Impacthon

20. - 22. May 2022

circle17
Impacthon

A 3-day event to unite for the development of sustainable business solution. To hack for social and environmental impact. 

DESIGN THE FUTURE

The circle17 Impacthon is an 3-day hybrid hackathon, all set to design, test, and execute moonshot ideas that hack the Challenges from our Challenge Leads.

This Impacthon is a call for action to each and everyone, to each and every company, Individual and to each and every startup, who dares to think, look, and unite to solve pressing challenges in the area of circular economy. 

social innovator impacthon

Join the circle17 Impacthon on May 20th-22nd ’22

  • Be there! Join our offline event at our Impacthon locations (Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck)
  • Meet like-minded people who are passionate about sustainability
  • Create impactful initiatives that solve pressing challenges
  • Meet companies that want to shape the future with you
  • Have lots of fun, win amazing prizes & make the world more circular

Three days – one challenge!
Can you solve it?

See what we planned for the Impacthon

Hackathon

Throughout the weekend you will get support by mentors, experts in the sustainability field and our partners

The Impacthon as an hybrid event is set up to let social innovators work offline at our impacthon locations in diverse teams. The workshops, the expertsessions and mentor check-ins will be facilitated online. 

You will have plenty of time to work on your solution within a team and participate in workshops on topics of Circular Economy, Circular Business Model and Pitching

How to get involved?

SOCIAL INNOVATORS

We are inviting all gamechangers, from creators, graduate, students, startups and enthusiasts to participate and show us how you would solve challenges at the Impacthon.

COMMUNITY MANAGER

Want to support our Social Innovators throughout the weekend, get insights behind the scenes of a Hackathon, meet likeminded people and connect with our Challenge Leads or Experts? Then join us now!

EXPERTS

You work in the field of sustainability? You have experience within the field of circular economy? And you want to support promising ideas and projects? Reach out to us!

UNIVERSITIES

Bring your students to work on a sustainability Challenge during the Impacthon and get to know potential project partners for your research.

IMPACTHON PARTNER

Our supporters for the Impacthon. We couldn't do this project without them! Interested to support our sustainable initiative too? Reach out to us!

COMPANIES

Become a Challenge Lead, collaborate with inspiring Social Innovators that leave a positive mark and tackle sustainability challenges in your own business.

Impacthon Partners


circle17 is a true community effort, involving organisers and stakeholders of all ranges from our society.

Location Provider

There will be the possibility to co-work from one of our partner Co-Working Spaces in Vienna, Graz & Innsbruck!

Supporting Partners

Feedback from Participants

How was the Impacthon 2020?

2_Ideation
Martin Stohanzl
Social Innovator
„Es ist faszinierend, was man mit einer gemeinsamen Vision, einem Team und einem Laptop an einem Wochenende erreichen kann."
new_grunstatt
Susanne Formanek
GRÜNSTATTGRAU
„The Circle 17 Impacthon was characterized by interesting people, future-oriented tasks and encouraging input. GRÜNSTATTGRAU was able to meet many motivated participants within the course of the challenge. Working together with them on solutions for the green city of the future was not only fun, but very successful.”
mwp1-removebg-preview
Matthias Wagner
Mentor
„Was respACT & AustrianStartups geschaffen und organisiert haben, ist so viel mehr als nur erstaunliche Lösungen für die Herausforderungen zu finden. circle17 hat so viele inspirierende Menschen zusammengebracht, sie motiviert und ihnen Hoffnung auf eine bessere, grünere Zukunft gegeben. Es scheint, als ob es während dieses Impacthons eine Explosion von Wissen und positiven Emotionen gab!“
OeEB
Marie-Theres Lutz
OeEB
„Wir nehmen von der Zusammenarbeit nicht nur viel Inspiration und Motivation mit, sondern auch einen potentiellen Partner, der eine nachhaltige Lösung mit uns gemeinsam umsetzt."

You want to get involved either as a participant, expert, sponsor or partner? Get in touch with us, we’re happy to hear from you!

Just want to see what is happening? Stay up-to-date via our Social Media Channels:

All events of circle17 are CO2-compensated and are therefore climate neutral. You can find out more about our efforts to take responsibility here.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more in-depth questions on how your journey could look like, please see our full FAQ section.

What is Circle17?

circle17 supports the design of practical business solutions to the most urgent sustainability challenges, by facilitating a platform for startup collaboration with corporates and non-profit organisations.  

In order to identify these most pressing sustainability challenges, circle17 co-operates together with corporates- and non-profit organisations. These sustainability challenges function as a strong foundation, inspiration and validation for the design of system-changing solutions. 

The development of these solutions is not a straight-forward given. It requires an inclusive and experimental approach, modern methodologies, creativity and an innovative out-of-the-box mindset. 

This is where all social innovators come into place: startup founders, academics, changemakers, enthusiasts, coders and creatives come into place. The circle17 Impacthon is an open-call for all those who believe it’s important to unite, in order to solve the most pressing sustainability challenges together. 

Not only does circle17 provide a safe space for eye-to-eye level exchanges, but an inclusive growth platform where the potential that lies with multi-stakeholder collaboration can be understood and unleashed.

Who’s behind circle17?

The circle17 project is brought to life via the two Non-Profit organisations AustrianStartups & respACT.

AustrianStartups
AustrianStartups is Austria’s largest start-up platform and think tank for innovative entrepreneurship 

With a team of around 50 startup enthusiasts, the non-profit organization organizes more than 60 events annually, operates communication platforms for more than 30,000 followers from the startup environment and publishes Austria’s largest startup study – the Austrian Startup Monitor.

respACT
respACT has been supporting its more than 300 member companies for over 20 years in achieving ecological and social goals economically and independently. On a national level, respACT cooperates with ministries, scientific institutions and interest groups. As the coordinating office of the Global Compact Network Austria and partner of the WBCSD and CSR Europe, respACT is also the right contact at the international level.

How does the circle17 program work?

The circle17 programme consists of three phases. 

MARCH
1. DISCOVERY

The discovery is all set to identify and determine the most critical sustainability challenges. Corporates and Civil Society leading the change particiapte in two consecutive workshops (hosted by circle17) to explore trends and define challenges within the sustainable development goals.

Learn more about the programme’s offer on our Lead the change-Page

MAY
2. IMPACTHON 

The circle17 Impacthon is an online hackathon designed to share and rapidly develop practical solutions. Startup founders, entrepreneurs, academics and enthusiasts come together to work on society-level solutions to the sustainable challenges, posed by our network of (corporate) organisations.

Learn more about the impacthon, and how you can get involved here.

SEPTEMBER
3. MATCHMAKING

Our circle17 Matchmaking event is a day in which we’ll bring all programme participants and project innovations together with an external network collaboration partners, and offer supporting modules to match interests and needs. 

How can I join circle17?

We are looking for bold and innovative thinkers & do-ers that can help to develop solutions to the large-scale sustainability challenges that withhold us on individual, business and societal level to become more resilient.

For this to work, circle17 needs a strong community. We need you!

You can get involved in four different ways:

CHALLENGE LEADS
Challenge Leads are corporate- and non-profit organisations that have submitted sustainability challenges, they face inside- and outside of their organisation.

SOCIAL INNOVATORS
We are inviting all gamechangers, from creators, IT specialists, startups, academics and enthusiasts to participate and show us how you would solve various challenges through creative thinking and the (potential) application of technology.

Are you, or the organisation you are working with, faced with sustainability challenges in your daily operations? Are you interested in working together with a broad network of young innovators, startups and academics to dive deep into your challenge and work on solutions that could benefit your business- and society at larger scale?.

MENTOR
We’re looking for mentors who can coach the participants during the Impacthon and experts who can answer questions along the way.

Are you a superhero mentor, interested in partaking in our programme to support the development of sustainable project innovations? – learn more on this page on how you can get involved!

SPONSOR
The circle17 programme is a non-profit establishment, aimed at the development of resilient and sustainable business solutions. Are you, your company or organisation interested in exploring opportunities to support our cause? Contact us!

Contact Us

* Your information is processed in compliance with our privacy policy