Activate Your Voice Hackathon | 💬 Speechmatics x The AI Collective Paris
Building Conversational AI With Context and Memory
In 2026, the interface is no longer a screen, it is a conversation.
We're gathering 100 top engineers, founders, and visionary builders for a 24-hours hackathon to architect the future of conversational intelligence and neural dialogue.
🔥 Hackathon Mission
Create voice-based conversational systems that:
Take Intelligent Actions: Move beyond passive listening to proactive, meaningful engagement
Build Deep Memory: Develop systems that genuinely remember and learn from interactions
Adaptive Behavior Intelligence: Create AI that evolves and personalizes its approach over time
Continuous Improvement: Design voice experiences that get smarter with every conversation
From human-centric voice experiences to business automation workflows to developer tooling and platforms to personalized AI assistants, this hackathon is about going beyond temporary prototypes and making voice AI meaningful in the real world.
Selected hackers will enjoy free ChatGPT Pro / GPT‑5.3‑Codex and OpenAI credits for the build.
📍 Event Details
📅 Dates: February 28 – March 1
⏱️ Format: 24-hour Residency Hackathon
🕕 Start: Saturday, Feb 28 at 3:00 PM
🕔 End: Sunday, March 1 at 8:00 PM
📍 Venue: Builders Factory, 75017 Paris
👥 Participants: 100 max (teams of 3-6)
Food & drinks provided.
All participants must apply and be accepted individually.
Once accepted, you will have access to the portal and private chat to form teams.
🤝 Hosts & Partners
Organized by: Speechmatics & The AI Collective Paris
Co-hosted by: Builders Factory
Partners & Tooling:
Backboard.io
Open AI
Lovable
Builders Factory
API Days
Station F
Expect API credits, tooling access, and hands-on support from partners.
🏆 Awards & Prizes
🏆 3 winning teams (1 per track)
💰 Cash prizes up to €3,300 (€1,000 per track)
🎁 Tooling & API credits up to €80,000
Speechmatics - $3000 credits per winning team
Backboard - $100 credits per person per winning team
OpenAI - $1000API credits per winning team
💰 3 sponsor specific awards
Backboard - €300 special cash prize for 1 team
Speechmatics - Additional $3000 credits for 1 team
👑 1 year access to ChatGPT Pro per person per winning team
🏠 1 month access to Station F per person per winning team
🏠 Builders Factory - 50% off for 6 months of coworking
🤝 Recognition from industry leaders, VCs and the global AI Collective community
🚀 Career Opportunities
Confirmed job interviews for winning teams with:
Quicksort - AI engineers
Stairling - AI engineer, data engineer and dev with vibe coding skills
Speechmatics - Machine learning & software engineers
🧑⚖️ Judges
We’re excited to welcome experienced industry leaders to evaluate the projects:
Kartik Ahuja – Research Scientist @ Meta
Edgar – Developer Relations @ Speechmatics
Ekta Sengar – Product @ Atlassian
Tharsan - Lead AI @ PMU
Mohamed Ahmednah - Founder & CTO @ Quicksort
Sylvain CORDIER - CPTO @ Stairling
Salim Louanjli - Pre-Seed VC @ Campus Fund
Aliénor Dartiguenave - Director of AI products @Foundever
Robin Guignard-Perret - CEO @Tellers.ai - ex Snips & Sonos
Katrin Redmann - Head of Transformation @SAP
🚨 Tracks & Winners
The hackathon will feature 3 distinct tracks
Track details will be revealed 3 days before the hackathon with early demos & credits from our partners
7 teams maximum per track, first come first served
1 winning team per track + special sponsor prizes
🚨 🚨 Participants Reminder
👉 To confirm your spot, please fill out the form below by 25th, 11:59 PM. This helps us keep the hackathon limited to motivated, active builders who truly want to win.
Spots not confirmed will be released to the waitlist.
https://forms.gle/3M4jvVhDKXG4NDCZ9
👉 Join us on Discord and follow the Activate Your Voice category:
https://discord.gg/7UYe6BhBMs
👉 Follow us to stay updated on the agenda, tracks and announcements:
https://www.activateyourvoice.tech
🎯 Who should join
Engineers passionate about AI and voice technologies
Founders reimagining conversational interfaces
Researchers pushing the boundaries of machine learning
Innovators who believe AI can fundamentally improve human experiences
As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
The AI Collective is a global non-profit building the human layer for the AI age. We unite 150,000+ leaders, builders, and stakeholders across 100+ forums worldwide to democratize the frontier, build trust, and coordinate how society navigates the rapid acceleration of technological progress.
All attendees and organizers at events affiliated with The AI Collective agree to our privacy policy and are subject to our code of conduct.