HackFest 2025 Journey: Crafting a Scalable App and Securing 1st Runner-Up

Overview

• The Beginning
• The Problem Statement
• Solution Brainstorming
• The Hackathon
• The Result
• Some Images from the Hackathon

The Beginning

So it all started when Anirban Majumder one of old friend and hackathon teammate reached out to me with this idea of participating in HackFest 2025 IIT Dhanbad, a 36-hour hackathon organized by IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. I was unsure that will we get selected or not as there are 1000+ applicants from all over the India and only 125 teams will be selected . But I thought why not give it a try and applied with a team of 5 members including me. After a week we got the confirmation email that we are selected among the 125 teams.

The Problem Statement

Once the team is formed, we started checking out the problem statements and selected Problem Statement 6 which focused on creating a mobile-first solution for event organizers. The challenge was to build a real-time ticket sales tracking app that would provide event organizers with live analytics, audience insights, and smart recommendations to maximize their revenue and marketing ROI. The core issue was that most event organizers were struggling with static reports and lack of real-time visibility into their sales performance, making it difficult to make data-driven decisions on the go.

Solution Brainstorming

So as soon as the problem statement was selected i started brainstorming the solution how it should be built what tech stack we should use and how to make it scalable as we have to deal with real time data and analytics . I Quickly created a rough Architecture diagram and Wireframes in excalidraw solution we chose is multiplatform solution there will be a app Where event organizers can create events and their ticket their event website will be automatically generated once they enter the details and then they can share the link to their audience and start selling tickets and in the app they will get real time analytics and insights about their ticket sales and audience demographics . And for adding Ai we added an chatbot in each unique event created by the event organizer where chatbot will have full context of the event and can answer any queries from the audience regarding the event . It can also report any issues regarding the event to the event organizer in real time . It was a very rough diagram but it helped us to understand the flow of the application and how different components will interact with each other . Many things mentioned here were not in the initial plan but as we progressed we added more features and functionalities to make it more robust and scalable .

So as per our tech stack we chose Expo for app side and Next.js for the web part and for backend and data processing we chose Supabase as our backend as it provides real time database and authentication out of the box and also it has a very good integration with Next js and Expo . For Ai part we used Vercel AI SDK with Gemini api . So our team consisted of 5 members including me(App Developer + Full Stack developer ) 2 fullstack developer and 2 frontend developers . But we only know about web technologies so meantime i started learning react native and expo as i was leading the development the app part also learnt it quickly built some demo apps and understand how expo and expo eas works .

The Hackathon

So the hackathon day which was April 4 we travelled from Kolkata to Dhanbad and reached the venue by afternoon . After that we were sited in the Auditoriam of the IIT Dhanbad and hackathon started with the speech from the director and dean of the institute after that we were given with the rules and regulations of the hackathon and then we started working on our project . We were given 36 hours to complete the project and we started working on it . We divided the work among the team members .

Onboarding Screeen and Authentication

I started working on the app part created a beautiful Onboarding Animation using Swamansion React Native Reanimated and did setup of the Authtenciation of the app using Supabase and Expo Auth session . Meanwhile other team members started working on the web part and Ai agent part

Manage Events and Real Time Analytics

After loggin in user will be able to see the Events tab Where all the events created by the user will be listed by clicking on any of the event card he will be able to to see the all the event details such as banner ,name , description ticket sales details Attendee and also bunch of other analytics and for realtime info The event creator will also be to see the realtime traffic on the event website which is dynamically built when user entered the details for the event .

So inside of the event details page user can also open analytics Where he will be able to see the Audeience Demographic Such as Gender Distribution Age Distribution Top Attendee location Ai generated Registrattion Insight

and Under promotions button user will be able to see their custom made website link qr code which they can share to any social media platform and start selling tickets and also they can create custom discount codes for their audience to attract more people to their event

And under Event settings user will be able to edit the event details and also he can integrate payment gateway for ticket sales and also he can enable or disable the Ai chatbot for his event

Under Tickets Section user will be able to create different types of tickets for their event such as General Admission , VIP , Early Bird etc and also he can set the price and quantity for each ticket type and also he can see the total ticket sold and revenue generated from the ticket sales . Also Smart Suggestions for pricing and ticket types will be provided by Ai based on the event type and location and buying patterns of the audience.

Event Creation Flow

So for Event creation User can click on the floating action button on the Events tab and it will redirect to the Event Creation Flow where user will be able to enter the event details such as Event Name , Description , Banner Image , Event Type , Location , Date and Time and also ticket details such as Ticket Type , Price , Quantity social media links , user will be able to select the set of questions which needs to be ased to the audience during buying so that they can gather more analytics about their audience and also user can enable or disable the Ai chatbot for their event At the end user will get link to their event webssite and qr code which they can share to their audience and start selling tickets

Dedicated Analytics Dashboard and Feedback received from Ai Chatbot

So we also added a dedicated Analytics Dashboard in the the App where event creator will be able to see all the analytics in one place such as Age Group Distribution , Total Ticket Sold , total Revenue Graph of Ticket saled over time Language Spoken by the Audience How the Audience found the event and visitor to the buyer ratio average rating, device user by the people to access the event website . And also we added a feedback section where event creator will be able to see the feedback received from the Ai chatbot regarding any issues faced by the audience during ticket buying or any other queries regarding the event

Event Website and Ai Chatbot

So main purpose of making this section as website and not as app because user will be able to book tickets just from the url or scanning the qr code no need to download any app and also it will be more accessible for the audience . So the event website will be dynamically generated based on the event details entered by the event creator during event creation flow . The website will have all the details such as Event Name , Description , Banner Image , Event Type , Location , Date and Time and also ticket details such as Ticket Type , Price , Quantity and also social media links of the event creator . And also it will have Ai chatbot integrated in it where audience can ask any queries regarding the event and also they can report any issues regarding ticket buying or any other queries regarding the event . The Ai chatbot will have full context of the event and will be able to answer any queries regarding the event . It can also report any issues regarding the event to the event organizer in real time . Here are some screenshots of the event website and Ai chatbot in action

The Result

So after 36 hours of non stop coding and working on the project we were able to complete the project and submitted it before the deadline . After that there was a presentation round where we had to present our project in front of the judges and other participants . We presented our project and explained the features and functionalities of the app and also the tech stack used for building the app . After that there was a Q&A session where judges asked us some questions regarding the project and we answered them to the best of our knowledge . After that there was a lunch break and then the results were announced . We were able to secure 1st runner-up position among 500+ teams which was a great achievement for us . We were very happy and proud of our achievement and also we learned a lot from this hackathon experience .

Some Images from the Hackathon

Here are some memorable moments captured during our HackFest 2025 journey at IIT(ISM) Dhanbad:

The 36-hour journey was intense but incredibly rewarding. These images capture the essence of teamwork, dedication, and the joy of building something meaningful together. From late-night coding sessions to the excitement of securing 1st runner-up position, every moment was worth it!

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