Reboot Leeds Hackathon 2025: Innovate for Impact

Get ready to kick off Leeds Digital Festival 2025 with purpose, creativity, and collaboration at the Reboot Leeds Hackathon - a one-day innovation sprint designed to bring together the brightest minds from across West Yorkshire’s tech and business communities.

Taking place at Lloyds Banking Group’s Wellington Place offices in Leeds, this high-energy event invites teams of six from local companies to tackle a real-world social challenge and build a working prototype - all in just one business day. Whether you're a developer, designer, strategist, or storyteller, this is your chance to make a difference while showcasing your team’s talent.

Applications are now open to company teams based in West Yorkshire. Successful applicants will be notified at the start of September. We encourage teams to bring a diverse mix of skills - from coding and UX to data, product, and comms - to maximise creativity and impact.

The challenge theme will be revealed in advance, giving teams time to think, plan, and dream big. On the day, you’ll have access to HackathonParty’s collaboration platform, fast Wi-Fi, and full catering to keep the ideas (and energy) flowing. You’re free to use any technologies you like - just remember, any services used are at your own cost, and all submissions must be made via the HackathonParty platform.

This year’s Reboot Hackathon is hosted in partnership with Burendo and HackathonParty, and promises a fun, inclusive, and fast-paced environment where innovation thrives. Whether you’re in it to win the top prize, build something meaningful, or simply connect with peers across the region, this is your moment to shine.

So, gather your team, bring your A-game, and let’s reboot what’s possible - together.

Time & Date: 8.30am to 6pm Monday 22nd September 2025
Location: Lloyds Banking Group, 12 Wellington Place, Leeds LS1 4AP
Team Size: Strictly teams of 6 people
Goal: Build a working prototype to address a social issue
Prize: Yes! There will be a prize for the winning idea
Catering: Provided – also join us for celebrations after the event
Tech: Your choice - just bring your tools and creativity

About Lloyds Banking Group: Lloyds Banking Group is the UK’s largest digital bank with 28 million customers, 22 million of whom are digitally active. Our aim is to become the UK’s largest FinTech, offering our customers hyper-personalised services and seamless experiences on their device and channel of choice. We’re investing over £4bn in our people, processes, technology and data to make this happen. It’s the largest digital transformation in our sector, and we’re taking an iterative approach to help us move even faster. We produce the No Ordinary Tech Podcast, which topped the Tech Podcast charts in 2024.

About Burendo: Burendo is a progressive technology and business consultancy based in West Yorkshire and London. We bring brilliant minds together to help clients solve their biggest business challenges. We specialise in delivering straightforward solutions to complex problems, and our end-to-end capabilities cover everything needed to design, build, and run business-critical systems. As trusted delivery partners, we work collaboratively with clients to add value seamlessly, building long-term relationships. Our team thrives on solving tough problems and contributing to our culture of learning and innovation. We're actively involved in our local tech communities and are passionate about sharing knowledge and learning from others.

The hackathon challenge: Community Commerce Connector

The goal is to strengthen the fabric of Leeds’ business ecosystem by building stronger connections and communication channels. Design a tool, application or service that helps local suppliers, service providers, and customers find and connect more easily for mutual benefit. Whether it’s a matchmaking engine for B2B partnerships or a shared marketplace for community needs, the aim will be to further stimulate the local business economy.