GovTech Hackathon

At the GovTech Hackathon in Bern on 23 and 24 March 2023, participants will work together to create, improve and test electronic interfaces (APIs) in use by public authorities in Switzerland. It will be an opportunity to meet developers, experts and interested parties from the administration, business and civil society, and help develop our society’s digital foundations.

The hackathon will take place at BIT in Zollikofen (Eichenweg 3).

GovTech aims to simplify processes in all kinds of areas. Companies should be able to process their VAT invoices automatically. Civil society can follow what is happening in Parliament in real time. Property developers should be able to submit planning applications electronically and check their status online. On 23 and 24 March, users and developers of administration programming interfaces will come together in Bern. During the two-day session, participants will develop prototypes of new APIs, improve existing ones and design applications that can make use of them.

In short, they will be helping to lay the digital foundations for our society: electronic interfaces, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), form the basis for digital public services. Thanks to these interfaces, businesses, the public, but also public authorities themselves can exchange data and services and develop their own digital applications.

At the GovTech Hackathon, participants will work together for two days on specific challenges with the aim of making digital public services as user-friendly, intuitive, interoperable and sustainable as possible.

Program

Thursday 23 march

from 08:00	Check-in, coffee and croissants
09:00	Welcome and information
09:30	Challenge pitches
11:00	Team building
11:30	Hacking
12:30	Lunch
13:30	Hacking
15:00	Mentoring session (optional)
17:45	Check-out
18:00	Apéro
open end	Hacking

Friday 24 march

from 07:30	Check-in, coffee and croissants, hacking
10:00	Mentoring session (optional)
12:30	Lunch
16:00	Presentations
17:30	Jury decision
17:45	Apéro

The hackathon is being run by the Federal Chancellery's DTI Sector with the support of Opendata.ch.

Further information

Links

Challenges

What is a hackathon?

API Architecture Bund

Opendata.ch