The event

ACDC stands for Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge. It is a hackathon that happens every year at Voksenåsen hotel. It's 3 days of hackathon + 1 day hangover. The event was created as a social happening by and for the community as a place where like-minded IT professionals can engage in friendly competition without worrying about the mercantile challenges. You will rather be rewarded for helping others and sharing experiences and know-how.
Be prepared, though! The competitive spirit will run high for you and the other participants. As soon as the points start ticking in, you'll know the competition is on! The old boys will get busy badge-hunting from the get-go, and develop their solutions to "snipe" the most badges.

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The task

The event is about building solutions that will solve a fictive need inspired by this year's theme. You and your team will have to figure out for yourselves what you want to create and what business needs your solution will solve. This way you get to choose what you want to build and what tools to use. It's important to be clear on what categories and badges you are targeting and working towards. The categories are pretty much the same each year (Excellent User Experience, Most extreme Business Value, Rock Solid Geekness, Killer App). The badges vary from year to year and follow the trends and changes in technology.

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Rules

You compete by getting the most badges. Every team can get all badges, and they must be claimed by writing blog posts where you explicitly write what badge you are going for. Most badges are about implementing a solution using a particular kind of technology or framework. There are additional badges that can be won by showing good team spirit, lightning talks and doing stupid things for fun. There's room for interpretation and it's important to talk to the judges and know that you'll get points for and not.
The five judges will give points for what they see during the event and judge all the teams by each category. If they feel you got a great idea they will give you points in the "Great business value" category. If you think about the usability, look and feel you will be given points in the "Excellent User Experience" category, etc. Every day each judge can give each team point in each category. Every day they award a team "Category King" for each category, so it's important to communicate, write blog posts and demonstrate your solution to the judges throughout the competition.

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What happens on the first day?

The first day will feel like a kick-start for newcomers. Many teams have participated for many years and know exactly what to do and how to get started. The first badge you go for is "Early Delivery"; this badge is about presenting what your team have planned to create with sketches. A good tip is to go for the "Show and tell" badge at the same time by writing a good description and presenting the solution well.

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Values and wins

ACDC is a community event (affordable and inclusive)
ACDC is non-profit (all money goes into the events)
ACDC is about learning, sharing and fun (be nice)To ensure that all events follow these values, the core team provides benevolent dictatorship for all events. The core team recruits from a variety of companies and does it best to ensure diversity with respect to companies and other interests involved.

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Code of conduct

We have never really encountered situations that have raised for a need to include this statement, but we liked it and included it.

ACDC is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Be respectful, we are a group of proffesionals and we should behave in such way. Disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. Disrespectful and unacceptable behavior includes, but is not limited to:

Violent threats or language.

Discriminatory or derogatory jokes and language.

Posting sexually explicit or violent material.

Posting, or threatening to post, people's personally identifying information ("doxing").

Insults, especially those using discriminatory terms or slurs.

Behavior that could be perceived as sexual attention.

Advocating for or encouraging any of the above behaviors.

Agenda

Usually the event run like this: