Work by yourself or bring a team. Weird little empires welcome.
Quarterly build challenge for the bold and mildly unhinged.
AC3 AI Powered Hackfest
Build weird. Ship sharp.
Enter the illustrious AC3 AI Powered Hackfest if you think you can build sharp software in the age of AI-powered vibe coding and help create Australia’s best automated managed services company.
Pitch to the evaluation team first. Honestly, no one will be denied.
Entries open day one of each quarter and close one week before quarter end.
Demo day lands the following Wednesday, with glory measured in applause and shipped nonsense.
How it works
The format is loose. The output is not.
Bring an idea that could sharpen managed services, automate drudge work, or delight someone who has suffered enough.
If accepted, go make the thing. Use AI. Use code. Use determination and snacks.
Turn up on showcase Wednesday with a working demo, a crisp story, and at least one lesson learned the hard way.
Visual Variants
One loud poster. One cleaner brief.
Poster variant
More startup-hackathon energy. Better for promos, hero art, and general noise.
Infographic variant
Cleaner structure for sharing the actual brief with people who enjoy reading.
Entry criteria
Convince the evaluation team you should be allowed near the keyboard.
- Pitch your idea to the evaluation team.
- If accepted, go build your solution.
- Work solo or collaborate as a team.
- Use AI sensibly, recklessly, or somewhere in between. Just be able to explain it.
Quarter schedule
Entries open on day one of each quarter. Entries close one week before the end of the quarter. Showcase happens on the following Wednesday.
Ask a questionWhat to showcase
Bring more than vibes.
The problem, the opportunity, and why anyone should care.
A real solution people can click, run, inspect, or otherwise break with enthusiasm.
Show the value prop, target audience, and how this thing escapes the lab.
What worked, what failed, and what the robots did that still feels suspicious.
What you get
Enough toys to build something dangerous in a productive way.
A sandbox instance for workflows, tickets, and whatever automation trouble you invent.
Sample documents included, so no one has to fake boring file structures from scratch.
Identity, auth flows, test users, and enough directory plumbing to keep it realistic.
For docs, diagrams, and the inevitable page titled “Final Final Architecture v7”.
Model access for copilots, agents, summarisation, and tasteful AI mischief.
Dark-mode brand assets, poster art, and a fake-employee vibe with suspiciously real polish.
Best fit for
Software engineers, automation nerds, platform tinkerers, and anyone who thinks “we could probably build that in a weekend” and then actually does.
Enter the hackfest