Slovakia
Bratislava
Node confirmed
[IMPH-27] International Missing Person Hackathon
The search doesn't stop at the border.
Spend a day working real missing person cases with teams in other cities, for the agencies that asked for help.
Collection opens
April 2027
Exact dates to be confirmed
The operation runs in April 2027. The exact dates are to be confirmed.
4 nodes confirmed
Intelligence collection, crowdsourced.
Teams gather information from public sources, and a case manager checks everything that comes in. What holds up goes into a report for the agency that asked for help.
Collect
From publicly available sources
Teams gather what's publicly available about the case, and every item goes in with its source attached.
Triage
Verify the sources
A case manager checks each item against what the investigators already know. Most of it doesn't hold up.
Produce
An intelligence report
What holds up goes into a report, every claim traced to its source, for the agency that asked for help.
You don't need any experience. We train you on the morning, and a case manager checks everything before it counts.
The cases cross borders. So do we.
Four cities are confirmed so far. Each one takes remote analysts as well as people in the room, so you can join from any of them or from home. Either way, you work with the same case managers as everyone else.
Australia
Canberra
Node confirmed
United Kingdom
London
Node confirmed
Moldova
Chișinău
Node confirmed
You don't need to live near one of these cities. Remote teams work the same cases with the same case managers.
Nine in the morning, wherever you are.
Every city starts at nine in its own time zone, so nobody has to be up at 3am. Your day looks just like Bratislava's.
Between them, the four confirmed cities cover up to 17 hours of the day, so work handed over at dusk in one city is picked up over breakfast in another.
- Open
Briefing
Case managers walk everyone through their cases. Each team picks one and hears what's already known.
- First hour
Collection opens
Teams start submitting what they find. Every submission records its source, what kind of information it is, and where it stands.
- Mid-day
First review
Case managers go through what's come in. Teams quickly learn which leads hold up against the case file.
- Last hours
Writing the report
Teams stop collecting and start writing. Sources are cited as they go, so every point in the report can be traced back.
- Close
Handover
Reports are closed, scored and sent to the investigating agency, with every source attached.
Opens
April 2027, exact dates to be confirmed
Runs for
Six to eight hours, from 09:00 local
-
Bratislava
09:00 local · 07:00 UTC
-
Canberra
09:00 local · 23:00 UTC
-
London
09:00 local · 08:00 UTC
-
Chișinău
09:00 local · 06:00 UTC
Four host nodes, one day 17 hours, first open to last close
00:00 06:00 12:00
17 hours
Bratislava SK
Canberra AU
London GB
Chișinău MD
Dates to be confirmed Drawn at eight hours, the longest the day will run
Times shown for UTC
Six to eight hours, in your own time zone. Sign up now and you'll hear first when tickets go on sale.
Put your city on the map.
A node is just a room and someone to run it. Newrali brings the cases, the case managers and the platform.
- A room
- Tables, power and a reliable connection. Room for twenty people is enough.
- A coordinator
- Someone in the room all day who runs the local briefing.
- A local sponsor
- An organisation that will vouch for you, like a university, a professional body or an investigative unit.
No fee to host. Sixteen weeks from your first email to the day.
- Platform
- The hackathon runs on Newrali, the intelligence management platform. Collection, verification and handover all happen in one place.
- Format
- Newrali pioneered this format at the 2024 Missing Persons Hackathon, and looks after it today.
- Module
- Every node works inside Newrali Special Operations, the part of the platform built for crowdsourced work like this.
Before you sign up.
01 Do I need investigative experience?
No. Most people who come don't have any. We train you on the morning, and a case manager checks everything before it counts, so a beginner can't do any damage.
02 Are these real cases?
Yes, every one. They come from investigating agencies and families who asked for help, and we prepare each case with the agency before the day.
03 What happens to the work afterwards?
Your team's report goes straight to the investigating agency, with every source attached. In 2024, the reports on all six cases went to State and Territory police.
04 Do I have to travel to a host city?
No. Remote teams work the same cases with the same case managers. A node just gives you a room and a local briefing. If you'd like to run one yourself, host a node.
05 Can I contact people connected to a case?
No, never, and that goes for everyone. No families, no witnesses, nobody connected to a case. The code of conduct is short, and we enforce it.
06 Who runs this?
Newrali does. We organise the event, prepare the cases with the agencies, and build the platform it runs on. It began in 2024 as Australia's National Missing Persons Hackathon, organised by Cygenus with Newrali as the platform. Newrali now looks after the community, the brand and the event. You can read the full story of 2024.
07 What does it cost?
You buy a ticket. The money covers the infrastructure, the venues and the communications, and some of it goes towards future events.
A day of your time. A case that has waited years.
Tickets aren't on sale yet. Leave your email and the role you'd like, and you'll be the first to know when they are. Until then, we'll send you updates on the cases and on host cities as they confirm.
Signing up doesn't reserve a place. Tickets come once the dates are set, and we only use your address to keep you posted. How the list works.
Organised and run by Newrali
Not sure yet? Join the community and watch it come together.