Guide to TADHack Global 2025

The Basics

This post provides a guide to TADHack 2025. TADHack is a long running hackathon, since 2014, where people round the world hack in parallel to win cash prizes. TADHack helps people learn about the latest Internet, IT, and Telecom / Communications technologies; and use those technologies to solve problems that matter to them.

Past hacks have included programmable communications / telecoms (voice, video, messaging), internet of things, cloud computing, robotics, machine learning, speech and face recognition, mobile payments, enterprise communications, decentralized web, blockchain, encryption, open source, and many other technologies.

Check out previous years’ hacks from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 20 1 9, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014. All these hacks make me very proud!

TADHack is for Everyone: it’s an event where people (e.g. students, graphic designers, UX designers, project managers, product managers, IT Managers, coders and non-coders, interested individuals, and subject-matter-experts) collaborate on a software project. Occasionally, there is a hardware component, for example we’ve had some impressive IoT (Internet of Things) hacks over the years, including a dancing robot.

Some important points:

A hack, is a software project. It’s an idea (we’ll come back to how to get ideas later), a demonstration of part of that idea, and as importantly a presentation – a pitch of the hack. You do not need to have a complete demonstration, just a bit of it. The idea and its presentation is just as important as the demonstration.
We have few technical restrictions, the formal hackathon rules are here, you can use whatever language and APIs you like, and your preferred development tools. We only ask the hack includes at least one of the sponsors.

We use TADS Slack for general TADHack communications, sign up if you do not already have an account. Here is the group for General Discussions. And each sponsor has their specific channel to ask questions on their resources.

How do I submit my hack?

The most important thing is the pitch video of your hack. This is how the sponsors judge your hack. Its OK to submit your pitch video as soon as it’s ready. Submitting early helps the judges, so helps your chances of winning.

The pitch video format is:

5 minutes maximum, this is a strict limit. (Please do not speed the video up to squeeze it into 5 mins)
Introduce you / the team (and team name if you have one)
Introduce the hack name and a brief description
Explain the hack, can be done through a simple presentation / demo / a little acting, whatever you / the team wants to do.
Please send your pitch video through when it is ready, by Thursday 12th June Submission deadline (6PM ET) for vCon TADHack.

Once you’ve got your video ready please upload your video to YouTube (if you do not have a YouTube account set it up NOW as it takes 24 hours to be confirmed).

Please send an email (info @ tadhack.com – remove spaces) with the following information (please include all this info, it is important, we have many pitches to review so organization is critical):

Wetransfer or Google Drive URL for your video file (so we can upload to the TADHack YT channel),
YouTube URL (this is a back-up in case we’re having internet problems or are overloaded)
The team name, the team member’s names, their emails, and if they have them Twitter handles.
Hack name and a brief description (3 or 4 lines).
Attach any slides or photos used during the presentation.
Github URL (or other repository) of your code.

P.S. All hacks will be promoted on the TADHack YouTube channel, we want to write weblogs on all of them. TADHack is focused on promoting developers. We’ve helped developers launch companies, get great jobs, internships, and make a difference in their communities.

How do I prepare?

To Register, send an email to (info @ tadhack.com – remove spaces) with the list of team members and their email addresses.

How do you get an idea for a hack?

This is the question that puts many people off taking part in a hackathon. Some people are fortunate to just be constantly having ideas. For most of us however, the act of trying to come up with an idea chases them all away from our mind.

The secret for a successful hack is to think about all the problems you see in your life and those of friends, family, colleagues, and community. We all have problems in our lives and thinking about them is easy. As you consider those problems, have a think about how the sponsors’ technologies can help you solve them.

I guarantee after you do this a few times, you’ll have several ideas to choose from. And best of all they will be ideas you care about, check out this one from Justin at TADHack-mini Orlando, it was a personal challenge he faced in his life so it mattered intensely to him.

Who gets involved in TADHack?

Web developers learning about the latest technologies;
Coders and non-coders (students, graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, product managers, IT Managers, interested individuals) discovering how easy its become to use new technologies – TADHack really is for everyone;
Enterprise IT – some basic scripting skills and cut ‘n’ paste is enough these days to build impressive hacks.
Analysts and other business types, people interested to experience the journey of discovery that is a TADHack weekend.
First-timers coming in to chat, learn and see what a hackathon is all about. Building confidence to hack at their next event. We have the highest return ratio of any hackathon as people enjoy being part of TADHack.
We also have young teenagers with their parent(s) take part, learning and building confidence and winning!

The benefits of being involved in TADHack include:

Learning – it’s a great opportunity to learn about the sponsors’ technologies;
Prizes (cash) and global recognition are always nice;
Internships – see what Raj did with Jambonz.
Networking – You’ll make new friends.
Have fun!
Hiring – TADHack is a great place to discover impressive talent. Adding to your resume pitch video links showcases your creativity, development and presentation skills. People get great jobs through being involved in TADHack;
Business development – often people, teams, and sponsors discover they have common business interests with the people attending;

Below are some Q&A from old weblogs I include here as well.

Q) Who should participate in TADHack?
A) TADHack is for everyone, from hackers (coders), through hustlers (business people), to hipsters (designers).

Q) I’m not a developer, why should I join, what will I learn?
A) The focus of TADHack is learning about the latest technologies: guaranteed you’ll find this relevant to your life and work.

Q) Can my hack be something we are working on ahead of the event?
A) Yes, just let the sponsors know in your pitch.

Q) How are the prizes awarded? The sponsors will judge all the pitch videos, and we’ll announce the winners on Monday 16th June (3PM ET) on a live stream on the TADHack YouTube channel, and on the TADHack blog.

Q) What is a pitch at TADHack?
A) It’s where you explain and demonstrate your hack. One person or the whole team can give the pitch. The only strict limit is its 5 minutes maximum, unless you’re giving the pitch in your local language and its being translated in step to English. By in-step we mean you speak a few sentences, then someone else repeats in English. The recommended structure is:

Introduce you / the team (and team name if you have one)
Introduce the hack / showcase name and a brief description
List the sponsor’s resources used in the hack (which sponsors should judge your hack)
If you want to be judged for the Accessibility and Inclusion prize please explain why your hack is relevant.
Explain the hack, can be done through a simple presentation / a little acting, whatever you / the team wants to do.
And, of course, a demo of what you created.

Q) How do I collect my prize if I win?
A) Do not worry, we’ll be in touch.

Q) What if I have other questions?
A) Just add them in the comments section and we’ll answer them.