Before I went to my first AI hackathon, there was one thing I kept wondering about.
“What kind of people go to something like this?”
Is it all engineers?
Is it all people who know a ton about AI?
Probably people I’d never meet in my everyday life.
Brilliant IT experts, all of them.
I’m not an engineer, and I had only just started using AI, so honestly, I was sure I would be completely out of place.
But after joining a few AI hackathons, I found that the people there were far more varied than I had imagined.
Of course, there are people with seriously strong technical skills.
But when I asked,
“So what brought you here today?”
the reasons were even more varied.
Some people wanted to win a prize. Others wanted to try new AI tools, see whether it could connect to their work, or build their network. There was even someone who joined while traveling.
In this article, I want to share what I learned about “the people who come to AI hackathons” from actually talking with participants.
Of course, some people come to win
These people are definitely there.
They join seriously from the start, aiming for prize money or a top ranking.
There were people who built something incredibly fast on their own and went on to place.
As a beginner like me, you look at it and go:
“Wait, they made this today?” (haha)
Depending on the hackathon, there may be prize money, sponsor awards, or a chance to have judges look at your product.
So it’s not surprising at all that people come with goals like:
- building a track record
- adding something to their portfolio
- connecting it to a job search or career change
- getting an award on their record
At AIAU Craft Day, my first hackathon, I ended up on a team of two with a participant who had hackathon experience. So someone experienced and a first-timer like me can end up building something together on the same team.
If you only look at this part, you might think, “See, it’s a scary world for beginners.”
But in reality, that wasn’t the whole picture.
People who come to try new AI tools
There are quite a few of these people too.
At AI hackathons, sponsor companies sometimes provide their own tools and services.
For example:
- AI coding tools
- databases
- image and video generation tools
- AI agent services
Even tools you wouldn’t normally make time to try become something you can test all at once when the idea is:
“Today, let’s build something with this.”
At the English-language hackathon I joined, when I talked with a participant who had strong technical skills, trying out new tools was also one of their reasons for being there, not just networking.
For people with day jobs, I think it can also be a place to check:
“Could I use this at work?”
Some people come to see if it’s useful for work
At first glance, a hackathon might look like a game or a contest.
But in reality, some people come for work.
They come to see whether new AI tools:
- could be used at their company
- could be used for development
- could make their work more efficient
- would be worth bringing into their team
At my first hackathon too, there was someone who worked on AI-related things at their company. They told me they were trying out various services to help decide which AI to bring into their department.
Instead of just listening to explanations at a seminar, you can actually spend a few hours using the tools and building something.
When you think about it that way, it’s very practical.
For me personally, tools and systems I first learned about at hackathons have later led to apps I built.
So beyond being “an event where you finish a project,” it also has a side that feels like
a testing ground where you can try out new technology all at once.
A lot of people come for networking
There were more of these people than I expected.
Especially at an English-language hackathon I joined, I talked with someone who had been coming to events like this many times.
One of the big reasons they joined was:
networking.
That made sense to me.
Hackathons really are easier places to talk to people than ordinary networking events.
From the start, you already have shared topics like:
“What should we make?”
“What can you do?”
“Have you used this AI before?”
It’s a bit different from a networking event where you just exchange business cards and leave.
After working together for a few hours, you also get a pretty good sense of how someone thinks.
So I think it’s an interesting place to meet people — not just for engineers, but also for people running their own businesses or building products.
In fact, at my second hackathon, I ran into two people again whom I had met at my first one.
There was even someone who joined while traveling abroad
This was a really interesting example for me.
One of my teammates at the AI Film Hackathon was traveling around Asia from France.
I don’t think he was in Tokyo for very long.
But during that short stay, he found an AI hackathon in Tokyo and joined it.
If I were traveling abroad, what would I do?
Sightseeing, eating, shopping…
Going to a hackathon wouldn’t really cross my mind (haha).
But for him, maybe that was just another part of the travel experience.
And when I asked about the AI tools he used and how long he had been using them, it wasn’t that different from me.
He was using a paid ChatGPT plan and Claude Code too, but it didn’t seem like he had been using them for very long.
I had just assumed:
“International participants at hackathons = people who live in Tokyo.”
But that wasn’t true (haha).
And I only found that out after we had submitted our work.
Everyone finally started talking about themselves, and that’s when I realized:
“Wait, you’re traveling?”
That was probably in the last 30 minutes or so (haha).
We had been making something together, but until then, I didn’t even know something that basic.
That felt very hackathon-like to me too, and it was fun.
Someone found the event on Facebook
In the Vietnam Japan AI Hackathon I’m currently participating in, I once asked a Vietnamese teammate who speaks English:
“How did you find this event?”
This was their second hackathon, and they said they had found their first event on Facebook.
I hardly use Facebook, so I was a little surprised:
“Oh, so some people find these events through Facebook.”
Hackathon information is really scattered.
connpass, Luma, Meetup, Facebook, Discord, or hearing about it from someone you know.
How people find events is completely different from person to person.
That’s exactly why I think it’s worth gathering event information in one place on this site.
Do some people come just because it “looks fun”?
And then there are people who come just because
“It looks kind of fun.”
From the people I’ve talked with, I don’t think there are that many of them.
Though maybe I’m one of them (haha).
That said, I did go thinking it would help me learn about AI, and that it would be a kind of real-world learning — a new experience.
At my first hackathon, I didn’t even really understand what a “hackathon” was.
Someone I knew told me about the event, and it started from something like:
“It’s at Roppongi Hills, which is close, so even if I don’t really get it, I might as well go.”
If it had been somewhere unfamiliar, or somewhere inconvenient and far away, I definitely wouldn’t have gone.
But through that, I met new people, learned about tools I didn’t know, and then started joining other events.
I don’t think you need a clear goal from the start.
Just being a little curious.
That might be enough.
It wasn’t just engineers
Of course, there are a lot of engineers.
There’s no doubt about that.
If anything, it does feel like engineers make up the overwhelming majority.
But it isn’t only them.
When you actually go, you’ll find all kinds of people:
- engineers
- students
- office workers
- people running their own businesses
- people from overseas
- people who have just started learning AI
- non-engineers like me
By the way, at my first one, I stood out pretty obviously (haha).
Most of the people I talked with had job titles related to IT or AI, and I was an e-commerce seller.
During team building, I said:
“I’m a beginner, and I first heard the word ‘hackathon’ just last Sunday.”
and everyone was a little taken aback.
The event was on Friday that same week.
Of course they’d react like:
“Wait, you first heard about it this week and came today?” (haha)
So I don’t think you need to overthink it, like:
“I’m not an engineer, so I might stand out if I go.”
You might stand out a little, though.
But it wasn’t the kind of world where “you’re not an engineer, so you don’t belong here.”
At the Vietnam Japan AI Hackathon too, there was someone who said:
“I’m new to AI, but I want to take part. Please let me join a team.”
They said it would be hard for them to contribute on the technical side, so they wanted to be in charge of the presentation.
That’s a way of taking part too.
That said, the technical level and atmosphere really vary from event to event, so it’s a good idea to check beforehand whether beginners are welcome.
It’s interesting precisely because people come for different reasons
After joining a few times, I started to understand why I find hackathons so interesting.
I think it’s probably because
everyone has different goals.
People who want to win.
People who want to try out technology.
People who want to connect it to their work.
People who want to make friends or find collaborators.
People who want to do something fun while traveling.
People who just decided to give it a try.
All of these people gather in the same place for just a few hours, and it becomes:
“Okay, let’s make something.”
People who would normally never cross paths end up mixing.
That’s what makes it interesting.
If you’re wondering, “Will there be anyone like me?”
Before your first time, it’s easy to think:
“What if I’m the only beginner?”
“What if everyone is an engineer?”
I felt the same way.
But when I actually went, people’s reasons for being there and their experience levels were all over the place.
So rather than worrying too much about
“Will there be anyone like me?”
I think it’s fine to just give it a try once, with a feeling like:
“This event looks kind of interesting.”
In my case, that “I’ll just go and see” has somehow led to me joining several hackathons now.
On this site, I’ll keep organizing information like events that seem beginner-friendly, language, solo participation, and team formation as much as I can.
Even in a place full of people you don’t know, I want to help create more moments of “I went, and it was actually okay.”