2026 Edition · Data Storytelling Hackathon

Find the human story hiding in the model.

Futureproof Festival, BC + AI, and Rival Technologies are bringing the hackathon back.

This year's working territory is synthetic audiences, real people, and the evidence between them. The brief, the prizes, and the timing land closer to the date.

Get the brief when it drops See the working format

Edition: 2026
This year: Synthetic audiences
How it runs: Brief, build, live demo
Coming soon: Timing, prizes, and judging

The collaboration

A Futureproof Festival challenge, presented by BC + AI and built with Rival Technologies.

Presented by

Hackathon collaborator

A previous Data Storytelling Hackathon team presenting its work onstage in Vancouver

Built here before

4 previous rounds in Vancouver.

This year's question

Synthetic audiences. Real consequences.

The opportunity is not to make simulated people look convincing. It is to make the relationship between modelled responses and human evidence visible enough to question.

When a synthetic audience predicts a reaction, what evidence should the storyteller show?

Where does a simulated voice reveal a pattern, and where does it flatten the people behind it?

Can a team make uncertainty visible enough for a non-research audience to use?

The final brief lands closer to the date. Bring the questions that bug you.

How it runs

Build before. Demo together.

Teams get real time to build before they demo, so what hits the stage is worth watching.

01The brief

Start with a question worth answering.

Rival and BC + AI shape the problem space, source material, rules, and judging lens.

02The build

Give the story enough room.

Teams get time before the festival to test the method, challenge assumptions, and make the result legible.

03The room

Bring the strongest work onstage.

Finalists demo live, where the jury and the room become the last part of the experiment.

One build day. Dates, dataset, partner, and prizes are still being finalized.

From the room

The data leaves the slide. The story meets people.

Previous Vancouver Data Storytelling Hackathons, photographed as they happened: presenting, questioning, celebrating, and putting the work in front of a real room.

Vancouver AI Data Storytelling Hackathon stage with speakers and a Rival-sponsored winner cheque projected behind them. — The room remembers.September 2025

Matt Sinclair-Foreman and organizers hold a 2,500 dollar Rival-sponsored hackathon cheque in front of a cheering Vancouver AI audience. — One winner. A hundred hands up.June 2025

Hackathon finalists gathered on stage beneath a Data Storytelling Hackathon projection. — Round three, all finalists.Finalists

Two hackathon presenters stand on stage beside a live interface projected behind them. — The prototype goes on the big screen.Live demo

Hackathon winner Dean Shev presents his data storytelling project on the Vancouver AI stage. — Dean Shev makes the case.Builder

Dean Shev joins an on-stage discussion beside imagery from his data storytelling project. — The story gets questioned.Onstage

Dean Shev and the Round 3 hackathon team hold a 2,500 dollar winner cheque on stage. — Rival puts a real prize behind the work.Round 3 winner

Audience members watch a hackathon presentation from the front row. — The audience is part of the test.Front row

Builders and community members cluster around a laptop during a hands-on demo huddle. — The demo keeps going in the hallway.Builder huddle

Three young AI builders pose together outdoors at the Vancouver AI gathering. — The next generation is already here.Community

Documentary photography, not generated imagery.Photos: Michelle Diamond · Vancouver AI · 2025

Get the brief

Put your name on the brief.

Join the Hackathon 2026 list. We'll send a quick confirmation now, then the format, challenge, prizes, and registration details as Rival and the Futureproof crew lock them.

No application essay. No fake certainty. Just a signal that you want to build.

Festival attendees

Every teammate must be a registered Futureproof attendee. The hackathon itself is free. Entry is included with any festival pass.

Teens welcome

Builders under 18 can register with guardian consent. Flag it on the form and we'll send a consent note. Some of our strongest entries have come from high schoolers.