Turning ideas into innovation: Inside Optimizely’s SaaS CMS hackathons 2024
From bold ideas to breakthrough solutions, Optimizely’s global hackathons brought together some of the brightest minds in tech to push the limits of our new SaaS CMS. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the projects that stole the spotlight and the teams that made them happen.
When the team at Optimizely first brainstormed the idea of a hackathon to celebrate the launch of our shiny new SaaS CMS, our vision was simple: gather a few eager developers, flex some creative muscles, build some cool stuff, and have a fun, friendly competition. 😎
To say we were absolutely blown away by the creativity and energy surrounding these submissions is an understatement. The projects developed weren’t just impressive — they were next level. Seeing the excitement from the tech community as they pushed boundaries and explored new possibilities with our SaaS CMS has been truly inspiring.
The top contenders got their moment to shine at four exciting hackathon events — in New York, Chicago, London, and a virtual showcase — where they demonstrated their creativity and technical prowess in front of our partner community.
Heads up: Some of the most exciting hackathon projects will be on display at Opticon San Antonio, offering a first-hand look at how creative teams can leverage SaaS CMS to solve real-world marketing challenges.
Interested in seeing these projects up close? Register now to join us at Opticon
A massive congrats to our global hackathon champs:
London — Consid
At Optimizely’s London hackathon, Consid wowed the crowd and took home first place with their innovative tool that turns humble PDFs into fully functional websites. Their AI-powered control panel seamlessly generated websites in Optimizely’s new SaaS CMS, complete with personalization and web experimentation features.
The frontend was powered by Vercel, and tools like Svelte, Astro, and Tailwind helped bring the project to life. Consid tackled a common pain point — managing website content — with a smart, streamlined solution that was both practical and innovative, showing just how powerful Optimizely’s SaaS CMS can be for building next-gen websites.
Chicago — BlueBolt & VML
In Chicago, BlueBolt presented a clever solution that blends Shopify’s ecommerce muscle with Optimizely’s content management magic. Their system makes it super easy for merchants to drop products right into content — perfect for content-heavy ecommerce sites.
Using Optimizely’s Visual Builder, marketers can whip up stunning pages that drive sales in no time, while features like Algolia-powered product search and AI-generated marketing copy make things run smoother than ever. They even threw in Optimizely Web Experimentation to test new ideas on the fly. This innovative blend of ecommerce and content management truly sets a new standard for how online stores can operate.
VML tied with BlueBolt as the standout winners of the Chicago hackathon, and for good reason. VML’s AI search accelerator was built with dealer brands in mind, but the concept can be applied across a whole bunch of industries. This tool lets users upload images to identify specific items — down to the part number — and show you where they’re available based on your zip code. It’s powered by image analysis and can help streamline searches for parts, tools, and a whole lot more.
New York – Valtech
Valtech brought their A-game to the New York hackathon. The team created an integration that links Vercel’s v0 tool, which uses machine learning to generate Next.js code, with Optimizely SaaS CMS. This setup lets creatives and developers easily request and create new content building blocks.
By combining AI, Vercel’s code generation capabilities, and Optimizely’s flexibility, users can quickly add and reuse Next.js elements, making dynamic content creation faster and simpler than ever.
Virtual hackathon – Rightpoint & Verndale
Rightpoint impressed with a feature that lets marketers easily import design images using AI, right inside Optimizely's SaaS CMS. This allows designers the flexibility to create new content directly from design files into SaaS CMS without the need of content authors. The additional feature in this project allows you to generate a brand-new image using OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 for image generation that can A/B test automatically on the newly created page.
See the feature in action
Verndale’s innovative idea focused on financial brands. Their tool combines advanced search with Optimizely's SaaS CMS to create a smooth, personalized user experience. Using AI, it quickly delivers the right content to the right people, making marketing campaigns faster and more targeted.
Hack to the future 🚀
From converting PDFs into dynamic websites to enhancing ecommerce with seamless product integration, these teams have demonstrated the versatility of our platform when combined with creativity and fresh ideas.
While the global hackathon may be over for the year, the ideas sparked here are just the beginning. We can’t wait to see how these groundbreaking projects evolve and continue to shape the digital experiences our customers can offer. Here’s to more boundary-pushing, problem-solving, and of course, plenty more fun in next year’s hackathons!
And finally, a big thank you to our fantastic sponsors who made it all happen — shoutout to Vercel, Coveo, Conductor, and Cheq.
