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

Official Course Title: Empowering Mission-Driven Social AI Hackathons: Coach as Game-Changing Engine and Team Leads (2-Day | AI Tools Included)

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

(1.1) Course Aims

This course is designed for Social Hackathon Coaches—including Head, Team, and Execution Coaches—who serve as the primary driving force within a Social AI Hackathon. While Program Designers set the overall concept, this course focuses on those who run the Hackathon events: managing activities, guiding teams under time pressure, and keeping everyone aligned with the mission, impact goals, and judging criteria.

Compared with Business Hackathon Coaches, who help teams create winning market solutions to beat competitors, Social Hackathon Coaches help teams design solutions that connect with and enhance existing social services, emphasising collaboration and ecosystem fit over pure competition.

Focusing on mission‑driven Social AI Hackathons, the course equips coaches with practical skills, tools, and AI‑enabled methods to guide teams from understanding the social problem to exploring ideas, to shaping an AI‑enabled intervention, and finally to preparing a clear impact pitch.

While social hackathons still involve judging, the emphasis is less on win–lose outcomes and more on co‑creating an innovative, caring society in which multiple solutions can advance. Coaches also learn to align with Program Design before and after the event and to support teams in using AI Agents and AI Innovation Spaces, thereby enabling more teams to produce credible, ethical, and mission‑aligned outcomes.

To address community needs and promote cross-sector collaboration, we partnered with Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service in both 2023 and 2024 to co-host this course on a voluntary basis. In addition, we have repeatedly co-organised social innovation hackathons pro bono with various social service organisations and leading universities in Hong Kong, and became the “First“ social innovation hackathon organiser funded by the Government’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (4‑minute video recap), underscoring our leadership in Hong Kong’s social innovation field.

(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 public sector, the Government of Indonesia has developed digital governance tools covering nutrition, financial transparency and carbon sink analysis, and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority focuses on public transport accessibility and passenger experience. In Hong Kong, the SIE Fund launched the first social hackathon in 2024, introducing AI-enabled innovation elements to transform “bursting creativity” into sustained, long-term 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

  • Lead teams through the social hackathon working journey – from clarifying the social challenge, to exploring options, to shaping solutions, to preparing final presentations under tight time constraints.
  • Translate mission and judging criteria into simple team guidance, helping teams balance impact, feasibility, ethics, and alignment with existing social services and community partners.
  • Facilitate constructive, collaborative teamwork, encouraging empathy, inclusion, and co‑creation rather than purely competitive, win‑lose behaviour.
  • Use AI tools and specialised AI Agents to map stakeholders, surface latent needs, generate solution options, and strengthen teams’ analysis, concepts, and impact stories.
  • Coordinate with Program Designers, sponsors, and social sector partners to ensure that promising ideas can transition into real-world follow‑on pathways (pilots, collaborations, or policy experiments) after the hackathon.

Part 2: Target Audience

This course is for Social Hackathon Coaches – people who stay with teams during Social AI Hackathons and help them design responsible, ecosystem‑aware solutions. It is especially suitable for those who want to guide teamwork and support collaboration across social services, not just competition. It is particularly relevant for:

[1] Coaches and Mentors Guiding Multiple Social Impact Teams (Click for Details)

People are asked to “look after the event” in social innovation hackathons, ensuring that teams understand the mission, adhere to ethical standards, collaborate effectively, and are prepared to present impact‑oriented social services.

[2] Team Leaders for Community or NGO Projects (Click for Details)

Team leads or leaders of volunteers who closely support one or a few teams tackling issues such as poverty, health, climate, education, ageing, or inclusion—and who need a clear, step‑by‑step coaching approach from problem to impact pitch.

[3] Internal Champions for Social Innovation or ESG (Click for Details)

People inside governments, NGOs, social enterprises, universities, or corporates who drive ESG, CSR, or social impact programs, and are invited to help at hackathons but want stronger skills in coaching teams and aligning with existing services.

[4] Subject Experts Supporting Social Challenges (Click for Details)

Social workers, public health specialists, educators, environmental experts, community organisers, and similar professionals who advise teams and want to combine their expertise with practical coaching and AI‑supported facilitation.

[5] Facilitators and Trainers in Social Innovation or Community Labs (Click for Details)

Facilitators, trainers, and consultants who run social innovation workshops or community labs and now support Social AI Hackathons, seeking a reusable coaching toolkit to help teams create ethical, realistic, and synergistic solutions.

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

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 Mission, Ecosystem and Program Design)
    • Clarify how the coach role connects to the Determine phase led by Program Designers, including understanding the social mission, impact goals, challenge domains, and judging criteria for Social AI Hackathons.
    • Review challenge statements and program designs, and practise identifying where coaches may face issues (e.g., unclear beneficiaries, weak ecosystem fit), then provide structured feedback to Program Designers from a social‑impact and services‑integration perspective.
  • Session 2: (Discover: Social Context, Stakeholders, and Constraints)
    • Guide teams to quickly understand the social landscape underlying each challenge, including key communities, frontline workers, existing social services, policies, data sources, and practical constraints.
    • Facilitate structured discovery conversations that surface real pains, lived experiences, and constraints (e.g., trust, digital divide, data gaps, policy limits) rather than jumping straight to solutions or technology choices.
    • Use AI Agents to build social stakeholder maps, community/citizen/user research summaries, 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 social problem statements and opportunity framings grounded in impact, inclusion, and clear ownership within the social ecosystem.
    • Run Define‑phase clinics and checkpoints where teams present one‑line social problem statements and short summaries, receiving targeted feedback to ensure alignment with sponsors, community partners, Program Designers, and impact‑oriented judging criteria.
    • Use AI Agents to generate persona maps, community/citizen/user journey maps, and impact‑focused value proposition maps, then coach teams to choose and refine the most ethical, strategic, and solvable options for the rest 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 social problems to viable AI‑enabled social solution concepts, including use cases, community journeys, workflows, data needs, and initial ethical, risk, and governance considerations.
    • Balance social innovation with practicality by challenging teams on where AI truly adds value, how the solution fits into existing social services and community systems, and what an MVP, pilot, or field test could realistically look like in a social or public environment.
    • Use AI Agents to help generate multiple solution options, before‑and‑after service workflows, assumption and risk lists, and early impact 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 impact pitches that showcase the social problem, AI‑enabled solution, social value logic, feasibility, ethical safeguards, and proposed next steps with partners.
    • Design and run Deliver‑phase rehearsals, including short dry‑runs, structured feedback, and Q&A practice to prepare teams for questions from funders, NGO leaders, policymakers, community representatives, and technical judges—aiming to maximise their chances of being selected for follow‑on support.
    • Use AI Agents to draft pitch outlines, narrative flows, simple visuals, and anticipated judge questions, then refine these with teams to highlight social differentiation, ecosystem fit, and collaboration potential, ensuring that the final pitch is concise and aligned with impact‑oriented judging criteria.
  • Session 6: (Drive: Handing Over to Sponsors and Follow-On Pathways)
    • Clarify how the social coach role connects to the Drive phase led by Program Designers and sponsors, including community pilots, NGO or agency partnerships, incubation, and portfolio decisions after the hackathon.
    • Learn how to summarise each team’s strengths, risks, ecosystem fit, and impact readiness into short coach assessment notes that help sponsors, NGOs, and public agencies decide which ideas to take forward and what support (partners, data, funding, mentoring) 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: 25 & 26 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 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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