MACHathon Full Rules

1. Objectives of MACHathon

The MACH Alliance, a non-profit corporation founded in June 2020 with the goal to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape (further also referred to as organizer) is launching the MACHathon, a Digital MACHathon (= hackathon on MACH technology) event to be held exclusively online/remote via Bold Commerce website.

At this event, developers, designers and marketing experts will be asked to find digital solutions to the theme: Introducing Checkout Flows.

Participation in the MACHathon is free of charge.

2. Date and place for the event

This MACHathon is to be held exclusively online on the days of January 15, 2024 - March 9, 2024

MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce reserves the right to change the days, time and location of the event due to technical or organizational needs by announcing such changes on the event's official website, which is https://machalliance.org/events/Machathonboldcheckout

​​You must register your team for the event Here by February 9, 2024 11.59 pm CST. Teams not registered by the deadline will not be accepted.

3. Participants

The MACHathon is open to those who are interested in technology and innovation and have an interesting project or other ideas to develop within the scope of the challenges proposed (see section 5). The event is open to:

• Developers
• Designers
• Marketing Specialists
• Students

Participation in the MACHathon is open to teams aged 18 or older.

4. Requirements for acceptance and rules of participation

• Registering for the MACHathon is entirely free of charge. You can participate as part of a team or as an individual.
• Teams wishing to sign up for the MACHathon must complete the online registration form at Register Team Here indicating the personal details of the team captain. By signing up, each individual participant or team member accepts these official rules for the MACHathon.  Registrations are open until Friday, February 9, 2024, 11.59 pm CST
• A team wishing to register after the official registration is closed, can send an e-mail to [email protected] . The MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce reserves the right not to admit teams requesting participation after the registration closing date.
• The members of each team are to ensure that the personal information provided upon registration online is true and accurate and must unconditionally accept any and all decisions made by MACHathon organizers with regard to event organization.
• The admission of teams or individuals to the competition is on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Event participants may be members of just one team.
• Each team must be given a name as chosen by its members. Team names must not be connected in any way with the names of companies or registered trademarks or use expressions that incite violence or are discriminatory, obscene, or represent any form of defamation. Failure to comply will result in disqualification.
• If the information provided during online registration is found to be incomplete and/or inaccurate, even if related to just one team member, the entire team concerned will be excluded from the competition.
• The members of each team undertake not to present projects that have previously been submitted to other initiatives.
• Each team must submit their projects here. Failure to comply will result in disqualification.
• By accepting these Regulations and participating in the MACHathon, each participant undertakes, for the entire duration of the competition, to make use of any materials and equipment provided by MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce with the utmost care and diligence and to comply fully with the rules of conduct and safety established by MACH Alliance. Event participants will be held liable for any damage caused to people or property.
• MACHathon participants hereby acknowledge that event participation is free of charge and that participation does not entail any right to compensation of any kind or to reimbursement of any expenses incurred.

MACHathon participants hereby accept not to disclose any information which would be considered confidential information during the event to any person. These provisions will not apply to any information which has become publicly available other than through the breach of MACHathon participants, information lawfully possessed by the MACHathon participants before the disclosure hereunder, information obtained from a third party who is free to disclose it. The confidentiality obligation shall survive after the event.

5. Personal data

• During the registration for the MACHathon, the organizer will collect and process personal data (name, email address, company, job title) from each individual participant or team member which is necessary for the preparation, and implementation of the event.
• The personal information shall only be processed in accordance with the relevant local legislation, e.g. GDPR.
• The participant may request information about the personal data stored by the organizer at any time. In addition, the participant has the right to have incorrect personal data corrected, to have personal data blocked or deleted, provided as this does not conflict with any legal obligation to retain data. Questions regarding the collection, processing or use of personal data and requests for information, correction, blocking or deletion of personal data should be addressed to: [email protected].

6. Topics to be developed/covered

The topic to be addressed by the teams admitted throughout the duration of the competition is Introducing Checkout Flows. Checkout is a brand’s make or break moment. Brands pour resources into personalizing their customer journey, but often leave checkout untouched, leaving brands with an average cart abandonment rate of 70%. At Bold, we’re changing this by creating the Composable Checkout category. Composable checkout is a critical building block for brands, let’s be Bold together. The API-driven nature of MACH means as an industry, we can deliver critical business functions as fast as we can connect to an API. Teams should be developing checkout flows for brands focused on MACH philosophies.

Focused on checkout flows, we’re looking for entries that highlight a real challenge and show how developing innovative prototypes of tailored checkout flows focused on increasing conversion, AOV, and LTV. Example checkout flows will be provided to inspire ideas. Example checkout flows can be found here. Bold will fund a marketing campaign to showcase the winner’s prototypes. and show how this technology is the solution for driving growth, accomplishing something better or quicker than before, or serving people in better ways. Teams should ideally bring 360° knowledge from business, design, architecture, and development.

7. The panel of judges

Composition

The projects executed by the teams for the competition will be evaluated by a panel of expert judges, of which will be authoritative figures from the world of high-tech and innovation, both business and tech-savvy.

Judging

The winner of the MACHathon will be the team with the highest total scores in each of the criteria categories. In the event of a tie, subsequent votes will be held until the winning team has been selected.

The judging framework is defined as follows:

Please make sure to review the scoring framework so we can address any questions or unclarities in time for you.

When an evaluation scale is required, please use a 1 to 5 scale. Where:

• 1 is the lowest (e.g. very poor, strongly disagree)
• 3 is the midpoint (e.g. fair, undecided)
• 5 is the highest (e.g. excellent, strongly agree)

WINNER DETERMINATION

The winner will be determined by

In the event of a tie, the decision will be decided by a vote amongst the judges.  The judges’ decision will be final.  All decisions by the judges are final.

8. Prizes

The winning team will be announced at MACH Haus at Shoptalk or via social media in conjunction with Bold Commerce. The winning team will work with Bold Commerce on a marketing campaign including but not limited to, social media promotion, website landing page, email marketing, podcast campaign and potentially webinar, ebook, other marketing initiatives as determined by Bold Commerce.

9. Intellectual property rights, guarantees, and release of responsibility

By participating in the MACHathon and accepting these Rules, each participant hereby:

• Declares that each prototype or mock-up presented is an original work and in no way violates, in whole or in part, the intellectual or industrial property rights of others and releases MACH Alliance, Bold Commerce and its partners from any and all responsibility, liability, or request for compensation for damages that should be made by any third party;
• Acknowledges that each prototype or mock-up presented is the property of the team, which takes full responsibility for ensuring such rights of ownership, intellectual property and originality within the limits of the law (e.g. filing of patents and other such registrations as appropriate);
• Acknowledges that any publication by MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce of the prototype or mock-up on web sites or social media will result in the same being visible to the public and that MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce assumes no responsibility for any use and/or abuse of the idea and/or any development of the idea and/or related project by any party coming into contact with said idea online or on social media and hereby waives any right to demand compensation for damages from MACH Alliance for any reason.

10. Limitation of Liability

The organizer is always liable to the participant without limitation.

For damages caused to the participant by the organizer intentionally or through gross negligence,

• According to the Product Liability Act as well as in the case of non-compliance with a given guarantee, and
• For damages resulting from injury to life, body or health for which the organizer is responsible.

In all other cases, the liability of the organizer is excluded.

EVENT PARTICIPATION

11. REGISTRATION

Registration for participation in the MACHathon is to take place online by providing all necessary information using the information that can be found at https://machalliance.org/events/Machathonboldcheckout

Registrations will begin on January 15, 2024.

Any applications submitted with incomplete or inaccurate information will result in the team being disqualified from participation in the MACHathon. MACH Alliance and/or Bold Commerce rulings in this regard are final.

Registration does not ensure participation in the MACHathon.

12. CONFIRMATION OF PARTICIPATION

The teams or individuals selected in accordance with the General Regulations above will receive official confirmation of their acceptance to the MACHathon sent to the e-mail address provided at the time of registration.

Upon confirmation of the registration, the team will be provided with details on how to access the Bold Commerce development tools to begin creating their

13. MACHATHON: THE EVENT

13.1 The competition

The MACHathon will begin on January 15, 2024, with an announcement at MACH Haus at NRF 2024, and will come to a close on March 18, 2024 with an announcement at MACH Haus at Shoptalk 2024 in Las Vegas or via social media by Bold Commerce on March 18, 2024

The competition will commence on January 15, 2024, and prototypes, mock-ups and any supporting information are to be submitted no later than 11:59 pm CST on March 4, 2024, here (https://form.jotform.com/sriddell/final-submission-checkout-machathon).

At the end of the competition phase, each team must provide the output of their efforts in accordance with the instructions provided by MACH Alliance and Bold Commerce. A 3-minute video is mandatory. Other additional documentation can be handed in but will remain optional for the judges to look at.  Submissions for all documentation must be provided here: https://form.jotform.com/sriddell/final-submission-checkout-machathon

Each participant must provide their own computer or another device for the design and development of the project.

13.2 Presentation of the product

At the end of the hackathon, each team will submit their work for evaluation by the judges, in accordance with the submission requirements..

13.3 Project evaluation and selection of winners

The judges will evaluate all of the works provided by the team in accordance with the following submission requirements:

• 3 - 5 minute video of the solution.  It is up to the team to determine how simple or elaborate the video
  • Note: it is the solution that will be judged not the video production
• Presentation which includes all the technologies being leveraged in the checkout flow
  • Note: this presentation should contain all the information needed for the judges to fully evaluate the solution and should contain, but is not limited to:
    • Problem Statement
    • Solution details
    • Technologies leveraged
    • Architecture
    • Why this is innovative and different
    • Implementation overview
• Architectural diagram
• Live URL or any other way your project can be accessed

All of the projects handed in, regardless of ranking, will be analyzed again by the competent areas of MACH Alliance to determine their feasibility and how well they are aligned with MACH Alliance strategies. Should the MACH Alliance then be interested in further developing a project presented during the MACHathon, the related team may be contacted for more information and to discuss potential forms of collaboration.

14. FINAL COMMENTS

Participation in the MACHathon is subject to observance of the regulations established in these Rules, which all participants have accepted upon submitting their applications, and to authorizing MACH Alliance to handle personal data and to make use of video and other images produced during the event by participants and MACH Alliance representatives.

Participants who fail to comply with the provisions of these Rules will be removed from the event, as will those who hinder and/or seek to compromise the proper functioning of the judging process or the outcome of the event as a whole by way of fraudulent or other prohibited conduct.

These Regulations apply solely to participants of the MACHathon to be held online from January 15, 2025 - March 18, 2024.

In addition to the above, participants undertake to observe the following simple rules of conduct:

• Respect the other participants;
• Do not use expressions that incite violence or forms of discrimination, obscenity, or defamation;
• Avoid content that is offensive, vulgar, defamatory, or that violates privacy or is otherwise against applicable law, as well as advertising content or content that concerns political or religious views or other such ideologies;
• Avoid developing applications that are clearly off topic compared to the assigned challenge;
• Do not violate copyrights, trademarks, or other such rights;
• Observe data-protection legislation;
• Do not receive outside assistance by way of e-mail or other forms of messaging.

15. Severability

Should a provision of these Rules be or become invalid or contain an unintentional gap, the validity of the other provisions shall not be affected thereby. In place of the invalid provision or to fill the unintentional gap, a legally valid provision shall apply which corresponds as closely as possible to the purpose of these Rules.

16. Governing Law

These Rules and the legal relations created hereunder will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Canada and the United States.

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