Better Days: A Hackathon — San Francisco

VENUE IS 18+

Want to be a judge? Apply here, open till August 18th: https://forms.gle/mMP7PxkFbpQ6dZby8

We're heading to Japantown for a full day of building, brought to you by ClickHouse! :)

One day. Real problems. Real prizes. Pick a track, form a team of up to 5 (or go solo), and build something using ClickHouse + Postgres — OLAP and OLTP, like PB&J. This is an AI hackathon grounded in problems that affect everyday people: kids who can't read, adults who are lonely, a planet people want to help but don't know how. Build something someone would actually open on a hard day.

Partner engineers will be at the expert bar all day to help you move fast. Breakfast, lunch, and drinks are on us. We close the night with demos, judging, and dinner together.

Four tracks to build in

The reading crisis

Two-thirds of 4th graders read below grade level, and the kids furthest behind are falling fastest. Build the tool that helps a teacher spot who's quietly struggling, helps a student find the book they'll actually finish, or helps a library know what's working.

The loneliness epidemic

Half of American adults are lonely, and it's worse for the young. Build for the communities trying to hold people together: senior centers, campus groups, neighborhoods.

Climate action that's actually usable

People are worried and don't know what to do. Build the tool that replaces guilt with a clear next step, the rebate they didn't know existed, the local vote that actually cuts emissions, the neighborhood prep for the next heat wave. Not another carbon calculator.

Open track — your everyday crisis

Got a problem that keeps you up at night that isn't on this list? Bring it. Food access, caregiving, housing, mental health, if real people are struggling with it and a well-built tool could help, you're in the right place.

Prizes:

🥇 Grand prize — 1k in Cash, ClickHouse Cloud credits $500

🥈 Runner-up — $500 in Cash, ClickHouse cloud credits $300

⭐ Bonus category (Build with LibreChat) - $250 cash

🎉 Social raffle - Physical Gift, TBD

Schedule

9:30 am — Doors open + coffee

Check in, grab a drink, find your team

10:00 am — Kickoff

Rules, tracks, and tools walkthrough

10:15 am — Hacking begins

Expert bar open — ClickHouse engineers on-site all day

5:00 pm — Submissions close

Lock in your build

5:05 pm — Demos + presentations

Each team presents to judges, selected present to whole crowd

6:00 pm — Dinner + awards

Cash prizes, credits, and glory

About ClickHouse

ClickHouse is the open-source columnar database built for speed — the engine behind real-time analytics at massive scale. If you've ever needed answers from billions of rows in milliseconds, this is your tool.

📚 Get started on ClickHouse Github

💬 Join the ClickHouse Slack Channel

💜 We’re hiring, join our team!