Two days. Seven projects. Two features straight into production. CNC's internal hackathon once again confirmed that when a development team meets in one place with a clear goal, the results are visible immediately.
The May hackathon showed that 48 hours of intensive work can turn an idea into a working solution. The August one, held on 5 and 6 August 2025, followed the first hackathon and raised the bar even higher.
A hackathon that delivers
The goal of our hackathons is to move forward features that are hard to focus on in the everyday rush. During the first hour, a list of seven topics emerges from “things from the drawer” and new ideas. All of them are based on real needs and aim at features we want to bring into production. Teams led by Milan Frýbert have two days of focused work without interruption to process them. The result? All seven features are in working condition after 48 hours, and two of them are ready for deployment straight away. Let's take a look at them.
Animated thumbnails for iSport and the network sites
Short animations in preview images bring dynamism to the site, increase the attractiveness of content and thereby user engagement. Frontend developer Tomáš Vojta has finished the work, and the feature is ready for deployment to production.
Responsive grid for iSport
We also have a new layout for the main section (the so-called topFeed), which adapts smoothly to every device and, after testing, will go to production.
“My Region”, a new module for Content Hub
Lubomír Jirků built the backend of a module that displays personalised regional content on the websites. We tested the solution by connecting vacant job positions from Czech Labour Office data. Jan Petrák then explored the possibilities of other open data, such as official notice boards, current news about road closures and traffic restrictions, etc. The goal is to have a box on the websites that automatically delivers local content to the user based on their location, read from a cookie or their profile. The feature has great potential and is currently running in test mode.
AI-generated weather article
Sergei Anisenkov built a system that automatically creates 14 regional versions of articles based on data from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ). Forecasts in the style of “Take your umbrellas on Wednesday, from Thursday you'll need snow boots”. The inspiration came from successful formats on Google Discover.
Speculation Rules API
The hackathon brought not only new features for users but also infrastructure improvements. Michal Kubec and Jan Pikl tested speculative loading of links, HTML prefetching and prerendering, that is, fully loading content in the background, which speeds up page loading. The technology is already deployed on some parts of the websites where testing is taking place.
Live article preview and mobile responsiveness in RING CMS
Luděk Rájecký and Michal Kubec also took on improvements to the CMS to make life easier for editors. The first is a live preview of an article directly in the system, via an iframe with the front-end render. The second is a CMS adjustment for more comfortable work on mobile, especially during live broadcasts and discussions. Both features are currently available to selected users.
Why we keep going with hackathons
Over two days, two features ready for deployment were created, and five more were moved into an advanced stage. For our remote team, the hackathon is mainly a chance to have one hundred percent focus on work that gives way to other priorities in regular operations. It is also a chance to meet in person. The energy that comes from working together shows in the results. That is exactly why we keep going with hackathons.
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