What is a Hackathon?
A hackathon is an immersive, high-energy innovation sprint where people come together to solve real-world challenges using technology, collaboration, and creativity. Over the course of a focused weekend - from Friday evening to Sunday evening (approximately 48 hours) - participants form teams, develop ideas, and build working prototypes that they present to judges at the end of the event.
The inaugural Innovate Suffolk Hackathon in 2018. Winners Kara Thurkettle and Shaun Plummer receiving their prize.
This is more than just a weekend project, it’s a space for deep innovation. We ask participants to fully commit to their teams and the challenge, treating it as a rare opportunity to do meaningful, impactful work in a compressed time frame. Bring your skills, your curiosity, and your drive. Whether you’re coding, designing, strategising, or storytelling. This is your chance to make something real!
In 2018, Shaun Plummer, an in-house developer at Coderus, and Kara Thurkettle from StrategiQ Marketing, triumphed in the Innovate Suffolk 48-hour hackathon, which focused on mental health solutions. Their winning project, the Stress Buddy app, was designed to assist young individuals in managing anxiety and stress through a series of coping strategies rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Behavioral Conditioning principles. The app also integrates wearable technology and data tracking to monitor emotional responses over time. Beyond its individual use, Stress Buddy was envisioned as a tool for workplace wellness programs, aiming to support employees’ mental health proactively.
At our next hackathon, we’ll provide food, space, support, and plenty of coffee. The venue will be open throughout the weekend and while participants won’t be staying overnight on-site, you’ll be free to come and go as needed. The only things you’ll need to bring are your laptop, chargers, and anything you use to do your best work.
Mentors will be on hand throughout to support each team, and we’ll also provide facilitated check-ins and guidance along the way to help ideas stay sharp and on track.
This is a chance to create, collaborate and connect, and maybe even kickstart the next great Green Tech idea for Suffolk.
