This Saturday, October 31, Media Party Buenos Aires 2026 closes with its hackathon. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., interdisciplinary teams will build working AI prototypes at Ciudad Cultural Konex (Sarmiento 3131, Buenos Aires). The theme is “Storytelling in the age of agents.” Participation is free, but spots are limited, so register now.
The first two days brought keynotes, workshops, sandboxes and lightning talks. Now, the third day is all about building. This year, teams will design tools that make stories stronger while keeping human editorial judgment. This matters because AI agents can already write stories on their own.
How the day works
The official hackathon page explains that the day follows three stages:
- Idea pitches. First, participants present their ideas during the opening hour. This way, they can find shared challenges, recruit talent and form teams. Companies and institutions can also give a two-minute reverse pitch about a real industry problem. Then, teams decide whether to take it on.
- Teamwork. Next, developers, journalists, designers and entrepreneurs build their prototypes together. Mentors in AI, business models and information integrity support them throughout the day.
- Final pitches. Finally, each team presents its solution to an international jury and the audience.
One rule is key: the jury will only evaluate projects that teams build from scratch on October 31. For this reason, organizers will not accept existing products or commercial prototypes. However, teams can use open-source libraries, frameworks and public APIs, as long as they respect the licenses.
The four tracks
The organizers want projects that explore agentic workflows. In addition, projects should plan for financial sustainability from day one. There are four tracks:
- SaaS for newsrooms: tools that automate repetitive research, editing and distribution tasks.
- B2B integrity tools: platforms for verification, source tracing and deepfake detection.
- Open licenses with added value: open-source prototypes with managed services or enterprise support.
- Community monetization platforms: new ways for independent media to fund themselves.
The jury and evaluation criteria
The international jury brings together experts from leading organizations. Among them are The Guardian, Pulitzer Center, Fund.ar, Google News Initiative, IFPIM, Luminate, MDIF and North Base Media.
The jury will score each project on four criteria: technical quality, narrative innovation, information traceability and integrity, and commercial viability.
What teams take home
Each team keeps full ownership of everything it builds during the day. In other words, Media Party, mentors and sponsors get no rights over the projects.
Moreover, the best prototypes will earn a direct acceleration pass to shape their business model. Projects that grow into startups will also get priority access to the Media Party Investment Club. This space connects pre-seed and seed startups with international investment funds in one-on-one meetings.
Previous editions: New York and Barcelona
Buenos Aires is Media Party’s third stop this year. Before it, New York and Barcelona hosted hackathons, and their winners show what these sessions can produce.
In New York, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation hosted Media Party from May 8 to 10. There, Citizen Journalism Network (CJN) won the six-hour hackathon. This community platform uses AI to group local reports in real time. As a result, journalists get a clearer picture of what matters to each community. The team also earned three months of mentorship with the Brown Institute. The runners-up were SafeSense, a secure document analysis tool for investigative teams, and Wikinews Pulse, a news portal built on Wikipedia and Wikidata.
Meanwhile, Media Party held its first European edition in Barcelona. On September 9, it added a hackathon at BIT Habitat, with Cloudflare as official sponsor. AIdas (AI Drift & Alignment Scanner) took the top prize. This tool compares how different language models answer the same questions. That way, it detects bias on politically contested topics. Three other projects reached the final. ESCUCHA is a voice agent that talks with users to learn their information needs. Meta-Discovery API for Agents helps AI agents find publisher content. Finally, FACTHELP helps fact-checking teams search and filter results.
You don’t need to code
Above all, the hackathon is not just for developers. Journalism, design, strategy and business skills matter as much as code. In fact, teams with diverse profiles often go the furthest. If you don’t have your own idea, you can join a project during the opening pitches. For more details, check the Media Party Buenos Aires 2026 FAQ.
How to register
To take part, you need a separate hackathon registration on Eventbrite, apart from general admission. Once your team is ready, register its members on the 2026 HackDash. You can read the full rules on the official hackathon page.
Tomorrow, Saturday, October 31, the future of media gets built at Ciudad Cultural Konex, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Save your spot here.
