Claude Impact Lab
Melbourne
One day. Real city data. AI tools that actually matter.
What is a Claude Impact Lab?
A Claude Impact Lab is a one-day hackathon where teams partner with local government and nonprofits to build AI-powered tools that solve real problems in their city.
The first Impact Lab was held in San Diego, where 27 teams spent a single Saturday building tools on top of real city data — permitting records, parking systems, public safety incidents, council meeting transcripts.
Now it's Melbourne's turn. This will be the first Claude Impact Lab in Australia, and we're partnering with Anthropic to bring it to life.
Real civic data
Work with actual Melbourne datasets — transport, planning, council records, public services. Not toy data.
Build with Claude
Every participant gets API credits. Build agents, chatbots, dashboards, or anything that makes city data accessible.
Impact that lasts
The best tools get showcased on Claude.ai/community and can be adopted by the organisations they were built for.
What participants get
API Credits
$50 in Claude API credits for every participant, $500 for winning teams
Expert Judges
An Anthropic representative on the judging panel (best effort)
Community
Work alongside developers, designers, civic hackers, and domain experts
Merch & More
Limited edition swag for all participants and winners
Why Melbourne?
Melbourne is one of the most data-forward cities in Australia. Open data portals, transport APIs, council records, planning documents — there's a wealth of public information that could transform how residents navigate government and how the city allocates resources.
The problem isn't data. It's accessibility. Information is buried in PDFs, locked in portals, and siloed across systems that were never designed to talk to each other. AI can change that — not in a three-year roadmap, but in a single day.
The Claude Impact Lab is where builders prove what's possible when you point AI at real civic challenges.
Who should register interest?
Register early interest
This is an early interest form — not a final registration. We're gauging numbers and building a list of people who want to be part of this. You'll be first to hear when registrations open.
Applications closed
Registrations for the May 23 hackathon have wrapped up. Keep an eye out for future events — we run them regularly across Australia.
See upcoming eventsWant to be an event, drinks, catering or venue sponsor?
We're looking for partners across event, drinks, catering, venue, swag, data and prize sponsorship — plus anyone with another way to help.
Fill in the sponsorship form and we'll be in touch within a few days.
Join the Claude Code Community
Connect with other builders working on civic AI, Claude tooling and more.
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