Lovable eMerge AI Hackathon 2026

What it was

Lovable partnered with eMerge Americas — Miami's flagship tech conference —
for an 8-hour hackathon held during the conference's main day in April
2026. 400+ builders registered, drawn heavily from South Florida's
founder community.

The format was tight: from idea to working app in 8 hours, judged on-site
by a panel of South Florida founders and Lovable's DevRel team. Most
submissions targeted real local-market problems (Miami real estate
search, restaurant reservation flows, event-planning tools for the
conference circuit).

Why it mattered

Three signals:

• Lovable's geographic expansion. The event was Lovable's most

ambitious in-person US event outside SF/NYC. Miami's growing tech scene plus the eMerge conference's reach gave them a captive founder-heavy audience.

• Fast format wins. 8 hours forces tight scope and shippable demos.

All 400+ teams demoed something working — a higher completion rate than month-long online hackathons.

• Conference-tied hackathons compound. Builders attending eMerge for

the conference programming joined the hackathon as a side-quest. The conference badge funneled into the hackathon and vice versa.

Format details

• Duration: 8 hours (8am – 4pm), demos 4–6pm
• Tool: Lovable required
• Categories: Most Production-Ready, Best Design, Community Pick
• Prizes: Lovable Plus subscriptions, eMerge passes, sponsor swag

Sources

• Lovable eMerge AI Hackathon page
• eMerge Americas