Elnora & EFS AI Hackathon — Build Day
Your hackathon ticket includes both pre-hackathon workshops, Workshop 1 (June 8) and Workshop 2 (June 10), and Build Day (June 12). Get your hackathon ticket here and register separately for individual workshops (included in hackathon ticket price).
The hackathon
Build Day is a full-day in-person hackathon in Tallinn for working professionals from Estonian companies. From 08:30 to 20:30 you work in a team of five with people from different companies and different functions (engineers, product, design, sales, marketing, ops, executives) to build a working AI agent for a real business challenge.
Around 50 participants. 10 teams. Three tracks, each one a real business challenge from the Track Sponsor. You choose the track in the morning together with your new team.
Teams are mixed across companies and roles on purpose. The most useful projects in a hackathon come out of combinations of people who do not normally work in the same room, so if you arrive with colleagues from your own company you should expect to be split up.
Who this is for
EFS members building the next generation of Estonian companies
Executives, CTOs, VPs, and heads of product or engineering at Estonian companies leading AI adoption in their organisation
Teams from sponsoring companies
Government and public-sector leaders working on national AI initiatives and Estonia's startup ecosystem
What you'll actually do on the day
You'll start the morning by joining a team and picking your track. The rest of the day is hands-on building with your team.
At the end of the day your team submits a pre-recorded demo and presents what you've built on stage.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks are included in the ticket.
Agenda
08:30 — Check-in and breakfast
09:00 — Quick recap and setup verification
09:15 — Toolset power-up: plugins, skills, MCP servers, starter repos
10:00 — Challenge briefing and team formation
10:30 — Build session 1
12:30 — Lunch and mentor checkpoint 1
13:15 — Build session 2
15:15 — Break and mentor checkpoint 2
15:45 — Build session 3
17:00 — Final submission: pre-recorded demo
17:15 — Pitch prep
17:45 — Open demo round at the tables
18:15 — Stage presentations: 3 min demo, 2 min pitch, 1 min Q&A per team
19:15 — Judging and awards
19:30 — Networking and drinks
20:30 — Official end
You leave with
Practical, applied skills with AI agents, prompting, MCP servers, and CLI tools, ready to use back at your company.
New people to call from across the Estonian startup and corporate scene.
A working AI agent your team built in a day for a real business problem.
A three-minute recorded demo of what your team built.
Prerequisites
Your employer's approval to use AI coding agents at work.
A paid Claude Code or Codex subscription from your employer. We strongly recommend Claude Code, but Codex works as an alternative. We do not provide any coding agent subscriptions.
A computer where you have admin rights and can freely install programs. Personal or company-owned is fine, but please verify before you come that you can use the terminal and install software. Company-managed laptops with IT restrictions will block you.
Enough free disk space. If your laptop is at 99% capacity already, clear some space first.
A GitHub account. Your company should have a GitHub account and you should have been invited to join their org. Log in and verify before you come.
A password manager. Bitwarden, 1Password, or whatever your company uses. You will be storing API keys and credentials.
If you have not set up Claude Code or Codex yet, Workshop 2 on Wednesday June 10 walks through the full setup.
Format
In person in Tallinn. Bring your laptop, charger, Claude Code or Codex subscription, and GitHub account.
Mentors
Carmen Kivisild — Scientist by training, now CEO and founder of Elnora AI. In 5 months went from never having written a line of code to building tens of agents that run her entire company. With a forward-deployed model she now trains founders and executives to do the same. She has trained tens of scientists to adopt AI agents in biomedical labs and run hackathons and workshops across the US. Companies she has worked with see 75%+ agent adoption across their teams.
Risto Jamul — CTO of Elnora AI. Coaches teams alongside Carmen throughout Build Day and handles the deep technical questions.
The full series
Mon May 18, 15:00–16:00 — Sponsor Briefing
Mon Jun 8, 14:00–16:00 — Workshop 1 — AI Agents: What's Actually Possible
Wed Jun 10, 14:00–16:00 — Workshop 2 — Setup (hands-on, bring your laptop)
Fri Jun 12, 08:30–20:30 — Hackathon — Build Day (this event)
Organisers
Elnora AI and Estonian Founders Society.
Tickets
One pass covers both pre-hackathon workshops (Workshop 1, Workshop 2) and Build Day.
Early Bird until June 1: 449 EUR
EFS Members: 299 EUR
Full after June 1: 499 EUR
All prices include VAT. Capacity 50 in person.
Sponsoring
Sponsoring companies receive complimentary seats as part of their tier. If your company is interested, email [email protected] or join the Sponsor Briefing on May 18.