What happens when innovation meets collaboration, and great tech minds come together for 48 hours of creativity? You get the Bynder Hackathon, and Levi9 is proud to have been right in the middle of it.
This May, Levi9 had the pleasure of co-sponsoring the first truly global Bynder Hackathon, alongside AWS and Snowflake. Such a great combination of sponsors, eager to empower Bynder in the mission of the very first truly global hackathon, uniting participants across EMEA and the US.
With three teams joining from our Serbian Delivery centers, and levi niners participating as keynote speaker and jury member, this event showcased not just what we can build, but how we build it together.
The Challenge: Real Use Cases, Real Impact
Participants tackled four dynamic themes designed to push the boundaries of the Bynder platform:
- Structure Meets Scale: Empowering users by streamlining Bynder for ease of use
- Data Is Key: Automate and optimize workflows for more efficient DAM
- Hold The Extras: Reduce asset ingestion and improve storage efficiency.
There was also a theme called Bring Your Own Idea.
As Miroslav Radujko, Tech Lead from Levi9 put it, “These challenges mirrored Bynder’s real ambitions for the platform, but the freedom to bring our own ideas made it even more exciting.”
He enthusiastically mention: “My main impression is working live with great colleagues from the office! That is always a positive and good experience.”
Innovation, the AI Way
AI was everywhere.
From AWS Bedrock to ElevenLabs and Snowflake Cortex AI, participants embraced the tech of today to build the tools of tomorrow. It wasn’t just about fancy features, it was about solving real problems, improving usability, and making the platform smarter.
As levi niner Miroslav Radujko highlighted, the creativity and technical depth of all four Levi9-involved teams stood out, from award-winning AI tools to enhancements of features we originally helped build.
One standout? iPal, represented an AI tool for quick and aggregated insight into data with end goal of real-time monitoring during incidents on the Bynder platform. iPal took home the top prize, along with two Jury Badges, the AWS Favorite Sponsors Badge and The Audience Award, by presenting a simple solution useful also to non-technical people.
Another favorite? Meme Lord, a mixed team of levi niners and byndies, which turned Slack emoji search into an experience powered by semantic AI. They took home third place and Snowflake’s Sponsor Award, and had the most original, charming pitch by far.
“Also, I am very happy and satisfied with the participation of the remaining two teams, composed mostly of colleagues from Levi9, as well as their solutions – Create Custom Campaigns and Custom Links AI Powered suggestion tool. Both solutions offered improvements to the existing Custom Links feature, which was developed by the Levi9 team.
Create Custom Campaigns took home Jury Badge for Execution & Feasibility.” Miroslav shares.
The Levi9 Spirit
Levi9 teams didn’t just show up, they stood out. Three Levi9-led projects were part of the hackathon, and two focused on evolving a feature we originally helped develop: Custom Links.
- Create Custom Campaigns earned the Jury Badge for Execution & Feasibility
- Custom Links AI-Powered Suggestion Tool pushed personalization even further
As Jelena Milić, Delivery Manager, shared: “This hackathon was more than just coding — it was a chance to co-create, explore new tools, and make our partnership with Bynder even stronger.”
This hackathon was a win in many ways. “One of the tools we used, Cortex AI by Snowflake, helped us win the “Snowflake Choice Award,” which was a big highlight. Most of all, it inspired our teams and reminded us how fun and powerful tech can be when you work together.” Jelena says.
Knowledge in Action
Hackathons aren’t only about building, they’re about sharing.
Levi niner Kosta Stojakovic, Principal Architect, delivered a keynote talk titled “Embracing the AI Era by Engineers.” He brought insights from real Levi9 projects and showed how AI is already changing the way we work.
He talked about how AI is changing the way we work in tech – not just in theory, but in real life. He shared some trends we have seen at Levi9 and showed how we have been using AI tools in our day-to-day projects. This helped the audience see how AI can be used right now, not just in the future. Kosta’s goal was to inspire participants to be curious, think big and take the next step with tech and AI in their own work.
Key message from keynote session is “Explore, experiment, and lead the change.”
Collaboration, Not Just Integration
This hackathon wasn’t just about Levi9 building for Bynder, but it was about building with them. Two of our teams were fully mixed with Byndies. Our Delivery Director Vladan Vojimirović joined the jury, and our consultants helped teams refine and pitch their ideas. It was co-creation in its truest form.
As Mona Yamile, Agile Coach & Engineering Team Lead from Bynder said:
“Hackathon has been incredibly energizing. Seeing partners and Byndies collaborating side-by-side in person was a real highlight. The buzz of creative energy, the shared purpose, and the chance to build something impactful outside of day-to-day responsibilities was refreshing. It brought teams closer together and reminded us how much can be achieved in a short burst of focused collaboration.”
A Global, Human Experience
This wasn’t just another hackathon. It spanned offices from Barcelona and Rotterdam to Boston, brought together developers, designers, marketers, and product people, and welcomed anyone with a big idea and a willingness to build.
Mona share more details about results: “Each of the 16 submitted projects will be reviewed by a member of the R&D Leadership Team. Based on feasibility and impact, selected solutions may be developed further or integrated into our roadmap. Teams will receive monthly updates on their project status during P&E all-hands, ensuring visibility and momentum beyond the event itself.”
For Levi9, this event was everything we love about working with our clients: creative, collaborative, and forward-thinking. We’re proud to have contributed not only tech expertise, but energy, imagination, and team spirit.
And we’re already looking forward to the next one.
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