BECOME A

HACKATHON

PARTNER

Our traditional Innovator, Catalyst, and Visionary partner packages follow a fixed-fee model that isn’t tied to any single project. That keeps the event free of commercial influence and makes it a place open-source communities trust and want to join.

With every Hackathon partnership, you’ll send your own team members to the event and sponsor the same number of open-source contributors, so your support brings more of the community into the room. Our two top partnership tiers give you a seat on the Hackathon jury, which picks the winners in six categories.

**NEW IN 2027: THE LAUNCHPAD PARTNER TIER**

True to our commitment to projects that last beyond the hackathon weekend, Launchpad partners go one step further and back a specific project before, during, and after the event. We curate the project together with you, so it can be tied directly to your business or community needs. Your involvement and goals are shared openly with all hackathon attendees, and the project stays open for the whole community to use.

ONLY TWO SLOTS AVAILABLE!

What You Get as a Partner

EMPOWER OPEN-SOURCE INNOVATION
Support the open-source communities our industry is built on and help create projects that shape the future of the open web.

BRAND AWARENESS
Get visibility across the CloudFest Global audience and word of mouth from influential voices in the industry.

Reward Your Team
Give your R&D employees a unique incentive: hands-on work with the open-source community, far from their daily routine.

NETWORKING
Spend three days working alongside the developers, maintainers, and decision-makers who shape the open web.

LASTING IMPACT
Every hackathon project is built to continue beyond the weekend, so your support goes into open-source work that keeps growing after the event.

ATTRACT NEW TALENT
Watch developers, security experts, and maintainers solve real problems over three days—a better signal than any interview—and meet them in person.

WHY You Should Be a Partner

For our 10th edition, 110+ developers, security experts, and open-source maintainers from 20+ countries will work on the questions that will define hosting and the web in the coming years. As a partner, you’re in the room where we build the solutions.

What our teams will tackle, and why it matters for your business:

The agent-ready web: open standards like MCP and WebMCP that let AI agents work safely with websites, CMSs, and hosting platforms, instead of just scraping them. Be ready when your customers’ sites become agent-facing.

A fair deal between AI and the open web: control for site owners over how AI crawls, uses, cites, and pays for their content. Offer your customers real protection for what they publish.

Trust you can verify: open evals, guardrails, and content credentials that make AI behaviour measurable and AI output traceable. Build trust in the AI features you ship.

Secure by default: defences against prompt injection and supply-chain attacks, and vulnerability handling every maintainer can manage. Reduce risk across the stack you and your customers depend on.

Sovereign, efficient infrastructure: self-hostable stacks and local-first AI that keep the web independent and affordable. Stay independent of single vendors and keep costs predictable.

Compliance with open tooling: practical answers to the EU AI Act, the Cyber Resilience Act and the European Accessibility Act. Meet new obligations with tools everyone can use and verify.

Partner with the CloudFest Hackathon

Put your brand at the heart of the open source community. Connect with talented developers, support projects that matter, and show what your team stands for.

Get the brand-new Hackathon Partnership Booklet, let us know what you want to achieve, and we’ll explore partnership opportunities together.

PARTNERSHIP PACKAGES

Package 1: Innovator

Mention in all Hackathon-related marketing activities
Logo placement on the Hackathon website
Bring 1 crew member & sponsor 1 open-source contributor, OR sponsor 2 open-source contributors
Unlimited Community Passes for CloudFest Global (core audience* only)
1 Vendor Pass for CloudFest Global

3,000 €

Limited to 4 partners

Package 2: Catalyst

Mention in all Hackathon-related marketing activities
Logo placement on the Hackathon website
Bring 3 crew members & sponsor 3 open-source contributors, OR sponsor 6 open-source contributors
Unlimited Community Passes for CloudFest Global (core audience* only)
2 Vendor Passes for CloudFest Global

8,000 €

Limited to 4 partners

Package 3: Visionary

Mention in all Hackathon-related marketing activities
Prominent logo placement on the Hackathon website
Custom roll-up banner at the event
Bring 5 crew members & sponsor 5 open- source contributors, OR sponsor 10 open- source contributors
Unlimited Community Passes for CloudFest Global (core audience* only)
1 Vendor VIP Pass + 5 Vendor Passes for CloudFest Global
Featured in a joint social media post with our other Visionary partners
One seat on the Hackathon jury, which picks the winners in six categories

12,500 €

Limited to 4 partners

NEW IN 2027 – For partners who want to go further, our new Launchpad package links your support to a specific project and its future after the event:

Package 4: Launchpad

What You Get

All Visionary benefits, PLUS:

Your moment on the main stage: A 5–10-minute slot on the CloudFest Global main stage to present your project and your vision to thousands of industry decision-makers.
A project built around your goals: A dedicated Hackathon project shaped around a real need from your business or community, planned together with our organizing team well before the event so it hits the ground running.
A story that keeps going: A dedicated social media post introducing your company and your project to the CloudFest community, followed by regular progress updates on your project across CloudFest’s blog and social media, keeping your brand visible long after the event.
Your fast track to CloudFest Global: A preferred path toward an exhibitor presence or a spot in Startup Alley at future editions, turning your Hackathon project into a lasting presence.

15,000 €
partnership investment

Your Commitment Beyond the Hackathon

Resources that make the difference:
A 15,000 € resource pledge, matching your package fee, in the form that fits you best: your team’s time, dev capacity, or direct project sponsorship. Every euro goes straight into the project.
A project that lives on:
You take ownership of carrying the project forward after the event, with regular check-ins with the project lead to keep momentum and turn a weekend prototype into something real.