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

Official Course Title: Designing High-Impact AI Hackathon Programs: From Vision to Runbook (2-Day | AI Tools Included)

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

(1.1) Course Aims

This course aims to equip participants with the skills and frameworks to design AI Hackathon programs that are tightly aligned with innovation strategy and capable of generating real, follow-on impact. It is applicable across 6 key types: Business, Social, ESG, Healthcare, Technology, and Education. Rather than treating hackathons as one‑off events, the course helps you architect an end‑to‑end experience—from challenge definition to post‑event pathways—that fits into your broader innovation, transformation, or capability‑building agenda.

Across the AI Hackathon ecosystem, 3 major roles are critical: Program Designers, Coaches (including Head Coaches, Team Coaches, Subject-Matter Coaches, and Execution Coaches), and Event Support Managers. This course focuses on the “Program Designer” role as the architect of the entire experience: setting the direction, defining the structure, and ensuring that the other roles can operate effectively.

(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, while 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. In Hong Kong, the SIE Fund launched the first social innovation hackathon in 2024, adding AI-enabled elements to turn “bursting creativity” into sustained innovation outcomes.

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

  • Translate organizational strategies into clear AI Hackathon goals, themes, and value propositions, selecting and tailoring among the six hackathon types where appropriate.
  • Design an end‑to‑end Hackathon structure, including phases, timelines, roles, and governance, that can be reused and adapted across different thematic focuses.
  • Craft AI challenge statements that are ambitious, feasible, and relevant to business, societal, educational, ESG, or technology‑driven needs.
  • Define judging criteria, success metrics, and post‑event pathways that link Hackathon outputs to real follow‑up (e.g., pilots, products, policies, or learning programs).
  • Document the entire program design in a reusable runbook that standardizes best practices and templates for future events of varying types.

Part 2: Target Audience

This course is designed for professionals who design, govern, and scale AI Hackathons across the six key domains of Business, Social, ESG, Healthcare, Technology, and Education. It is particularly relevant for:

[1] Corporate Innovation & Strategy Leaders (Click for Details)

Heads of innovation, strategy, digital, or new business who need hackathons to directly support growth, efficiency, customer experience, and AI adoption—rather than as stand‑alone “idea events”.

[2] Learning & Development / Corporate Academy Architects (Click for Details)

L&D leaders and capability‑building professionals who integrate AI Hackathons into academies, leadership programs, graduate schemes, and upskilling journeys in areas like data, AI, ESG, healthcare, and technology.

[3] Public Sector, NGO & Social Innovation Program Owners (Click for Details)

Government officers, NGO leaders, and social innovation lab managers who run hackathons to tackle social, ESG, healthcare, or education challenges and need a structured, impact‑oriented approach.

[4] University, Startup Ecosystem & Industry Network Organizers (Click for Details)

Innovation office directors, incubator managers, and industry association leads who host AI Hackathons connecting corporates, startups, researchers, and students—and want to align events with clear outcomes for all stakeholders.

[5] Senior Coaches & Facilitators Moving into Program Design (Click for Details)

Experienced hackathon coaches, and consultants who already support teams on the ground and now wish to step up into the Program Designer / Architect role to shape the overall design, governance, and impact.

Remark: Applicants must provide clear evidence of their qualifications in leading hackathons. Acceptable proof may include documentation of previous hackathon leadership roles, certificates or records from relevant programs. Applicants who are unable to demonstrate sufficient qualifications are strongly encouraged first to complete the course of “Leading Inspirational Business AI Hackathons: Coach as Innovation Leader and Team Driver” or “Empowering Mission-Driven Social AI Hackathons: Coach as Game-Changing Engine and Team Leads” before applying.

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: Designing the Right AI Hackathon: From Strategy to Sharp Challenges

  • Session 1: Determine: Strategic Challenge Definition
    • Clarify the major organizational strategy and convert this into 2–4 focused Hackathon challenge domains across Business, Social, ESG, Healthcare, Technology, and Education.
    • Identify key sponsors and stakeholders, and co‑create challenge statements that balance ambition and feasibility for each selected domain.
    • Define strategic success criteria for the Hackathon so that every subsequent design decision supports long‑term value.
  • Session 2: Discover: Context, Users, and Ecosystem
    • Map user groups, processes, and systems behind each challenge to ensure the Hackathon is grounded in reality for business, social, ESG, healthcare, technology, or education contexts.
    • Gather input from users, domain experts, and data owners to refine which problems are most painful and most solvable in each hackathon type.
    • Identify constraints, such as data availability, tools, policies, and change readiness, that will shape the Hackathon design across sectors.
  • Session 3: Define: Critical User and Business Needs
    • Translate insights into clear user needs, business pains, and impact goals that teams will address during the Hackathon.
    • Prioritize which needs become official challenge prompts and which remain optional stretch areas for specific hackathon types (e.g., ESG or Education).
    • Draft concise problem briefs and personas that provide teams with enough structure without limiting creativity.

Day 2: Orchestrating the Experience: From Event Design to Scalable Impact

  • Session 4: Develop: Program Components and Learning Journey
    • Design the overall event journey, including key sessions, checkpoints, and mentor interactions that guide teams from idea to prototype across Business, Social, ESG, Healthcare, Technology, and Education streams.
    • Curate or create learning content that supports each stage of the Hackathon and can be tailored to different domains.
    • Define roles and responsibilities for organizers, coaches, and support teams to ensure a coherent participant experience, even when multiple hackathon types are held in parallel.
  • Session 5: Deliver: Judging, Outputs, and Event Experience
    • Design judging criteria and scoring rubrics that balance innovation, feasibility, impact, and responsibility for AI solutions in each hackathon category.
    • Specify required team deliverables (e.g., pitch deck, demo, technical note, adoption or curriculum plan) to ensure outputs are comparable and actionable.
    • Plan the event’s opening, mid‑event rituals, and final showcase to reinforce the strategic narrative and celebrate outcomes across business, social, ESG, healthcare, technology, and education tracks.
  • Session 6: Drive: Post-Hackathon Pathways and Scaling
    • Define a clear funnel from winning ideas to pilots, projects, curriculum trials, or incubation, including ownership and decision gates for each hackathon type.
    • Establish metrics and feedback loops to evaluate the Hackathon’s strategic impact and inform future program design across Business, Social, ESG, Healthcare, Technology, and Education themes.
    • Document the full program in a reusable runbook, including templates, lessons learned, and guidelines for scaling and replicating different AI Hackathon types across the organization and ecosystem.

Part 4: Date, Fee and Registration

(4.1) Tuition Fee: HK$6,500 (Early Bird, One Month Before Class Start) | HK$7,000 (Standard Price)

(4.2) Date & Time: 1 & 2 May (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 over 100 Hackathons across 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 Game-Changing Engine and Team LeadsSocial Hackathon CoachesCourse | Execution
1-Day Operating 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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