On 23 September in Astana, the AI hackathon HackAlem AI took place, for which more than 6,500 applications were received. With the venue capacity at around 2,500 people, some of the registered participants waited outside for several hours but were ultimately unable to get inside.
WHAT IS KNOWN
According to Ulysmedia.kz, participants began arriving at the venue early in the morning. One of them said he arrived a little before 7:00, roughly two hours before registration began.
According to him, four queues formed outside the building, but it was not always clear to participants where exactly to go and how registration was organised. Some queues moved faster, while others barely moved at all.
After several hours of waiting, some people managed to get inside the building, but then entry was stopped. An eyewitness reported that the doors were closed in front of him, and later participants were told that there were no more places available.
After several hours of waiting and talking to the organisers, police officers and security staff asked people to leave the area.
WHAT CAUSED PARTICIPANTS' DISSATISFACTION
The complaints concerned not only the limit on the number of places, but also the organisation of the queue. Participants complained about a lack of signs, coordinators and crowd control.
Some users claimed that people tried to skip the queue. One participant from Kyrgyzstan compared what was happening to a "survival simulator" and said that barriers and staff directing people could have alleviated the situation.
At the same time, they also noted that the organisers received 6,586 applications, whereas the venue could accommodate around 2,500 people at a time. Thus, the number of applications significantly exceeded the physical capacity of the venue.
WHAT THE ORGANISERS SAID IN RESPONSE
After complaints emerged, the organisers apologised to those who were unable to attend the event.
"We are sorry that not all registered participants were able to attend the hackathon. All registered participants were warned in advance about the limited number of places and were advised to arrive early," they wrote.
According to the event organisers, those who remained outside the venue were given access to educational courses at one of the universities and other compensation.
WHAT HACKALEM AI ITSELF WAS LIKE
The hackathon started in Astana on 23 September and took place as part of AI Month. Developers, students and IT enthusiasts gathered at the venue. Participants were given five hours to create AI solutions for business and government tasks.
The project's partners were OpenAI and NVIDIA.
At the same time, participants' feedback was mixed. Some users described the problems with entry in detail, while others gave positive assessments of the event itself and its programme.