Leaders of Digital Transformation

Firstly, the project design is the result of consultations with young specialists and the startup community. The decision in favor of such a project design is due to the fact that, according to the analysis conducted, there was a lack of precisely such a tool in the complex of instruments for developing Moscow's innovative ecosystem. In other words, the project is complementary to other services. Secondly, a distinctive innovative feature of the project is that its result was a continuously operating mechanism based on a public-private partnership, which is built around the hackathon but is not limited to it. As a result, on the one hand, a constantly evolving system of services for IT specialists was created (from a mentoring system to support for testing digital solutions in government and private organizations), and on the other, an informal IT community was (and continues to be) formed, which includes all participants of past hackathons (as well as often their friends and colleagues). Thus, holding a hackathon provided the conditions for the formation of a space for informal communication, socialization, exchange of experience and information, which the famous urbanist Jane Jacobs considered one of the most important components of a city. Within these spaces, a person can not only learn something new but also find like-minded people with whom they can create a startup in the future and jointly develop a business idea. They can also learn more about the professional environment, expand their network of acquaintances, which will increase their psychological comfort and social capital, and open up new opportunities for realizing their own creative potential and creative initiatives. A hackathon is just such a tool because in teams that come together to solve the tasks set, people of various professions and with different backgrounds find themselves, who might not have met under other circumstances. Thirdly, the project is being constantly improved and scaled up, both in terms of the number of tasks and their complexity. The total prize fund of the hackathon has also increased – from 42 million rubles to 50 million rubles in the last year alone. Also, there are more and more tasks through which participants can contribute to the work of Moscow's main digital solutions. For instance, in 2024, participants were invited, among other things, to develop a service for automatic modeling of object movement in the "Digital Twin of Moscow" project. This is an exact 3D copy of the capital in virtual reality, which helps to plan the construction of residential, industrial, and social facilities, make decisions, and control the implementation of city projects. The development of a service that will simulate the movement of, for example, virtual characters or transport, will allow for a more detailed planning of the development of the urban environment, including transport infrastructure, pedestrian and public spaces.

The significance of the project has been acknowledged by both international and Russian experts. In 2023, the project was recognized as one of the “30 Deserving Initiatives” of the prestigious 6th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation. Earlier, the project emerged as the winner of the IV edition of BOLD Awards in the “Open Innovation” category. In 2024, the project emerged as the winner in the “Hackathons of Russia” award in two nominations: “Best International Hackathon” and “Best Online Hackathon”.

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