How KONE Uses Hackathons to Find Innovation Partners and Create Smart Solutions
Hackathons have become a launchpad for real innovation in business. Few companies show this better than KONE, a leader in the smart building sector. Through targeted hackathons, KONE identifies new partners, solves practical challenges, and brings fresh solutions to market faster than traditional R&D paths allow. This blog post covers KONE’s approach to organizing impactful hackathons, the strategies that work, and what you can learn from their real-world results.
KONE’s story proves hackathons aren’t just short coding events. Done right, they open doors to powerful collaborations—especially for companies with big ambitions but limited resources. If you’re considering ways to organize a hackathon for your own business or seeking an agency to manage your next event, read on for best practices and proven strategies.
The Role of Hackathons in Innovation at KONE
KONE sees hackathons as more than just a sprint for coders. For them, each event is about targeting specific challenges and tapping into ideas beyond their own workforce. Organizing events around real business needs ensures every hackathon delivers value.
Why Hackathons Matter to KONE
KONE often frames hackathons around current technical or customer problems. By doing this, they attract talent that’s not just skilled— but motivated by a clear purpose. The result: solutions that are both original and ready to meet real business goals.
Because technology changes so quickly, KONE recognizes they can’t do everything in house. It’s simply not possible for one company to build every digital tool or platform from scratch. That’s why they see hackathons as a way to:
- Identify innovative partners—including startups with game-changing tech
- Move faster by bringing fresh solutions to market
- Spark creative collaboration with customers through co-hosted events
Joint hackathons with customers let everyone at the table help shape solutions. This not only builds trust, it also means the outcome fits actual needs.
By working side by side with potential partners, KONE uncovers paths for integration—combining a startup’s product with KONE’s larger offering or opening doors for further collaboration.
If you want an idea of how hackathons fit into the broader landscape, visiting Hackathon.com gives a sense of just how many organizations now see these events as a core innovation activity.
Key Benefits for KONE
- Access to startup innovation: New solutions arrive from outside the traditional R&D pipeline.
- Collaborative problem solving: Shared events with customers lead to solutions everyone embraces.
- Faster time-to-market: The best hackathon ideas get evaluated and, when promising, quickly connected to business initiatives.
KONE’s experience proves that when you organize a hackathon shaped by real business needs, results can be surprising—in the best way.
Organizing Effective Hackathons: Key Considerations
To get the most from every event, KONE plans each hackathon carefully. The company knows successful outcomes don’t just happen. You need clarity about what you want, who you want to join, and what happens after the event ends.
Planning Around Specific Challenges
The first step is simple but easy to skip: decide what problems the hackathon will tackle. Instead of running generic coding events, KONE targets their hackathons toward challenges that matter most to their business, customers, or strategic partners.
When you organize a hackathon with a focus—such as accessibility, smart building features, or user experience—you attract people who care about those issues and have ideas about them.
Choosing the Right Participants
Who you invite shapes the entire event. KONE recommends thinking carefully about your goal:
- If you want to recruit talent, design your event to appeal to job-seekers.
- If you’re seeking technical partners for your business, invite startups, independent developers, and specialists in relevant fields.
- If your aim is to build stronger ties with existing clients or customers, co-host the event and let their voices guide the process.
Types of Participants and Their Goals:
- Recruitment-driven participants: Candidates for open positions, students looking to break in.
- Partnership seekers: Startups, tech vendors, or agencies with innovative products.
- Customers/collaborators: Key accounts or new customers open to co-creating solutions.
Steps to Attract the Right Participants
- Publicize your hackathon in communities aligned with your goals (startup groups, dev forums, customer portals).
- Use targeted messaging in your invitation to show what’s unique about your event.
- Clearly outline what’s in it for the participants—be it cash prizes, partnership opportunities, or a path to collaboration.
For a step-by-step rundown on getting your own event off the ground, check out Hackathon.com’s practical guide to organizing a hackathon.
Looking for a broader take? The complete guide to organizing a successful hackathon offers more on choosing themes and structuring your hackathon for impact.
Setting Up Efficient Processes
Behind the scenes, KONE puts effort into logistics, scheduling, and support systems to keep the event running smooth—so participants can focus on solving problems, not paperwork.
For more tips, explore these hackathon best practices to help you avoid common pitfalls and get the best results.
Real-World Success Story: Collaborating for Accessibility Solutions
Sometimes a single hackathon project takes on a life of its own—and changes everything for both corporate and partner.
One standout example from KONE involved a hackathon focused on helping blind and visually impaired people access smart buildings more safely and easily. During this event, a company pitched a working solution for accessibility, and the collaboration didn’t end when the hackathon closed.
The idea caught everyone’s attention. KONE saw clear value and began working directly with the team behind the accessibility solution. What started as a 24 or 48-hour sprint turned into an ongoing partnership, with both sides combining resources to move toward a public launch.
"Since the hackathon, we have been working together—it’s going great and we hope to bring something new to the public soon."
A Timeline from Hackathon to Product Development:
- The accessibility challenge is posed at the hackathon.
- Startup team develops a working prototype.
- Early collaboration begins during the event.
- Post-hackathon, partnership deepens for further development.
- The combined team aims for a future public release.
This story shines as a reminder: hackathons aren’t just temporary events. When you connect the right people to important problems, new business ideas can take root and grow. Strategic follow-up means those ideas don’t end up forgotten—they evolve into solutions that serve customers in real life.
For more examples of how other innovation leaders approach hackathons in the corporate world, Hackathon.com often highlights similar hackathon event details.
Post-Hackathon Strategy: Turning Ideas into Reality
Organizing a great hackathon is only half the battle. What separates winning companies from the rest is what happens after the event concludes.
Why Post-Event Planning Matters
Startups, in particular, face resource and time challenges. KONE realized that even the best partnerships won’t last without a clear, efficient route forward. If you want results, you need to plan out how top ideas get reviewed, refined, and implemented.
The real test of a hackathon’s success is if you can transform ideas into finished products.
What to Do After a Hackathon
Here’s a practical post-event checklist based on KONE’s experience:
- Track winning and promising projects: Don’t let top ideas vanish in the shuffle. Assign staff to follow up quickly.
- Offer resources and support: Startups need tools, funding, and sometimes guidance. Make sure there’s a plan to provide what’s needed.
- Maintain regular communication: Keep all partners updated on next steps.
- Design a phased development process: Break the project into manageable steps, so even companies with limited resources can keep momentum.
- Plan for joint development: Collaborate closely with external teams to adapt ideas for real use.
Continued collaboration is crucial. When both sides invest time after the hackathon, the chances for real innovation multiply.
Looking to deepen your strategy? Review these detailed hackathon best practices for taking post-event ideas to the finish line.
The Growing Ecosystem: Smart Buildings and Digital Innovation
The market for smart buildings is exploding. Digital technologies like IoT, AI, and custom apps turn ordinary structures into responsive, intelligent environments.
KONE has a front-row seat for these changes, but even industry leaders know they can't invent everything themselves. Rapid digital innovation means the smartest companies work with outside experts—and hackathons are a fast, proven way to connect with them.
Industry Trends That Drive Hackathon Collaboration
- Integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in buildings
- Growing need for accessibility technology
- Increased importance of smart, connected building management
- Demand for personalized, user-friendly solutions
Because so many trends move at once, no single company can keep up alone. KONE’s solution is to build an ecosystem of partners, many discovered through curated hackathon events.
If you want to be part of this innovation community, take a look at the global network and resources at Hackathon.com.
For insider advice on getting your own event started, see in-depth access instructions for organizing a hackathon.
Conclusion
KONE’s approach to hackathons shows how much you can do when you match business priorities with external talent. With careful planning, these events can solve pressing problems, connect companies to brilliant partners, and even spark products that change lives.
If you’re looking to organize a hackathon for your business or want expert help, KONE’s story offers a clear road map: focus on the issues that matter, pick participants carefully, and put a real plan in place for what happens after the big day. That’s how to drive innovation in today’s connected world.
For a step-by-step guide and best practices, check out this guide to organizing a hackathon. If you want to get inspired by real success stories or learn more about navigating a hackathon event, visit the Hackathon event participation guide.
Looking to run a world-class event and see real business value from your next hackathon? Now is the perfect time to get started.
