AGIMA ran a corporate AI hackathon ahead of the July 5, 2026 RUNIT festival

Digital agency AGIMA has shared details of a corporate AI hackathon its employees have been running for about a month in support of RUNIT, a sports festival scheduled for July 5, 2026 in Meshchersky Park.

The history of RUNIT

AGIMA has held RUNIT, a sports event for the IT community, every summer since 2018. Over those years, its audience has grown dozens of times over.

• The first RUNIT race in 2018 drew about 100 participants
• Participation later grew to 750, then to 2000, then to 3500
• In 2025, nearly 4500 runners from the IT community earned RUNIT medals, and about 5000 more people came out to cheer them on
• The 2026 festival is scheduled for July 5 in Meshchersky Park
• Organizers estimate that around 10,000 people will join the festival in 2026

Why AGIMA launched an AI hackathon

AGIMA supports RUNIT in different ways every year, but for 2026 it decided to try something new: a corporate AI hackathon in which employees build online games using AI tools. According to the company, the whole of AGIMA has been focused on the event for a month, with staff brainstorming ideas, developing concepts, and building projects.

The hackathon turns preparation for a sports event into another reason for internal teamwork with AI tools. Instead of a one-off activity before the race, the company stretches employee engagement over several weeks, tying its corporate culture to a sports event that is now almost ten years old. This kind of format is becoming an increasingly popular tool at Russian IT companies overall. It lets them test new AI tools on real tasks, give employees a chance to try unfamiliar roles, and come away with a working product prototype in a limited time, rather than just assembling a team for a one-off sports event.

How the hackathon ties into the festival's growth

RUNIT has grown from a hundred participants in 2018 to several thousand runners and supporters in recent years. That growth has made the festival a notable event for the entire Russian IT community, not just for AGIMA employees. At this scale, a corporate AI hackathon gives the company a way to stand out among other participants and organizers by adding a technology component to the sports activity.

The approach also helps keep employees engaged throughout the full month of preparation, not just on race day. Hackathon participants build their games alongside their regular workload. For AGIMA, whose core business is digital development for external clients, the internal AI hackathon also serves as a showcase for its own expertise. The company can later use what employees produce while building AI-assisted online games as case studies with clients, demonstrating how it applies generative tools in its own processes.

What it means

The AGIMA case shows how Russian digital agencies use corporate AI hackathons not only for hiring or marketing, but also to involve employees in live projects built around existing corporate traditions — in this case, a sports festival that turns almost ten years old in 2026. If the format sticks, RUNIT could gain a permanent technology track that grows alongside the festival's sports program year after year, just as the race itself grew from a hundred participants in 2018 to thousands of runners and supporters in under ten years.