4th Hackathon@PMRExpo 2026 | AI, Tech & Innovation – Köln

über dieses event

4th Hackathon@PMRExpo 2026 | AI, Tech & Innovation – Köln, by Corevas® / EmergencyEye®. Build what's NEXT. 3 days. €4,500 in prize money. Real challenges. Participation possible without your own team. Hotel accommodation included!

Three days. Three challenges. €4,500 in prize money. Three days. Real challenges. New technologies. And at the end, a working prototype. At Hackathon@PMRExpo 2026 in collaboration with COREVAS, developers, students, start-ups, emergency responders, companies and creative minds come together to develop new solutions for critical communication, public safety and critical infrastructures. This is not about ideas on PowerPoint slides. You work together with your team on a real challenge, get access to technologies, experts and the PMRExpo community, and develop a solution within three days that is presented on stage at the end.

What awaits you: three real challenges around AI, data, sensor technology and communication; €4,500 in prize money for the three best teams; access to technologies, APIs and tools; support from mentors and experts; exchange with companies, start-ups and emergency organisations; access to PMRExpo 2026; your own hacker space, food and drinks; a hackathon T-shirt and access to the community; accommodation in a centrally located hotel in Köln. You need neither a finished product nor your own idea or an existing team. What you should bring: curiosity, your skills and the desire to build something.

What's NEXT? "What's NEXT?" is the motto of the 2026 hackathon. It is not simply about the next technology. It is about which new possibilities really make a difference in practice. How can AI and sensor technology help to recognise critical situations earlier? How can different information be combined into an understandable situational picture? And how do we ensure that people and systems can communicate with each other even under difficult conditions? Three challenges set the direction. How you solve them is up to your team.

The Challenges 2026. 1. From Reaction to Prediction – Recognising what is coming. How can AI, sensor technology and different data sources help to recognise critical developments earlier and give people the right information in time? Develop solutions that gain new insights from existing data and help move from reaction to early detection.

2. One Incident. One Picture. – Understanding what is happening. How can language, video, images, maps, sensors and other data be merged into an intelligent situational picture that lets people understand and decide faster? Develop new approaches to present complex situations clearly, link information meaningfully and support decisions.

3. Connected. No Matter What. – Staying connected, no matter what happens. How can communication work even when individual networks or systems fail, are overloaded or are not compatible with each other? Develop solutions that reliably connect people, technologies and organisations – even under difficult conditions.

Your idea. Your team. Your prototype. The challenges set the direction. Whether you work with AI, software, hardware, IoT, data or completely different approaches is decided together with your team. What counts in the end is what you can develop and demonstrate within the three days.

More than three days of hackathon. Projects from past hackathons have continued after the event. One earlier hackathon project became a company founding that was funded through the EXIST start-up grant. The 2025 hackathon also produced another company founding. The hackathon offers you the opportunity to try out technologies, meet new people and develop ideas for which everyday life often lacks the time. Perhaps a prototype emerges from your idea. Perhaps a product. Perhaps even your next company.

What can you win? Besides experience, new contacts and perhaps the basis for your next project, there is also prize money to be won. 🥇 1st place: €2,000. 🥈 2nd place: €1,500. 🥉 3rd place: €1,000. In total, €4,500 in prize money awaits the best teams. At the close of the hackathon, each team presents its prototype to an audience at PMRExpo.

Who is the hackathon for? You do not have to be a full-stack developer to take part. The hackathon thrives on people with different skills and experiences coming together. You fit with us if you are interested in one or more of these areas: software development; AI & machine learning; data science & analytics; hardware & IoT; UX & design; product development; public safety & critical communication; emergency organisations & critical infrastructures; start-ups & business development. You are welcome even if you are studying, just starting out or have never taken part in a hackathon. You do not need your own team. Teams can form before or during the hackathon. You can therefore also register alone and meet other participants on site. What matters is your curiosity, your skills and the willingness to try something new together.

Your hacker ticket. With your hacker ticket you take active part in the hackathon at Koelnmesse from 24 to 26 November 2026. Included in the ticket: participation on all three hackathon days; access to PMRExpo 2026; use of the hacker space; access to provided technologies, APIs and tools; support from mentors and experts; food and drinks during the hackathon; a hackathon T-shirt; access to the hackathon community; participation in the final pitch; the chance at a total of €4,500 in prize money.

Arrival & accommodation. You are not from Köln? No problem. Participants have the opportunity to stay overnight in a centrally located hotel in Köln. This lets you concentrate fully on your challenge, your team and the exchange with other participants during the three days. Further information on the accommodation option and its organisation is available from the hackathon team.

You don't want to hack yourself but still want to be there? With the community ticket you stay up to date around the hackathon and can network with participants, partners and supporters. Our Hackathon@PMRExpo community has grown over the past years to around 500 members from technology, public safety, critical communication and industry. Through our community platform you can follow which teams are forming, what is being worked on and which solutions are developed during the hackathon.

Together with experts and industry partners. The hackathon is accompanied by partners and supporters from various fields, including authorities and organisations with security tasks (BOS), public institutions and industrial companies. Participants benefit from exchanging with specialists who work daily on challenges in critical communication, security and infrastructure. This is how technological ideas meet real requirements and practical experience. Our goal is not only to discuss new approaches, but to try them out directly and turn them into working prototypes.

Who is behind it? The Hackathon@PMRExpo in collaboration with COREVAS is organised jointly by PMRExpo / Koelnmesse and Corevas GmbH & Co. KG. COREVAS brings experience from several years of Hackathon@PMRExpo as well as technological and technical expertise from public safety, critical communication and digital crisis management. Together with our partners and supporters we create a framework in which people from different fields come together, learn from each other and develop new solutions.

Are you in? Three days. Three challenges. One question. What's NEXT? Recognising what is coming. Understanding what is happening. Staying connected, no matter what happens. We don't want to talk about innovation for three days. We want to see what happens when you simply start building something. Secure your hacker ticket and become part of Hackathon@PMRExpo 2026! 24–26 November 2026 · Koelnmesse.

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