Do you want to join a hackathon in Berlin? Great idea, since Berlin's tech scene is thriving and hackathons are increasingly gaining popularity and attracting more participants year after year. If attending a hackathon is on your 2023 resolutions list, check out this curated list of Berlin's best hackathons [2023]!

How are hackathons organized in Berlin?
Various groups organize hackathons in Berlin, including universities, tech companies, and community organizations. The format and organization of a hackathon can vary depending on the host organization and the event's goals. Also, many universities in Berlin have tech clubs that organize hackathons and other technology-related events. These events are often open to students and members of the wider community and provide an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and meet other like-minded individuals.

Why would I join a hackathon in Berlin?
As one of Europe's most important tech hubs, Berlin Berlin is known for its innovative spirit, with many startups and tech companies working on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and virtual reality. Hackathons are a great way to network and demonstrate your skills to potential employers or co-founders – and vice versa. Hackathons in Berlin are a vibrant and exciting part of the local tech scene. The tech community in Berlin is known for being collaborative, open, and supportive. No surprise that Berlin's hackathons also live up to their expectation, and you can go there to learn new skills in workshops, and talks, maybe win a prize or award, get new gadgets and swag, make new friends, meet industry professionals, and potentially even land your next job here in Berlin.

Here is the list of Berlins' best hackathons in 2023. This list has been curated by Rockstar Recruiting. If your Hackathon is missing, let us know at community@rockstar.jobs, and we will review and add it to this list.

Q1/2023: 

• Open AI Hackathon (24. February – 3. March 2023): The upcoming event promises to be a week of hacking and entertainment, offering participants the chance to create innovative new applications using OpenAI's latest AI tools. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from the industry's top AI professionals and leverage the power of GPT-3, Codex, Dalle-2, and Whisper to develop their own AI applications.
• Hack the Wiki Gap (10.–12. March 2023): Meet with like-minded peers in Berlin to acquire new knowledge, try things out, and make new contacts during a weekend in protected learning spaces - supported by the HACK THE WIKI GAP team and external mentors*. The Hackathon is aimed at girls and young women (explicitly also FLINTA*) from Berlin and the surrounding area between the ages of 12-19.
• Blockchain Hackathon (22.-23. March 2023, Hybrid): The Blockchain Hackathon 2023 invites interested individuals to participate in building the future of Web 3.0. The event aims to explore the potential applications of blockchain technologies, ranging from decentralized finance and NFTs to DAOs and decentralized applications. By combining blockchain and artificial intelligence, the event seeks to investigate how these technologies can revolutionize various industries, including finance, industry, services, and even cities in the future.
• LADS HACKATHON – Specatris (24.–25. March 2023): Labforward GmbH supports laboratory teams worldwide in R&D with digital tools for laboratories. The company's products include Labfolder, an electronic lab notebook (ELN) focused on user-friendliness, and Laboperator, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) platform. The LADS OPC UA community looks forward to working together on the LADS standard among peers in Labforward's Connectivity Space, which offers a unique state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure.

Q2/2023:

• • Hack HPI (13.–14. April 2023): A functioning government requires efficient public services, which can be achieved by adapting infrastructure and technologies to an increasingly digitized society. As sensitive information and critical infrastructure become more connected to the internet, government agencies must also protect themselves against cyber threats. Despite this, many government and public institutions still lag in digitalization. To address this, motivated students from various backgrounds will gather for a weekend of hacking at HPI, located just outside Berlin. World-class sponsors will provide workshops, data access, APIs, a great location, and plenty of caffeine to fuel creativity and inspire new ideas.
  • HCLTech Hackathon Code4youth (Submissions accepted until 25 April): The objective of the Code4YOUth Hackathon is to encourage creativity and self-assurance among young individuals in a digital-first culture. To this end, a secure and conducive space will be provided for brainstorming and exploring innovative ideas. The event will prioritize relevant areas, including skill development, employability, self-care, and accessibility. A prize pool of $25,000 will be available to participants.
  • Blockathon Berlin – Blockchain Hackathon (29. April – 2. May 2023): Participants will have the opportunity to develop blockchain-based business models and prototypes to solve social, economic, and environmental issues over a weekend.
  • Gateway to Cosmo (3.–5. June): The two-day Hackathon will feature a range of exclusive bounties presented on the event's website throughout the conference. Collecting these bounties presents a valuable opportunity for participants to gain coding experience while working on projects at the forefront of the industry, such as Agoric and Axelar.
  • Code & Create (16.–18. June 2023): Although the topic and location of the June 2023 Code & Create event have not been confirmed, attendees can anticipate the following highlights: designing and implementing a functional interface, working collaboratively on a project within a team, presenting to IT experts, participating in team challenges, networking, and enjoying a fun atmosphere.
    
  • AI-HERO Hackathon on Energy-Efficient AI (19.–21. June 2023): This Hackathon will feature two challenges: a use-case from the research field of health and a use-case from the research field of energy. Six teams of 3 participants will tackle each task. The main focus of the functions is not developing the model that achieves the best predictive performance but instead finding and optimizing a model and its training to minimize energy consumption while maintaining a target accuracy.
  • IATA ONE Record Hackathon – hosted by Lufthansa Cargo (23.–25. June 2023): This is the first of two ONE Record 2023 Hackathons, featuring a week-long ideation phase starting on Monday, June 19th, and a 28-hour coding experience where participants can pitch their ideas to industry experts and mentors. The focus of the Hackathon is to develop solutions using the ONE Record Data Sharing standard for enhancing cargo products through multimodal means. Attendees must address at least one related challenge using APIs available at the event while also having the opportunity to attend workshops and receive guidance from mentors throughout the experience.

Q3/2023:

• AwesomWasm Conference + Hackathon (11.–15. July 2023) AwesomWasm 2023 is the first conference and Hackathon held by CosmWasm, hosted by Confio GmbH. It brings together all Cosmos mega-minds and offers diverse opportunities in terms of business development, but it also facilitates learning and building with CosmWasm.
• //Slash_ Hackathon (23.–25. September, Location: CODE University Berlin): Slash is a non-profit, student-organized hackathon aiming to cultivate and inspire up-and-coming developers, designers, and other like-minded people. About 400 participants are expected to join the event in 2023.

Q4/2023:

• • ETHBerlin (Date for 2023 not yet known): ETHBerlin is a hackathon, a cultural festival, an educational event, a platform for hacktivism, and a community initiative to push the decentralized ecosystem forward.
  • HeyJobs Hackday 2023 (Date for 2023 not yet known): The Hackday event is attended by all employees from the R&D department, along with members from the performance marketing, BI, and HR teams. The event's main objective is to unite individuals from different teams to work collaboratively on temporary projects. The event also aims to provide a platform for existing teams to share innovative ideas and experiment with new technologies.
  • Berlin Science Week Hackathon (Date for 2023 not yet known): Year after year, outstanding organizations participate in Berlin Science Week, sharing their work and knowledge through field trips, workshops, roundtable discussions, science slams, hackathons, meet-ups, keynotes, and many other activities. Meet more than 500 scientists, innovators, and thought leaders at over 200 events - on-site or, in some cases, digitally!
  • Elia group – Hackathon 2.0 (Date for 2023 not yet known): Elia Group organized a Hackathon in Brussels last year, which saw participation from more than 100 coders. The event aimed to shape the future of energy services. This year, the group is hosting its second Hackathon Berlin, the headquarters of its German subsidiary, 50Hertz. Participants will have the opportunity to develop future energy services during the event.

Misc:

• • Coding Da V1nc1: Since 2014, Coding da Vinci, the cultural Hackathon, has been connecting the worlds of culture and technology and demonstrating the surprising possibilities of open cultural data. In a sprint phase lasting several weeks, teams of hackers work together with cultural institutions to develop functioning prototypes, e.g., for apps, websites, data visualizations, games, or interactive installations that show surprising and inspiring ways in which collection objects can be communicated and used by institutions in new ways.

Hacking Law Berlin: A two-day legal tech hackathon brings lawyers with software developers, user experience designers, and digital entrepreneurs. In an open, collaborative format, ideas are developed over 36h and then implemented as prototypes.

It is worth noting that these are just a few examples of hackathons that will be held in Berlin in 2023, and there may be many other events that have taken place as well. If your Hackathon is missing, let us know at community@rockstar.jobs, and we will review and add it to this list.

This post is presented by Rockstar Recruiting. Sign up to find your dream job with us in the Berlin or Swiss tech ecosystem and hire tech talents with us.

Happy hacking,

Your team from Rockstar Recruiting