, test build) if applicable A Devpost project page covering your project description, tech stack, partner platforms used and any prior work or scaffolding Submissions will be through Devpost and are due October 25 at 11:59 PM ET. Detailed instructions will be shared in the hackathon Discord community after kickoff. Judging Criteria A panel of judges will assess submissions in two rounds: online judging on Oct 26 to select the top 10, followed by live judging at Demo Day on Oct 29 to pick the final winners. Innovation: going beyond the obvious solutions and applications Real-World Impact: clear user, value-add, and a path to production UI & Design: usable by a real user, thoughtful and effective UI elements Tech & Deployment: solid architecture, thoughtful tech choices, and working features. Security & Ethics: responsible applications, guardrails, and safe handling of user data Prizes 🏆 Best Overall: A Georgian Golden Ticket (investor pitch session + warm fund intro), a Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) per member, $15,000 in Anthropic API credits for the team, plus partner perks and swag 🎨 Best Use of Expo: LG 27 Gaming Monitor per member, 1 year of Expo Starter (including $45/month in build credits), and an Expo swag box 🔐 Best Use of Clerk: JBL Tune 770NC per member, 50% off Clerk Pro for the first year, plus Clerk swag box 💾 Best Use of Eon: Prizes to be announced soon! Judges Our judges bring deep experience across AI, product, engineering and business to evaluate your submissions. Margaret Wu, Lead Investor @ Georgian Julien Coupez, Customer Engineer for Startups @ Google, Former Founder & CTO @ Nexboo Deval Pandya, CEO & Founder @ Autoinference, Former VP of AI Engineering @ Vector Institute More to be announced soon! Mentors Our mentors will be hands-on throughout Build Week to help with technical questions, product direction, and troubleshooting. Barry Xue, ML Scientist II @ Layer 6 AI Azin Asgarian, AI Technical Lead @ Georgian Xintong Li, Data Scientist @ Thomson Reuters Aryan Khurana, AI Developer Advocate @ Georgian Rami Maalouf, Developer Success Engineer @ Expo More to be announced soon! Rules Follow the Build North Code of Conduct Build meaningful new work during Build Week Use partner platforms meaningfully to qualify for awards Disclose any prior work, templates, or scaffolding Submit only one project per team Keep confidential or sensitive information out of submissions FAQs Do I own the code I write during the hackathon? Yes. You retain ownership of your IP and code. Is the hackathon in-person or virtual? The hackathon runs online, with an in-person demo day for the top 10 teams. Can I register solo, or do I need a team? You can register solo as team captain and add teammates later. Final teams of up to 4 must be confirmed by kickoff on October 16. How does registration work? Registration is individual and required for everyone. Each participant must fill out the Luma form, and all team members' names must be listed on the final Devpost submission. Is travel covered for Demo Day? Teams selected for the top 10 are responsible for their own travel and accommodation. At least one team member must attend and demo in person in Toronto on October 29. Still have questions? Join the hackathon Discord server or reach out to Aryan Khurana (AI Developer Advocate @ Georgian) at aryan@georgian.io.
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