Overview: On November 5-7, 2025, the City of Memphis, Innovate Memphis, and other key community partners hosted their third city-wide Hackathon. The Hackathon supports one of Mayor Young’s Good Governance strategies outlined in his transition plan to foster a Memphis technology renaissance. With so many talented individuals, pipeline organizations, and businesses in the Memphis area, the City has made it a priority to tap into these valuable assets to help solve tough civic challenges.

The City Hackathon is a 36-hour “sprint” event where volunteers lend their tech and creativity skills to develop solutions to specific problems the City of Memphis is looking for help on. At the 2025 Hackathon, 72 hackers formed 20 teams and provided over 2,500 of free tech support to tackle these civic challenges:

1) Using data and predictive analytics to manage blight

2) Using AI to navigate 211 services & resources

3) Using technology to streamline local business partnerships with the City

Agenda Activities: On Friday night, Mayor Young gave opening remarks, and experts provided an overview of each of the three challenge areas. Hackers then brainstormed ideas for solutions and decided which team and solution they would work on the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, teams continued to develop and refine their solutions. They also had the opportunity to receive coaching from outside experts and participate in optional skill-building workshops on GIS/mapping, AI prompt engineering, cybersecurity, user design and experience, and process mapping value streams. On Sunday, the hacker teams presented their final projects to a panel of judges including Augustine Boateng (City Deputy CIO), Kathryn Hicks (Co-Founder and Chief of Games & Technology at BVO), Sherita Johnson (CIO & COO at UMRF Ventures), and Balaji Venkatasubramaniyar (engineering leader and digital consultant). The judges determined awards including a $2,000 grand prize for the best overall solution and five additional cash and in-kind prizes.

Organizers:

Organizers: Innovate Memphis partnered with the City of Memphis to organize the 2025 City Hackathon along with eight other partners on the event steering committee: BPDA Memphis, City Leadership, Code Crew, Epicenter, Memphis Technology Foundation, Midsouth Makers, Start Co, and Tech901. The steering committee was essential in providing expertise and ideas for the event agenda, recruiting talented Memphians from their networks to participate, and volunteering throughout the event to ensure it ran smoothly.