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HACK
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Pickles · Internal Hackathon · 3rd Edition
Two days. Zero meetings.
Ship something ripper.
// 01 — about
HACK26 is Pickles' internal hackathon — two days in October where the whole company downs tools, splits into squads, and builds something new. A working prototype, a process fix, a wild idea that just might work.
No approvals. No backlog. No "let's park that". Just you, your team, and 36 hours to make it real — then demo it to the whole company and a judging panel.
You don't need to code. The best teams mix devs, designers, ops, sales, finance and yard crew. If you know a problem worth fixing, you belong here.
Devs, data folk, no-code tinkerers — bring the how.
Make it usable, make it beautiful, make the demo sing.
Ops, sales, auctions, finance — bring the what & why.
First hackathon? Perfect. Fresh eyes spot the hours everyone else stopped noticing.
// 02 — the mission
Design and prototype a solution that eliminates 100 hours of work, waiting, or effort every month.
Not 100 hours on a slide. 100 hours a real person stops losing — every month, on repeat. Delete the work, don't just move it somewhere else.
The winning idea isn't the most technically impressive one. It's the one that creates the biggest, most believable impact.
Less work. More possible.
Three focus areas. Every team hunts one — assignments are live.
// 03 — focus areas
Three focus areas. Every team has one mission — but the hours pile up in the same places across all three. Start looking here.
The people who run Pickles day to day. Rekeying the same data between systems, approvals parked in inboxes, chasing status updates, building reports nobody opens.
The businesses supplying and selling through us. Onboarding paperwork, listing prep, valuation back-and-forth, invoice queries, settlement chasing.
Buyers and bidders. Registration friction, hunting for the right lot, condition and inspection questions, payment, collection and post-sale support.
// 04 — timeline
Eight squads of eight, drawn and published. Find your crew in the Teams section below.
Teams are set and targets are sealed. Sharpen your questions, line up your tools — and have a yarn with BMac if you want a pep talk.
Breakfast, launch activities, mission targets unsealed and exec AI agents assigned — then the clock starts. 36 hours on the board.
Submission window runs 3:00–4:00 PM. Demos and judging kick off at 4:15 PM — 8 teams, 15 minutes each, back-to-back, with a break midway.
Dinner at Poolside Area - VE Hotel, prize draws, then prize giving at 7:45PM. Winners crowned same night.
Barista on site, massages and midnight snack runs, alongside the bits that count. Activities and competitions across both days earn extra entries into the prize draws at the Awards Dinner.
// 05 — it stuff
Time tracking, support and tools — plus a couple of things still under wraps until Launch.
Track your hackathon hours by logging time to the Hack26 Jira ticket.
Hit a snag with your laptop, Wi-Fi or any hackathon tech? Reach the IT Help Desk on Teams and the on-site crew will sort you out.
Need a helping hand with infrastructure? The IT Help Desk is ready to assist.
DO NOT COMMIT secrets to the repo. Store secret files such as .env, .npmrc, nodemon.json and etc locally and add them to .gitignore.
Your team's starter repo is live on GitHub — clone it and start shipping.
Two ways to connect — pick the one that matches your stack. One shared token works for both.
endpoint = "https://pickles-aue-hack26-ai-foundry.services.ai.azure.com/openai/v1"
deployment_name = "gpt-6.1-sol-team-<name>" # swap <name> for your team
api_key = "<your-api-key>" # same key for every team🔑 Token link opens a Bitwarden Send which will expire in 2 days.
Tool licences: New GitHub Copilot or Claude licences will not be issued as part of HACK26. Participants may use their own existing licences if available.
// 06 — prize pool
Only one Winner and one Runner-Up will be crowned.
RM750 / AUD$250
per team memberTurn ideas into real impact — and get paid for every hour you delete.
RM500 / AUD$150
per team memberBold ideas still take you far. Still legends, still paid.
🎟 Plus prize draws at the Awards Dinner — every activity and competition across the two days earns you more entries.
For a smooth and fair judging session, each team will have 8 minutes for their presentation and demo, followed by 5 minutes for judges' questions.
Stay within your 8 minutes — judges begin Q&A the moment your presentation ends. Good luck to all teams 🚀
"The winning idea isn't necessarily the most technically impressive — it's the one that creates the biggest, most believable impact."
The core metric. How many hours are genuinely eliminated? Is the calculation credible? Does it remove work rather than simply shift it?
If implemented, what would happen? Quantify revenue growth, cost reduction, faster turnaround, better customer experience, employee productivity or reduced risk.
Could this realistically happen? Can a pod ship it to production in under 2 months? Does the tech already exist in our ecosystem? What are the barriers?
Think outside the box — not ideas already on the to-do list. The best ones simplify rather than complicate, and make people ask "why haven't we done this before?"
Show the problem, the current process, the future process and the impact. Quality of the working prototype counts — not just a PowerPoint.
The judges hold exactly one. It goes to the idea that makes them say: "We should start this next Monday."
// 07 — exec ai agents
Now they're AI agents. Every team gets an AI guide modelled on a member of our Exec Comm: your sounding board, challenger and hype machine at 2am.
Open Hack26 Agent
Eight agents. Eight teams. One extra perspective when you need it.
// 08 — teams
Eight squads. Sixty-four hackers. One trophy. Flip a card to see who you're up against.
// 09 — office layout
Team zones, IT support and shared spaces at Menara Suezcap.
// 10 — ask bmac
BMac is our AI hype-man. Ask him anything about HACK26 — the mission, the rules, the judging, what to bring on the day. He's also unreasonably good at pep talks.
tap the orb to start
Uses your microphone
// 11 — faq
Anyone at Pickles — any team, any office, any role. Devs, designers, ops, sales, finance, yard crew. No experience needed.
Nope. Teams need problem-finders, designers, storytellers and demo talent just as much as coders. AI tools make building more accessible than ever.
Eight per squad — eight teams in total, already drawn and listed above. Check the Teams section to find your crew.
No. Team allocations are final — once squads are drawn, that's your crew for the full 36 hours.
Something that eliminates at least 100 hours of work, waiting or effort every month. Your target focus area — Staff, Vendor or Member — is classified until the Launch at 6:30am on 7 October.
An AI guide modelled on one of our Exec Comm members. Each team is paired with one on the day to challenge your thinking, pressure-test the numbers and keep you moving.
Allowed? They're encouraged. Use Copilot or whatever gets you shipping. Just be ready to explain how your thing works at the demo.
The two hack days are officially sanctioned — managers are briefed, calendars get blocked. Your inbox will survive.
Yes. Meals, snacks and drinks run throughout both days — barista, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack run. Check the Timeline above for exact times.
Winning projects get sponsored for a proper pilot. Past hackathon builds have shipped to production — yours could be next.
// 12 — recharge
Book a shoulder massage during HACK26
Choose your session through the booking link below.
Book a sessionWed 7 Oct 2026 · 2:00 PM — 5:00 PM · 10 minutes per session
Scan to book
// 13 — freshen up
Three rooms set aside across two nearby buildings so you can shower, change and recharge during the 36 hours.
KL Gateway Mall, 2, Jalan Kerinchi, Kampung Kerinchi, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
The Vertical, 8, Jalan Kerinchi, Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Vertical, 8, Jalan Kerinchi, Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
🤫 Please keep these rooms tidy — they're shared across the two days.
// 14 — emergency contacts
Save these before launch. Every number is tap-to-call on mobile.