In the fall of 2023, I was asked if I would like to be a judge at a three-day hackathon that would take place in Oslo in February 2024. This was an offer that I could not refuse. At that point, I had no details on what I was actually going to do. I had heard about this event several times before, so it was not completely unknown to me. Today is the fifth of February 2024 and I stand here with a richer experience and can say that participating as a judge at the Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge 2024 was such a great experience that I think it deserves its own blog post. Below I have summarized my impressions and experiences from this fantastic Community event which, in my opinion, is something above the ordinary.

About Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge

ACDC stands for Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge. The event is 3 days of hackathon that happens every year in Oslo at a venue in Holmenkollen. Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge was created as a social happening by (and for) the community as a place where like-minded IT professionals can engage in friendly competition and at the same time still help the others by sharing experiences and know-how.

The organizers

Organizing an event like this is not something you do by yourself. Here, there is a lot of logistics that needs to be in place with premises, technology, accommodation, food and activities. The organizers (no one mentioned and no one forgotten) had done a fantastic job of making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible for all participants and involved. 1000 thanks for all the work you put in in the form of preparations, bookings, coordination, orders etc. so that the rest of us can have a good time. You were (and are) amazing!

The judges

This year the judging panel consisted of Scott Durow, Victoria Dessen, Sara Lagerquist, Mikael Svenson, Jan Vidar Elven and myself Magnus Goksöyr. It was an incredibly nice group to work with. Here there was a very good mix of deep individual knowledge in specific areas and technologies. The deep individual technical knowledge was seasoned with a very committed, good and dynamic collaboration and not least a fantastic good mood.

I myself, who had not participated either as a competitor, organizer or judge before, sensed in advance that there would be a high tempo and a lot of concentration and it turned out that my premonitions had been absolutely right. It really wasn’t a vacation, It was something completely different…

The days for us judges consisted of

• Reading the blog entries of the various competing teams where they described their competition contributions and their arguments for which badges they claimed.
• Circulating in the competition room between the competing teams and watched their work and followed their successes and challenges.
• Having our eyes open to follow the competing teams’ cross-border cooperation and “willingness to share”.
• Continuously working intensively with the scoring and gathering a number of times per day for joint “jury duty” where we would decide winners of both badges and main categories.

The cooperation, helpfulness and sharing of knowledge between the judges (when, for one reason or another, tiredness started to boil in the head of us) worked incredibly well. Despite (or maybe rather thanks to) the stressful pace, I had fun the whole time. I happily and willingly admit that this work was some of the funniest I’ve been part of in my years in “The Community”.

The Philosophy and culture

On the website for the Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge, we can read that the event is created By (and for) the community as a place where like-minded IT professionals can engage in friendly competition and at the same time still help the others by sharing experiences and know- how. Nothing could be more true.

This philosophy is something I have always lived by and something that motivates me. To work towards a goal. To always share what you can. To complement each other’s knowledge and abilities. Being honest about when you’re stuck and need help. Unprestigiously standing up for each other without immediate reward. To have each other’s backs regardless of who you are or where you come from. To include both employees and competitors. To lift each other up when you may not have the necessary energy at the moment. This is a brilliant example of “Sharing is Caring” and “Working out Loud” in practice.

The facilities and the environment

I have lived and stayed in many hotels and conference centers over the years. I am not exaggerating when I say that my experience at the Soria Moria Hotel was absolutely fantastic.

The hotel building itself showed its most beautiful side and for much of the time in brilliant sunshine. The view from this highly situated hotel was absolutely wonderful with a beautiful view of a wintry Oslo. Not only was it a feast for the eyes, it was more than that.

The hotel room was clean and tidy. The bed was far too comfortable, so combined with the fatigue you had after each day’s refereeing duties, it was a challenge to persuade yourself to jump out of bed in the morning when you were going down to breakfast.

The restaurant offered a fantastic breakfast buffet offering everything you could wish for. It should be mentioned that the breakfast is one of the most important parameters that must be met when I judge how good I think a hotel is. Here it was nothing but top marks. The same also applies to lunch, snacks and dinners. So much and so good food all the time.

The hotel staff were consistently friendly and very professional. They were always available and always nice and helpful and it was also genuine. True professionalism is immediately noticeable, it is not something you can practice but it is visible on the faces of the people who work with it.

So both thumbs up and top marks for Soria Moria Hotel on all points. I will come back here both privately and on business.

The Competition

The competition’s main categories were as follows:

• Excellent user experience
• Pandoras box
• Most Extreme Business Value
• Killer AI

In addition to the opportunity for the competing teams to be judged based on (and in the best case win) these main categories, they also had the opportunity to claim a number of badges in the areas of “Soft Badges”, “Low Code” and “Pro Code”. Here there were both high- and low-hanging fruits that all teams did their best to collect for their large fruit bowls.

The competing teams and participants

This year’s competing teams were

• Donkey Kong Koders
• Evidi Power Platform Plumbers
• Super Crayon Bros
• KoopaTroopaPilotene
• Peaches of Itera
• Boouvet
• Super INtendo
• INtendo DS
• LogiqMushrooms
• NerdeNinjas
• Power Plumbers of Cepheo
• Pzl Plumbers
• Waken Koopa Troopas

The competitors were mainly from Norway, but there were also participants and other teams from countries both near and far. Many were younger, many were middle-aged and there were also some in upper middle age (myself included…) It is popular these days to talk warmly about inclusion and diversity, here it was a natural and obvious fact. Regardless of shape, color, age, or other forms of characteristics or preferences, everyone was welcome. Everyone was friendly and everyone was helpful even though everyone was actually here to compete (and of course to win).

All teams were very competent, all were good at something. Some were quite naturally better than others in certain areas. With so many talented teams, I would like to say that it was often a challenge for us judges to decide which team or teams were the best. Regardless of the results the teams got, everyone really did their best and all the teams presented impressive final results.

Another thing that was absolutely amazing about all the teams was their outfits. Everyone went 100% for this year’s Mario theme. It was a feast for the eyes and brought many laughs when seeing all the variations on Mario, Luigi, Peach and all the other characters. Top marks to those of you who really went for this.

The Winners

As in all competitions, the Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge also had to have a winner and it was us judges who would decide this year’s winner, which was INTendo DS and their creative solution which was an AI-supported “pipe planner for plumbers”. A round of applause to the IT plumbers Sofie Staal, Henrik Grønstad Lindgren, Håvard Langdal Hovde, Ingvild Unander Netland and Mats Løvstrand Berntsen. You impressed!

Final words

In addition to sending a tribute to the team that took first place, I also want to send a big congratulations to all the other competing teams. You were all fantastic and it was incredibly nice, fun and educational to follow your processes from planning, configuration and coding to the final solution. Who knows, next year it might be you who stand there on the final night and hold up the beautiful trophy.

Thanks to all the teams for constantly providing us judges with candy in all forms. It was much appreciated. (This was also exactly what was needed for me to realize that I need to start my running training again.)

Without a generous employer, it is difficult to participate in activities like this. I would therefore also like to express a big thank you to my employer Evidi, who gives me the time to devote myself to this type of interesting and useful Community activities.

I hope all the organizers, participants and judges had as great an experience as I had. The Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge 2024 was a thoroughly positive experience and an event that I will never forget. I really enjoyed this.

Thanks to all you fantastic people. “Community Rocks”!