What is a hackathon?

the short definition

A hackathon is a build event with a deadline. The organiser sets a theme, a time limit and the criteria entries will be judged on; participants form teams and spend that time turning an idea into something working; and when the clock stops every team shows what it made. Judges score the entries and prizes go to the strongest.

Four things separate a hackathon from a workshop, a conference or a pitch night: it is time-boxed, the work happens in teams, the output is built during the event rather than brought to it, and it is judged. Take away the clock and it is a course; take away the judging and it is a meetup.

what the word means

“Hackathon” is hack plus marathon. “Hack” is the older engineering sense of the word — solving a problem quickly and inventively — not breaking into systems. “Marathon” is the shape of the event: one continuous block of time rather than a series of separate sessions. New Zealand listings also use Kiwijam for the national game jam; this directory reads both and lists events under whatever the organiser called them.

how a hackathon runs

The running order barely changes from one event to the next:

• Kickoff — the organiser sets out the theme, the rules, the judging criteria and the deadline.
• Team formation — people arrive as a team or form one on the spot.
• Building — the bulk of the clock, usually with mentors circulating.
• Submission — work stops at a hard deadline and teams submit whatever state their project is in.
• Demos — each team presents, typically in a few minutes.
• Judging and prizes — judges score against the criteria set at kickoff, then winners are announced.

the kinds of hackathon run in New Zealand

The word covers events that differ a lot in who turns up, how long they run and what is at stake. Knowing which kind a listing is tells you most of what you need before registering.

• University hackathons — the University of Auckland, AUT, Victoria, Canterbury, Otago and Waikato computing societies run most of the calendar, and the inter-university events are the largest; beginner tracks and free entry are the norm.
• Kiwijam — a genuinely New Zealand format: the national game jam, run on several campuses at once, is a hackathon in everything but the name, and this directory treats it as one.
• Government and civic events — Code for Aotearoa, the councils and central-government agencies run open-data and GovTech briefs, often hybrid; Wellington hosts most of them.
• Industry challenges — the banks, the agritech sector around Hamilton and the health precinct in Christchurch set briefs tied to their own problems, with cash prizes in NZ$ and a hiring angle.
• Community weekends — GridAKL, Creative HQ and the regional coworking spaces run short, free events announced late, which is why the calendar is worth checking more than once.

The name shifts with the subject: a dataset makes it a datathon, a game makes it a game jam, an ideas-only event with no build is an ideathon. The shape is the same — a brief, a clock, teams, a demo — and this directory lists events under whatever the organiser called them.

how long they last

Shorter than the reputation suggests. There is no standard length — the organiser picks one and it is on the listing — but of the 5 hackathons listed here right now, 3 finish inside a single day and 2 run across a weekend or a few days. The longest of those is Startup Weekend Taranaki 2026 at 3 days (13–15 Nov 2026).

A one-day event is normally built around one narrow brief you can finish between breakfast and dinner. A weekend leaves room for a bigger build and usually comes with food, mentor sessions and somewhere to sleep in the schedule. The longer formats are not more work per hour — they are more scope.

what it costs to enter

Less than people expect, and often nothing. 1 of the 5 hackathons listed on this site publishes a free ticket, and 4 have not announced one yet. Where an organiser has published a figure it is on the listing, so you can check before registering.

what you can win

Prizes are set per event and published on the listing. They are not always cash — mentoring, credits, hardware and introductions are common — and the amount varies enormously between a community jam and a sponsored event.

who can enter

Hackathons are open to more than programmers. A team that wins is usually a mix: someone who can build it, someone who can make it legible, and someone who can explain it in three minutes at the end. Some events are open to anyone; others are restricted to students, and the listing says which.

One of the hackathons listed here is tagged beginner-friendly by its own organiser — Teens hack Wairau. If it is your first one, scope small: a finished small idea demos far better than an ambitious half-built one, because judging happens on what actually runs.

in person or online

Worth checking before you plan around one. All 5 hackathons listed here are in-person. Nothing on the calendar right now is online-only.The listings sit in 4 locations, so the practical question is usually which one you can get to — the locations index splits every listing by city.

the types you'll see listed

Hackathons are named after their subject or their audience. These are the filters this directory keeps for New Zealand, with what is on each right now — a filter only gets a page here once enough genuinely matching events exist to fill it:

ai hackathons

A listing appears here when the brief is artificial intelligence — agents, models, machine learning, computer vision, generative AI — either named in the title or clear from the organiser's own description. (2 listed)

student hackathons

A listing appears here when the organiser restricts entry to students, runs the event on a campus, or names a university, college or student society as the host. (0 listed)

A game jam is the one worth naming separately: same clock, same judging, but the thing you ship is a game — video or tabletop — usually from a secret theme announced at the start. Beyond subject, listings are also split by format and by city.

faq

find one to enter

This site lists every upcoming hackathon it can find in New Zealand, updated weekly. Browse all 5 upcoming events, narrow to ai hackathons or student hackathons, or pick a city from the locations index.

Running one? Submit your hackathon — free to list.