A meeting place for thousands of developers, designers, and business minds. A weekend-long experience, gathering tech enthusiasts from all over the world to create with the latest technology in a unique environment and atmosphere.
This year, we're building bridges cross frontiers, as Junction 2021 gathers techies together for 48 hours to hack all over the world in both physical locations and online.
Last year, the event brought together over 2 000 participants from 88 nationalities, and resulted in 200 new tech projects, created from scratch in just 48 hours.
The hackathon is divided into challenges based on different industries and themes. You can choose to work on multiple challenges during the hackathon: and you can even combine them and submit your project to multiple ones!
We aim to get the challenges out as soon as possible - most during October. Remember that you do not need to choose your challenge when applying to the event so you can already apply and choose the challenge later when all the descriptions are out.
Junction is again happening live this year! Although Junction 2021 is an online-first event and all the content will be available via the virtual Gather world, we will also host multiple physical locations - Hubs - together with JunctionX teams, partners and other independent, remarkable hackathon organizers around the world.
The local hubs give a twist to the concept of a normal online hackathon, by increasing the sense of community and making physical interaction possible when needed. This years hub locations are visible on the map below!
Junction 2021 is the crown jewel of international hackathons, gathering people around the world together for 48 hours to hack in both physical locations and online.
The hackathon will take place November 19th to 21st and it will be hosted online, with an addition of physical hacking Hubs all around the world.
You can apply to the event on our handcrafted Junction App platform starting from the 1st of August.
For the physical participation in the Hubs the application deadline has passed but you can still apply for reserve spots.
For the online participation the application deadline is the 17th of November.
The Junction team will accept the best applicants already during the application period. We will try to get back to you within a week from your application!
Nope! We got you covered, the event is free of charge for all participants.
You can apply with a team or by yourself, but all team members must apply and be accepted as well.
1 to 5 people - we suggest having a minimum of 3 people in a team. The Junction team will organize matchmaking at the start of the hackathon, so no need to worry if you don't have a team before the event.
All team members must be accepted to the hackathon.
For each physical Hub, Junction follows the guidelines set by the officials of the country, where the Hub is organized. If it's not safe to organize a Hub in a location, the Hub will cancelled and the corresponding participants will get to participate the event from another Hub or online.
In Finland, Junction follows the guidelines given by the Finnish government. This means that Junction will arrange the Aalto Hub in accordance with the instructions given by The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Institute for Health and Welfare.
Here are the key measurements that Junction is going to take in Hubs:
- people that feel sick are not allowed to attend physically
- possibility to wash and/or disinfect hands is always available
- the facilities are cleaned with extra caution and frequency
- team-specific hacking tables are placed with 1-2 m safety distance to other tables
- queuing is minimized by distributing people to arrive and leave gradually
- the unavoidable queuing is arranged in a way that the 1-2 m safety distances can be maintained
Junction is prepared to downsize all Hubs according to the epidemiological situation.
No, unfortunately.
Junction doesn’t encourage flying/traveling far to other locations due to the corona virus, which is why we don't provide travel grants nor accommodation.
The Junction team is constantly publishing new locations and negotiating about more Hub, so if there’s no Hub near to you at this point, don’t worry, because we will contact you about it later! Also, remember that you can participate the event totally online too.
Main prize for the hackathon winner team is 10 000€!
In addition to the main prize, the challenge partners give out challenge-specific prizes. Challenge prizes typically range from the company's products to cash.
The hackathon will take place November 19th to 21st and it will be hosted online, with an addition of physical hacking Hubs all around the world.
The application period takes place from the 1st of August until the 7th of November on our handcrafted Junction App platform. The Junction team will accept the best applicants already during the application period.
For the physical participation in the Hubs the application deadline has passed but you can still apply for reserve spots.
For the online participation the application deadline is the 17th of November (EET, GMT +2).
We will try to inform you within a week from your application whether you're accepted to the hackathon or not.
You will be asked about attending Hubs when you apply for the event in the Junction App platform. For the physical participation in the Hubs the application deadline has passed but you can still apply for reserve spots.
If you applied before the Hubs were announced, don't worry, you can still apply to a hub! Go to the Junction App (the place where you applied) and go through the application form again and modify the last section where we ask about hubs.
Unfortunately not anymore! The hub organizer applications are closed for this year.
You'll be informed at the latest within a couple of weeks from your application whether you're accepted to the hackathon or not.
The schedule is planned so, that the critical program will take place at times, which are the most reasonable for the parts of the world where the most of the Hubs are located (UTC+0 - UTC+9).
And although all-nighters tend to be a part of all hackathon experiences, the live stream content will be available during the whole weekend, for those who prefer sleeping over watching them live at 4 am 😉
The hackathon is divided into challenges provided by our partner companies covering different industries and themes. You are free to choose the challenge(s) you want to compete in.
The challenges can be read on the challenge page.
Challenge winners and their prizes are determined by the partner companies.
You can, but it's not recommended (at least if you prefer getting even a little bit of sleep during the weekend).
In addition to the main prize (10 000€!), the challenge partners give out challenge-specific prizes. Challenge prizes typically range from the company's products to cash.
You will be asked about attending Hubs in the application form. When accepted to a hub, you will receive more information of the practicalities considering the hub.
If you applied before the Hubs were announced, don't worry, you can still apply to a hub! Go to the Junction App (the place where you applied) and go through the application form again and modify the last section where we ask about hubs.
Some Hubs will be open 24/7, but we recommend you to get your rest outside the Hubs. Not outside outside, but trust us, sleeping surrounded by stressed, sweaty hackers does not fill up your batteries that well.
Unfortunately, Junction does not provide accommodation for Hub participants.
Depending on the Hub, yes. You will get more detailed information from your local Hub organizers, when accepted to one.
No, unfortunately.
Junction doesn’t encourage flying/traveling far to other locations due to the corona virus, which is why we don't provide travel grants nor accommodation. Remember that you can participate the event totally online too!
Junction 2021 is an online-first event, so you should be able to do everything from wherever you are in the world, as long as you have a computer, working internet connection and a place to hack from, like a table and a chair (or a bed, we don't judge).
The practical side of the event - applications, submissions and reviewing - take all place in Junction App.
The social side of the event - program, partner/participant interaction, casual hanging around - is fully organized in Gather.
Yes. You can interact with all participants - hacking from any Hub or home - on the virtual event platform Gather.
Yes. Each partner will have a virtual partner booth in Gather, where you can meet the partner representatives, have a chat and ask questions. If a challenge partner offers mentoring during the hackathon, it will be arranged virtually.
Many partner companies are also seeking for talents to recruit, so going up to talk with them in the virtual event space can bear fruit in many ways. 🍋
The challenges come ready-made from our partners, but the projects can be what ever you come up with, ranging from physical hardware prototypes to new games, software and concepts.
The projects are submitted via Junction App.
The final submission deadline is on Sunday the 21st at 9.00 AM (UTC+2). The submission form closes automatically, and unfortunately we won’t accept any late submissions. For the final submission we require a 2 minute long video pitch of the final project, this can be uploaded to the preferred platform such as YouTube or Vimeo, but it has to be available for everyone to enjoy. And to be very frank: not a second longer than 2 minutes, and we will be very strict with this. Remember to reserve enough time for preparing the pitch. With a great pitch you can get more votes for your project.
Besides, you're asked to provide the name, punchline, description, photos, source code (if public), demo and team members' names.
Every partner will determine judging criteria that will determine what they are looking for in a project. Remember to check carefully the judging criteria of the challenge your team is doing, to ensure a great possibility of winning a challenge or the whole event.
Peer reviewing happens in the Junction App and you can access it via the Dashboard. Each team member does the reviewing of the projects individually on their own Junction App account.
Partner and peer review starts in parallel at 9:30 am (UTC +2). To ensure quality results, each participant should review at least 5 other projects. However, since reviewing other projects is a lot of fun, you're free to keep going until you've reviewed all of the other projects. If your team does not participate in reviewing other projects, we reserve the right to apply a small penalty to your team's score.
Partner reviewing: Partners review projects submitted to their challenge
→ Challenge winners
Peer reviewing: Hackers review the projects of other teams, ranking based on the Gavel algorithm
→ TOP 10 projects
Finalist voting: TOP 10 projects are pitched in the closing ceremony (4-minute pitches via Zoom), hackers vote for the main prize winner
→ Main prize winner
Always the team who created the project - not Junction nor our partner companies.
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Our team is happy to help you with anything and everything, just shoot us a message!
Junction's partner companies, ranging from startups to tech industry leaders, provide their latest tech and pressing challenges for our hackers to tackle during the weekend.
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