Spring Release 2026

Delivering a World-Class Hackathon Experience

This release introduces enhancements across every stage of the innovation lifecycle — structured intentionally so teams can plan, launch, run, evaluate, and scale programs with confidence. The release blog details the holistic Hackathon6 solution. See below for all net new features. 

Hackathon Feature Updates

• Unified Hackathon Microsite — A modernized single experience for both administrators and participants, simplifying navigation and reducing the need to switch between interfaces. 
• Automatic Local Time Detection — Enables seamless coordination of multi-location hackathons by automatically displaying event schedules in each participant’s local time zone. Note: an additional license type may be required to enable. 
• Enhanced Participant Discovery — Updated participant directory with improved filtering capabilities to help users find teammates based on skills, experience, and other profile attributes. 
• Pre-Event Launch Page — Configurable pre-launch page allowing organizers to publish custom branding, messaging, and event details before the hackathon officially begins. 
• Improved Participant Onboarding — Updated guided onboarding experience to help participants quickly understand event structure, expectations, and next steps. 
• Intelligent Team Formation — New team creation workflows that support expertise-based matching and allow organizers to track team history directly within record views. 
• Flexible Team Configuration — Administrators can now define minimum and maximum team sizes, with Rules Engine automation available to enforce participation requirements. 
• Scheduled Communications via Event Scheduler — Organizers can automate participant communications using scheduled messaging to support engagement throughout the event lifecycle.
• Expanded Video Support — Enhanced capabilities for uploading, hosting, and viewing video submissions within hackathon records.

Additional Platform Improvements

Alongside our Hackathon enhancements, this release includes several core platform improvements to enhance usability, performance, and operational efficiency across Brightidea.

• Find Owner Capability — Quickly identify the owner of any application to improve governance and program visibility. 
• “Still in Step” Filter for Action Item Manager — New filter option to help administrators track outstanding workflow steps and identify items requiring attention. 
• Comment Data in Exports — Added comment-type fields to exports to enable a more complete analysis of collaboration and activity outside the platform. 
• Improved Upload Infrastructure — All upload fields now use a faster, more reliable backend storage system for improved performance and stability. 
• Access Group Load Balancing — Enhanced system performance for large deployments through load balancing across user access groups. 

• Mobile App Improvements — Updates to the login experience and general UI enhancements for improved usability on mobile devices.