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Outcomes | Audience | Content & AI Tools | Date, Fee & Reg | Course Series | Track Record

Official Course Title: Leading Inspirational Business AI Hackathons: Coach as Innovation Leader and Team Driver (2-Day | AI Tools Included)

Part 1: Course Aims, What AI Hackathon Matters and Outcomes

(1.1) Course Aims

This course is designed for Hackathon Coaches—including Head Coaches, Team Coaches, and Execution Coaches—who serve as the primary driving force within a Business AI Hackathon. While Program Designers determine the overall concept and structure, this course focuses on the participants who must run the Hackathon events: managing the flow of activities, guiding teams under time pressure, and ensuring alignment with the event’s goals and judging criteria.

Focusing on Business AI Hackathons, the course aims to equip coaches with practical skills, tools, and AI‑enabled methods to guide teams step by step—from understanding the business problem to exploring ideas, shaping an AI‑enabled solution, and finally preparing a strong, convincing pitch. Coaches will also learn to work in alignment with Program Design during pre‑event setup and post‑event follow‑up, and to help teams use AI Agents and AI Innovation Spaces effectively at each stage, so that more teams produce business‑credible, competitive outcomes.

(1.2) Why AI Hackathon Matters

In recent years, AI hackathons have evolved from Idea-Sparking events into innovation engines that generate Measurable Business and Social Value. Technology leaders such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Tesla have institutionalised these programmes to accelerate product development and validate new concepts.

In the pharmaceutical sector,  Novo Nordisk uses a “data-to-insight sprint” to compress drug development cycles. At the same time, GE applies AI to optimise maintenance workflows, reducing analysis time and improving safety and efficiency. In finance and energy, DBS Bank embeds such initiatives into culture and talent development, and Shell leverages AI to predict fuel characteristics in support of green energy.

In automotive and transport, BMW uses competitions to accelerate image-based model training, and Cathay Pacific engages university students and employees to co-develop solutions for customer experience, operations, and cargo management.

When combined with a coordinated set of 6 AI agents (Details)(shown below) during the 6-Phase AI Hackathon Execution Processes, the participants can identify emotional and latent needs across an entire market with up to 90% accuracy and improve efficiency up to 95%, positioning AI hackathons as a strategic bridge between creativity and tangible business or public value.

(1.3) Learning Outcomes

  • Guide teams through the full Business AI Hackathon journey – from clarifying the business challenge and customer needs to shaping AI‑enabled interventions and preparing impact‑focused pitches.
  • Turn judging criteria into practical team guidance, so that team activities, checkpoints, and decisions inside the event all support the business goals of the hackathon.
  • Facilitate high‑quality teamwork during the event, including problem understanding, idea development, prioritisation, and trade‑off decisions, while maintaining momentum and focus.
  • Use AI tools and specialised AI Agents as coaching support, for example, to structure information, generate options, prepare templates, and help teams strengthen their analysis, solutions, and pitches.
  • Coordinate effectively with other coaches and organisers to create a coherent participant experience and increase the number of teams that deliver strong, business‑ready pitches.

Part 2: Target Audience

This course is designed for Business Hackathon Coaches – the people who stay with teams during the event and help them turn a challenge into a clear solution and strong presentation. It is for professionals who want to guide teams’ work inside the room, not just design the event from outside. It is particularly relevant for:

[1] Managers and Professionals Who Guide Multiple Teams in Hackathons (Click for Details)

People who are asked to “look after the event” or “guide several teams” during a hackathon, making sure teams understand the challenge, use their time well, and are ready to present at the end.

[2] Professionals Who Coach or Mentor One Specific Team in a Hackathon (Click for Details)

Staff who sit with a team throughout the event—helping them understand the problem, choose ideas, shape a solution, and prepare their final pitch or demo.

[3] Internal Champions for Innovation, Digital or AI (Click for Details)

Colleagues known as “go‑to people” for new ideas, digital change, or AI, who are often invited to support hackathons and now want a clear coaching method to help teams work more effectively.

[4] Subject Experts Asked to Support Teams (Click for Details)

Domain experts who are invited to join hackathons to “give advice” and who want to learn how to combine their subject knowledge with simple, practical coaching steps that move teams forward.

[5] Facilitators, Trainers and Consultants Who Help Run Hackathon Activities (Click for Details)

People who already run workshops or training sessions and are now involved in hackathons, and who want a structured coaching toolkit to guide teams from problem understanding to solution design and final presentation.

Remark: Graduates of this course are eligible to apply for the advanced program, “Designing High-Impact AI Hackathon Programs: From Vision to Runbook”

Part 3: Course Content and AI Tools

(3.1) Learning Mode: Learning by Practicing with AI Agents

This course uses a highly practical “learning by practicing with AI Agents” approach, anchored in an end-to-end Hackathon simulation. Participants will work in small groups on realistic business or social challenges, using specialized AI agents in virtual innovation spaces (Details) to analyze problems, generate ideas, shape prototypes, and craft pitches. Instead of only hearing concepts, you repeatedly test prompts, refine AI outputs, and integrate them with your own judgment—experiencing how teams and AI agents collaborate in a real hackathon setting.

(3.2) Session Content

Day 1: From Determine Alignment to Discover & Define

  • Session 1: (Determine: Aligning with Program Design and Strategic Intent)
    • Clarify how the coach role connects to the Determine phase led by Program Designers, including understanding strategic goals, challenge domains, and judging criteria for Business AI Hackathons.
    • Review challenge statements and program designs, identify where coaches may face issues, and provide structured feedback to Program Designers.
  • Session 2: (Discover: Business Context, Users, and Constraints)
    • Guide teams to quickly understand the business landscape underlying each challenge, including key users, processes, data sources, systems, and KPIs relevant to AI use cases.
    • Facilitate structured discovery conversations that surface real pains and constraints (e.g., data readiness, regulatory issues, operational bottlenecks) rather than jumping straight to solutions or technology choices.
    • Use AI Agents to build stakeholder maps, user research, and empathy maps that teams can validate and enrich with their own context during the Discover phase.
  • Session 3: (Define: Sharp Business Problems and Value Focus)
    • Help teams translate their discovery insights into concise, high‑value problem statements and opportunity framings grounded in business metrics and clear ownership.
    • Run Define‑phase clinics and checkpoints where teams present one‑line problem statements and short summaries, receiving targeted feedback to ensure alignment with sponsors, Program Designers, and judging criteria.
    • Use AI Agents to generate a persona map, a user journey map, and a value proposition map. Coach teams to select and refine the most strategic and feasible options for the remainder of the hackathon.

Day 2: From Develop & Deliver to Drive Alignment

  • Session 4: (Develop: AI-Enabled Business Solution Concepts)
    • Support teams to move from clear problems to viable AI‑enabled solution concepts, including use cases, user journeys, workflows, data needs, and initial risk and governance considerations.
    • Balance innovation with practicality by challenging teams on where AI truly adds value, how the solution fits into existing operations, and what an MVP or pilot could realistically look like in a business environment.
    • Use AI Agents to help generate multiple solution options, before‑and‑after workflows, assumption and risk lists, and early value stories that teams can prioritise, consolidate, and document during the Develop phase.
  • Session 5: (Deliver: Pitches, Demos, and Competitive Edge)
    • Coach teams to convert their work into clear, compelling, and judge‑ready pitches that showcase the business problem, AI‑enabled solution, value logic, feasibility, and proposed next steps.
    • Design and run Deliver‑phase rehearsals, including short dry‑runs, structured feedback, and Q&A practice to prepare teams for questions from executives, business owners, and technical judges—aiming to maximise their chances of winning.
    • Use AI Agents to draft pitch outlines, narrative flows, simple visuals, and anticipated judge questions, then refine these with teams to highlight differentiation and ensure that the final pitch is competitive, concise, and aligned with judging criteria.
  • Session 6: (Drive: Handing Over to Sponsors and Follow-On Pathways)
    • Clarify how the coach role connects to the Drive phase led by Program Designers and sponsors, including pilots, incubation, and portfolio decisions after the hackathon.
    • Learn how to summarise each team’s strengths, risks, and readiness into short coach assessment notes that help sponsors decide which ideas to take forward and what support is needed.

Part 4: Date, Fee and Registration

(4.1) Tuition Fee: HK$5,000 (Early Bird, One Month Before Class Start) | HK$5,500 (Standard Price)

(4.2) Date & Time: 17 & 18 April (Fri and Sat), 2026 [9:30 am to 5:30 pm | Lunch Break: 1 pm to 2 pm]

(4.3) Mode & Language: Face-to-face Model | Cantonese Presentation with English Materials

(4.4) Course Leaders: The course is designed and led by senior leaders of InnoEdge Consulting, who have conducted more than 100 Hackathons across the business, education, social, and public sectors in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Asia. Drawing on this extensive cross-sector track record, they will share practical insights, field-tested tools, and governance approaches for running hackathons that deliver measurable outcomes rather than one-off ideas.

(4.5) Certification: Upon completing the course and required exercises, participants receive a Certificate of Completion.

Part 5: About the AI Hackathon Leading Series

The AI Hackathon Leading Course Series comprises four complementary courses that address the key roles in a successful AI Hackathon: designing the program, leading the event, coaching the teams, and managing operations. These courses equip Hackathon Leaders with the mindset, skill set, and AI Agents needed to run events that are strategically aligned, well facilitated, team-enabled, and operationally smooth.

Course TitlesRolesDetails
2-Day Designing High-Impact AI Hackathon Programs: From Vision to RunbookProgram DesignersCourse | Execution
2-Day Leading Inspirational Business AI Hackathons: Coach as Innovation Leader and Team DriverBusiness Hackathon CoachesCourse | Execution
2-Day Empowering Mission-Driven Social AI Hackathons: Coach as GameChanging Engine and Team LeadsSocial Hackathon CoachesCourse | Execution
1-Day Operationing Highly Effective AI Hackathons: Logistics, Facilities, and Participant SupportEvent Support ManagersCourse | Execution

In addition to our AI Hackathon Leading Courses, we offer a comprehensive suite of AI Design Thinking (DT3.0) Courses organized into three tiers: Strategic, Tactical, and Foundational.

Part 6: Track Record

Since 2017, InnoEdge Consulting has managed more than 100 Public and In-house Hackathon Events and Hackathon Leading Courses. In addition, we co-hosted 11 innovation courses with universities, government bodies, and industry bodies (details) (right) and led more than 600 innovation classes. Class cover business (details), social services, and public sector (details), achieving proven results and strong industry recognition.

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