DEV Community: Jess Lee

What was your win this week?!

Jess Lee — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Parallel parking on the first try 🚗

Happy Friday!

What was your win this week??

Jess Lee — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Finding money in an old jacket pocket 💸

Happy Friday!

What was your win this week?

Jess Lee — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Remembering it was someone's birthday without a calendar reminder 🎂

Happy Friday!

Preptember is here!! Plan a Fest for your local community.

Jess Lee — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:26:08 +0000

September marks the official start of Preptember, a month dedicated to organizers planning local gatherings and getting ready for Hacktoberfest.

This year, Hacktoberfest is entering a new chapter. We’re shifting away from open-source contributions and focusing on community-building and educating folks around open artificial intelligence. As the AI landscape rapidly evolves, we think it's more important than ever for people to learn about and have experience with open-source AI tools and open-weight models.

You can read our full announcement here:

A new chapter for Hacktoberfest

Jess Lee for Major League Hacking (MLH)

Aug 19

Hacktoberfest 2026: AI belongs to everyone

#hacktoberfest #opensource #ai #agents

149

3 min read

Host a Fest

We're supporting over 300+ in-person events (“Fests”) this year, which means we’re looking for hosts! You don't need a big team or a big budget to bring Hacktoberfest to your city. If you're part of a meetup group, a university club, or you and a couple of coworkers can book a conference room for a day, you have what it takes.

As a host, you’ll receive:

T-shirts and stickers for your Fest participants
Programming support to help shape the day
Promotion through our official Fests directory

Depending on which Fest format you choose, your event may be eligible for food and drink reimbursement as well.

How To Apply

Step One: Pick your Fest Format

Fests come in two formats and you get to choose:

Hacktoberfest Hack Day: a 3-12 hour mini-hackathon where participants create and submit projects to compete for Best Open-Source AI Project.
Hacktoberfest Meetup: flexible in format (talks, demos, workshops, etc). We rely on you, the host, to shape them in the way that best serves your community

Step Two: Apply to Host a Fest

Fill in the details of your Fest (format, region, etc) and your contact information on our application form.

Fest Application

Note: You do not need to have a venue locked in to begin your application!

We’re approving events on a rolling basis, with the goal of responding within a week. You’ll receive an email from us the moment your Fest is approved.

What happens after my application is approved?

Once your application is approved, your Hack Day or Meetup will be listed on our official Fest directory! As a host, you’ll want to focus on these next steps once your application is approved:

Secure a Venue: Once your application is approved, your in-person event needs a safe, accessible space. We’ll publish a separate post on tips and tricks to securing a venue, but for now we’d recommend reaching out to your company office manager, school administrator, or local meetup group for recommendations.
Plan your Fest: This is the fun part! Once a venue is locked, you get to start planning your Fest. Check out our Fest Planning Guide for support.
Show off your Swag: All Fest formats are eligible to receive Hacktoberfest swag. Wear your t-shirt with pride and stick your stickers, everywhere (save some for your Fest participants though)!

Can’t host? Find a Fest near you, or participate online.

We're approving Fests everyday, so check back regularly and sign up for a Fest near you. There's nothing more exciting to a Host than knowing that people want to show up.

Find a Fest

Throughout October, we’ll also host a full schedule of online activities (virtual workshops, DEV Challenges, livestreams, and more) so everyone can participate worldwide.

Happy Hacking 🎃

What was your win this week?!

Jess Lee — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Actually logged off at a reasonable hour for once 🌙

Happy Friday!

What was your win this week?!

Jess Lee — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Made coffee at home instead of spending too much at the coffee shop (twice) ☕

Happy Friday!

Hacktoberfest 2026: AI belongs to everyone

Jess Lee — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:38:17 +0000

We have some news we're excited to share today: Major League Hacking (MLH) and DEV are partnering with DigitalOcean to run Hacktoberfest 2026. This October, we’ll host over 300 in-person events (“Fests”) plus a global online event, all about building with open source and open-weight AI.

DEV and MLH have supported Hacktoberfest for years under DigitalOcean’s ownership. DEV provided a space to share maintainer and contributor learnings, while MLH has powered both in-person and online events. This year will be the first time MLH, DEV, and DigitalOcean are full partners in bringing Hacktoberfest to life.

From four PRs to a global tradition

Hacktoberfest started back in 2014 with a simple idea from DigitalOcean: open four pull requests in October, earn a t-shirt. It worked. Thousands of developers made their first open-source contribution during the month-long celebration. For many people reading this, Hacktoberfest was the door that opened open source to them in the first place. It certainly was for a lot of us at MLH.

But a good thing can require a refresh. Over the years, that same PR-counting format started to work against the community. Maintainers began to burn out under the volume of low-effort, box-checking pull requests they were receiving. That problem only got worse as AI tools made it trivially easy to generate a PR without generating any real value. The event meant to make maintainers' lives easier started doing the opposite.

We didn't want to keep running that version of Hacktoberfest. So we're trying something new.

Hacktoberfest 2026

This year, we’re not counting PRs. Hacktoberfest is focused on giving everyone the tools and knowledge to learn, experiment, and build with open artificial intelligence: write your first open-source skills.md, build your own open-source agent, fine-tune an open-weight model, or just follow your curiosity wherever it takes you.

We believe open innovation deserves the same priority as proprietary tools for a healthy ecosystem, especially now that AI is part of how most of us build software every day. We're seeing changes to access, pricing, and policy occur overnight, completely out of individual control. Open source AI doesn't eliminate these risks, but it offers transparency and resilience. That's the kind of foundation we want to help you build on.

Hacktoberfest 2026 is about meeting you wherever you are in your open-source AI journey, because we believe AI belongs to everyone.

To make this a reality, we're working with organizers to host over 300 in-person Fests worldwide. We'll provide the swag, while you get to build with your community.

We’re looking for hosts!

Here's the thing about Fests: every single one starts with someone deciding to organize it.

You don't need a big team or a big budget to bring Hacktoberfest to your city. If you're part of a meetup group, a university club, or you and a couple of coworkers can book a conference room for a day, you have what it takes. Organizers will receive:

T-shirts and stickers for participants
Programming support to help shape the day
Promotion through a searchable gallery on hacktoberfest.com, plus MLH and DEV's marketing and social channels

We're confirming applications on a rolling basis. We're aiming to confirm within a week of receiving a completed application. The best way to be first in line is to raise your hand now.

Host a Fest

👉 Bonus: if you host a Hacktoberfest Hack Day, we’ll provide funding to help cover food and drink, as well as additional prizes for your Fest!

Get involved

If organizing isn't for you right now, there's still a place for you in this:

Join a Fest. Sign up to be notified about local Fests near you, and keep an eye out for the global online event running throughout October.
Sponsor Hacktoberfest. Sponsors make Hacktoberfest possible. If your company wants its brand in front of a massive global community of software creators, tell your Marketing and DevRel teams. This is the year to be part of the new chapter.

We look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks!

What was your win this week??

Jess Lee — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Made someone laugh when they really needed it 😂

Happy Friday!

Jem has quietly been working behind-the-scenes here at DEV for YEARS, and I'm so happy that they are finally introducing themselves to everyone!!

Jess Lee — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:27:18 +0000

Hey all! I’m Jem, the DEV Community Program Coordinator

It feels good to finally be writing this. I've been working part-time behind the scenes at DEV for...

dev.to

What was your win this week?

Jess Lee — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Started something you've been "about to start" for two months 🏁

Happy Friday!

What was your win this week?

Jess Lee — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋
Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?
All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Turned off notifications for an hour and didn't spontaneously combust 🔕

Happy Friday!

DEV Community: Jess Lee

What was your win this week?!

What was your win this week??

What was your win this week?

Preptember is here!! Plan a Fest for your local community.

Hacktoberfest 2026: AI belongs to everyone

Host a Fest

How To Apply

Step One: Pick your Fest Format

Step Two: Apply to Host a Fest

What happens after my application is approved?

Can’t host? Find a Fest near you, or participate online.

What was your win this week?!

What was your win this week?!

Hacktoberfest 2026: AI belongs to everyone

From four PRs to a global tradition

Hacktoberfest 2026

We’re looking for hosts!

Get involved

What was your win this week??

Jem has quietly been working behind-the-scenes here at DEV for YEARS, and I'm so happy that they are finally introducing themselves to everyone!!

Hey all! I’m Jem, the DEV Community Program Coordinator

What was your win this week?

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What was your win this week?