· 3 min read
DevFest | Essential Tips, Project Inspirations, and a Sneak Peek at the Prizes!
We outline essential tips for success at DevFest Florida 2025, which is structured as a hackathon and mini-conference focused on collaborative learning. Learn more about prizes and how to build a winning team wit diverse skills. We've also included data sets and project ideas.
What is DevFest Florida?
At DevFest Florida 2025, we’re running the event as hackathon learning experience and mini-conference.
What type of team should I bring to DevFest?
The Essence of a Great Hackathon Team
A hackathon is a marathon, and the team is the single most critical factor for both success and enjoyment. Team building transforms a solitary coding challenge into a dynamic, shared adventure that offers great opportunities for networking, learning, and fun.
The Ideal Team Composition
The most effective hackathon teams have diverse, complementary skill sets, balancing technical and non-technical talent:
- Frontend Developer: Makes the project beautiful and usable (skilled in UX/UI, React/Vue).
- Backend Developer: Handles the technical heavy lifting (proficient in databases, APIs, system architecture).
- Project Manager/Communicator: Keeps the team focused, manages time, and structures the final presentation.
- Concept Generator/Pitcher: Clearly articulates the problem, solution, and vision for the judges.
Find your team
Ready to build your ultimate hackathon team? Don’t wait! Join our official Discord community right now to start meeting fellow participants.
We’ve set up dedicated channels where you can introduce yourself, share your current skill set (e.g., “React pro looking for a backend wizard”), and discover others with complementary abilities. Closer to the hackathon date, we’ll open a specific Team Formation Channel to help you finalize your squad.
What can you build?
TLDR: Games, apps, tools, and anything you can imagine.
Projects should seamlessly integrate Innovation and Functionality while keeping User Experience (UX) front and center. To score highly, teams should focus on building a working product (prioritizing code over slides) that demonstrates Novelty and uniqueness and has clear Impact and Potential, whether as a practical solution, a game, or an art tool. Crucially, maximize your score by leveraging modern technology: every project should strive to incorporate a Google I/O concept or tool.
Looking for project ideas?
We’ve gathered project inspirations primarily focused on leveraging Google’s latest AI and Cloud technologies. Teams can use publicly available datasets from sources like Kaggle and Google Dataset Search. We’ve tried to gather project ideas for early stage devs and more robust challenges for the more experienced devs. We’re also excited to feature project ideas that will help build the Orlando Startup eco-system. ( Shout out to InnovateOrlando.IO for inspiration )
Buy a Ticket!What can we win?
As a community event that emphasizes learning, winners will obtain regional recognization/bragging rights as innovation solution builders. That will be huge!
To spice things up, we have added some friendly prizes to make the game a bit more interesting.
Two-Night Stay at Launchpad 226 — Your Space Coast Getaway
Relax, recharge, and explore Florida’s beautiful Space Coast with a two-night stay at Launchpad226.com! Just steps from the beach and minutes from the Cocoa Beach Pier and Port Canaveral, this modern coastal retreat offers everything you need for the perfect getaway—comfort, adventure, and a touch of rocket launch magic.
Valid April 15–December 15, 2026 | Subject to availability | Holidays excluded
Your beach adventure is ready for liftoff!
Buy a Ticket!
