AWS x EDC Hackathon

Clients: Amazon Web Services, Insomniac / EDC
Project: Live Hackathon Integration into Festival Experience
Role: Digital Marketing & Engagement Strategy (via Your EDM)
Timeline: Spring 2018
Focus Areas: Experiential Activation, Product Innovation, Audience Voting Systems, Digital-Physical Integration

The Brief

In an unprecedented fusion of technology and music culture, Your EDM partnered with Amazon Web Services and EDC Las Vegas to produce a live Hackathon inside the festival. The goal: harness bleeding-edge AWS tools—including unreleased deep learning APIs—to inspire on-site innovation that could elevate the live music experience.

Strategic Objectives

• Create a fully immersive, tech-forward experience embedded in a music festival setting.

• Facilitate collaboration between developers, creatives, and technologists.

• Capture attention and engagement across both in-person attendees and the global online audience.

• Validate product ideas through real-time user feedback and voting.

Key Activations

1. Developer-Driven Innovation Inside a Festival

• 140 participants were given access to AWS’s latest AI, AR, and data tools.

• Projects ranged from virtual assistants that guide on-site navigation to real-time AR integrations layered over performance stages.

2. Onsite Mentorship + Expert Judging

• Engineers from AWS, strategists from Insomniac, and product leaders from Ticketmaster mentored and judged submissions.

• Created a credible product incubation environment while retaining festival energy.

3. Cross-Channel Digital Voting Experience

• Designed and executed a dual-channel voting platform where both festivalgoers and global fans could weigh in.

• Enabled democratic evaluation and added a layer of audience interaction beyond the stage.

4. Digital Promotion & Media Execution

• Your EDM led end-to-end campaign strategy and execution, driving over 5 million impressions via social, editorial, and influencer amplification.

• Integrated rich visuals and narrative storytelling to elevate perception of the Hackathon beyond a tech niche.

Results & Outcomes

• 5M+ impressions with significant user voting activity and time-on-page metrics.

• 4 projects received follow-on funding to move toward MVP development.

• Produced market proof that live events can be innovation labs—not just entertainment.

• Data from engagement trends revealed early signals of product-market resonance within the Gen Z festival demographic.

Key Learnings

• “Innovation sells when it’s participatory.” Inviting audiences into the process—both in-person and digitally—doubled engagement.

• Embedding tech in culture (not the other way around) creates more authentic brand equity.

• Voting data didn’t just fuel winners—it revealed unmet user needs and product whitespace.