Denver’s first-ever AI-focused hackathon took place a week ago, and by all accounts and measures, it was a rousing success. For the whole story, including the list of all the winners, it's worth checking out the detailed recap of the event provided by Twelve Labs, one of the event's key sponsors.
The hackathon's success came as no surprise to the 40 coders who participated, or to any of the event's organizers. Both groups have seen the seeds of the Denver-Boulder tech community take root and thrive in recent years, and especially in the arena of artificial intelligence.
Which is not to say that putting on a hackathon is easy. As Conor Swanson put it, “It's hard to put on a great hackathon. I've been involved at the community level for a long time and I've seen a fair number of attempts that didn't go well for various reasons. Junaid Dawud did an excellent job of bringing together the right stakeholders and sponsors to provide a groundswell of support.”
A decade ago, Swanson co-founded Code Talent, one of the AI hackathon’s sponsors. Reflecting on the local AI scene, he said, “Colorado’s AI community is growing fast. RMAIIG, Boulder AI Builders, and the Denver-Boulder AI Tinkerers and others are great examples of that momentum.”
Daniel Ritchie, founder of Denver’s Brain Wave Collective and one of the hackathon’s organizers, echoed those sentiments, saying, “With a wealth of talent and a strong community orientation, Colorado has always been an incredible place to establish and grow companies.”
Time and time again, the strength of its community is mentioned as one of the most significant ways that the Denver-Boulder tech scene is different from many others around the country. One of the members of the team that won third place, Jesse Neumann, had this to say: “My team and I are family – really! My three-person team consists of my mother, Roblynn, who's a project manager, my sister, Hannah, who's a UX designer, and myself. So, that’s a little different from most teams. We've been talking about finding a community of other builders for a while now, at least for a couple of years. And even though we've attended several Meetups, we never really felt as welcome as we did at the AI Tinkerers hackathon.”
Swanson summed the weekend up with this: “I believe this event catalyzed a community that was already excited and hungry for all things AI and provided them with a unique opportunity.”
Taking the long view, Ritchie said, “Given Colorado’s history of providing heavy support to smaller players, our state is better positioned than any other to support bold visionaries. There has never been a better opportunity for a small operation to cash in on big wins, and there is perhaps no better place than Colorado to launch and grow a new startup.”
In fact, Ritchie’s message is borne out by the striking story of the Denver-Boulder region of the last few years. In May of this year, CNBC put together one of its “Cities of Success” pieces, this one focused on what it called “The Triumphs of Denver & Boulder.”
It’s worth watching, especially because it’s more than just a superficial puff piece that only tells the positive side of what’s been taking place in Colorado. In fact, the 10-minute story, while proclaiming the many exciting things happening in Denver and Boulder, does not shy away from talking about the region’s high price of housing and its growing problem of an expanding homeless population.
And yet, despite these all-too-common challenges, the many – and growing – positives of the region, including its rapidly expanding AI sector, are pretty compelling. Just spend some time at the next Denver AI hackathon and you’ll feel the energy.
