Terms of Participation

Version: 2026-09-23 / 1.0 Effective date: September 23, 2026 Organizer: Divan ("Divan", "we", "us") Contact: info@divan.ac

1. Agreement and scope

These Terms govern applications and participation in Divan Hackathon 2026, its website at hackathon.divan.ac, related online sessions and designated event channels. They apply to participants, team leads, mentors, investors and judges according to their roles. The Code of Conduct forms part of these Terms. The Privacy Notice explains how personal information is handled; accepting these Terms is not blanket consent to every possible use of personal information.

You accept these Terms through the clearly labelled agreement control when applying or accepting a role. Keep a copy for your records. A team lead cannot accept personal agreements or give personal publicity consent for another member. If you act for an organization, you confirm authority to make the representations you make on its behalf; that does not bind other people to these Terms without their agreement.

Applicable mandatory legal rights prevail over any inconsistent provision. No agreement here prevents a lawful complaint to a regulator, court or law-enforcement body.

2. Event, eligibility and cost

The 2026 hackathon is planned as a three-week, fully online event in November 2026. Exact dates will be announced. Participant applicants must be at least 18 and able to enter this agreement under applicable law. Applications are welcome worldwide where participation can lawfully be provided. You must provide accurate information and comply with laws applicable to your participation.

Participant and mentor applications close October 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Toronto time, unless Divan announces a permitted change. Investor applications remain open during the event until closed by Divan. Submission is complete only when the platform confirms receipt; save your confirmation and contact us promptly about a technical problem.

Participation in this event is free. You pay for your own internet, equipment and any third-party services you independently choose. Do not incur expenses, promise payments or enter contracts on Divan's behalf. Future paid programs require separately disclosed terms; accepting these Terms does not authorize future charges or enrol you in a paid program.

3. Applications, accounts and approval

Google sign-in or an emailed one-time code establishes your account, not your admission. Divan may approve, reject, waitlist or request more information, considering capacity, suitability, truthful information and program needs. Decisions must comply with applicable law. An invitation from a team does not guarantee approval.

Keep your email and account secure. Do not share sign-in codes, impersonate someone or sell account access. Notify Divan of suspected compromise. You are responsible for your own authorized activity, not automatically for every unauthorized act by someone else.

Mentor and investor applications are reviewed separately, including when submitted from one account. Investor approval does not grant judging access. Divan may appoint an approved investor as a judge under the role and public-profile disclosures accepted at application, without a second invitation. A judge who cannot serve or has a conflict must notify Divan promptly.

4. Teams and submissions

Individuals and one-person teams may apply and seek teammates. Final team confirmation requires at least two individually approved active members and Divan's approval. There is no maximum team size. Each person may belong to only one active team in an event.

Team leads accept join requests from approved participants. Switching teams requires an explicit choice and is permitted only within the applicable formation period before final confirmation; later changes require admin approval. Teams are responsible for agreeing on contributions, ownership, attribution, expenses and any equity arrangements. Divan is not a party to those arrangements and does not promise to resolve ownership or co-founder disputes.

Only the current approved lead of a confirmed team may book mentor sessions or submit/edit weekly reports and final submissions. Team members may view their team's submissions and released feedback. Leads must have the team's authority and necessary content permissions. A lead cannot transfer intellectual property or waive another person's rights merely by holding that role.

The final submission requires a project summary, pitch deck in PDF/PPT/PPTX format and demo link. Supporting links are optional. Announced deadlines apply; an admin must expressly reopen editing after a deadline. Keep your own copies and ensure reviewers can use submitted links without exposing passwords or confidential data. Divan may restrict unsafe, inaccessible, unlawful or noncompliant material and request corrections.

5. Intellectual property and permitted use

You and the relevant rights holders retain ownership of your projects, code, inventions and materials. Participation does not grant Divan equity, ownership of a startup, patent rights, or an exclusive licence. You must have permission to submit and demonstrate your materials, including employer-owned work, open-source components, datasets, images and AI-generated material. Disclose material third-party dependencies and restrictions honestly.

You grant Divan a nonexclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, format and display submitted material only as reasonably needed to operate the event, provide authorized mentoring/judging, deliver access you have expressly approved, and retain limited records under the Privacy Notice. Divan may let contracted service providers perform these functions on its behalf under appropriate restrictions. This licence does not authorize selling your project, training a general-purpose AI model on private submissions, or publishing a private deck to investors or the public.

For content you separately authorize for public display, the licence also permits that specified display and event archive use. Public winners/finalist listings may identify the team, award and authorized project summary; individual publicity follows the applicable notice and permission. Formatting or accessibility edits must not materially misrepresent the work. No general waiver of moral rights is requested.

Administrative copies may be retained only as described in the Privacy Notice or required by law. Withdrawal of public sharing affects future use subject to lawful recordkeeping and practical limits on copies already obtained by others. It does not transfer your rights to Divan.

6. Confidentiality, demonstrations and investor sharing

The hackathon is a collaborative event, not a confidential investment data room. Do not submit trade secrets, production credentials, personal data about customers, or material you are not authorized to share. Use synthetic or appropriately de-identified demo data. Consider independent advice before publicly disclosing a potentially patentable invention.

Private submissions are subject to the access controls in the Privacy Notice. Divan does not treat private material as public merely because it was submitted. Mentors, judges and investors must respect the limited purpose of the access they receive and must not copy, disclose or exploit private material without authorization. Divan takes reasonable measures to enforce these rules but cannot guarantee every third party's conduct or provide an implied individual non-disclosure agreement.

Investors may see only final summaries and demo links the team explicitly chooses to share with approved investors. Sharing is optional, version-specific and separate from judging submission. No private deck, application, mentor feedback or judge score is included through investor access. Public sessions and external demo links may expose what you choose to show to their audiences; check access settings before presenting.

7. Mentoring, judging and results

Mentor feedback is educational and developmental. Each week uses its published four-criterion rubric. Team feedback is released only after admin approval. Weekly mentor scores do not contribute to the final judging score.

Final judging uses seven 1–5 criteria: MVP readiness, team potential, hackathon progress, meaningful AI implementation, market growth potential, pitch/storytelling, and investment potential. Investment potential has weight two; each other criterion has weight one. Each complete review produces a weighted total out of 40 and weighted average out of 5. Team scores average eligible completed judge reviews; missing or conflicted reviews do not count as zero.

Judges must disclose direct mentoring, investments, employment/business relationships, close personal relationships and other material conflicts. A conflicted judge cannot score that team. Judges cannot see other judges' private reviews or mentor feedback through judging access. Divan may correct calculation errors, exclude ineligible reviews and address misconduct, retaining an audit record.

Calculated rankings inform selection; Divan confirms winners and finalists and approves publication. Any departure from the calculated order requires a recorded reason and does not change original judge scores. Public results identify approved winners/finalists only; teams receive their own released scores/comments. No particular award, prize, investment or acceptance into another program is promised unless Divan expressly announces its terms. Additional prize conditions, if any, must be disclosed before they apply.

Raise a procedural concern through info@divan.ac within seven calendar days of the decision or publication where reasonably possible. Identify the decision and supporting facts. Divan will consider errors, undisclosed conflicts and rule violations; disagreement with a judge's subjective assessment alone does not require rescoring. This administrative review period does not shorten statutory rights or legal limitation periods.

8. No investment or professional-services commitment

Mentors, investors and judges are independent contributors unless Divan expressly says otherwise. Their views are their own. Participation, a favourable score, a "Judge" label, an introduction or an investment-potential score is not a funding offer, due-diligence certification or endorsement of a person or company.

Divan does not provide legal, tax, medical, accounting or investment advice through this event and does not guarantee financing, employment, customers, revenue or commercial success. Participants must independently evaluate advice and negotiate any later arrangements in separate agreements. No employment, agency, partnership, fiduciary relationship or joint venture with Divan is created simply by participation.

9. Conduct, security and event administration

Follow the Code of Conduct. Do not harass, discriminate, bribe reviewers, manipulate scores, scrape the directory, send unsolicited sales messages, attack systems or misuse private materials. Use meeting and booking links only as authorized. Obtain consent before recording or publishing another person's voice, image or private messages.

Divan may proportionately limit access, remove content, pause participation, disqualify a submission or remove a person for a material breach, fraud, safety risk, legal requirement or serious disruption. Urgent temporary restrictions may precede investigation. Where reasonably possible, Divan will explain the basis and allow a response, while protecting reporters and confidential evidence. Reporting a concern in good faith is not grounds for retaliation.

Divan may reasonably adjust schedules, platforms, mentors or event delivery, or postpone/cancel because of security, legal, capacity or operational issues. We will communicate material changes promptly when practicable. We will not retroactively change completed judging criteria to favour a team. If the event cannot proceed, the absence of a participation fee does not create a refund entitlement, but any non-waivable legal rights remain.

10. Availability and reasonable risk allocation

Online platforms, third-party tools and prototypes may fail, contain errors or be interrupted. To the extent permitted by law, Divan provides the event and platform without additional implied warranties of uninterrupted availability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. This does not remove mandatory warranties or Divan's express obligations.

To the extent permitted by law, Divan and its directors, staff and volunteers acting for the event are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, lost opportunities or loss of anticipated investment arising from participation. Their aggregate liability for claims arising from this free event is limited to CAD 1,000.

These exclusions and the cap do not apply to fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, or any statutory privacy/consumer right to the extent it cannot be restricted. Nothing excuses a duty to protect personal information or report a breach where the law requires it. Divan is not released from responsibility merely because a service provider is involved.

To the extent permitted by law, you will reimburse Divan for reasonable losses and defence costs from a third-party claim caused by your deliberate unlawful conduct, knowing infringement in materials you supplied, or material breach of your authority/permission representations. This obligation does not cover Divan's own wrongdoing or amounts beyond your responsibility. Divan must promptly notify you, reasonably mitigate loss, allow reasonable participation in the defence, and obtain your consent before a settlement imposes an admission or non-monetary duty on you. Consent may not be unreasonably withheld.

11. Changes, disputes and general terms

Material future changes will be notified with an effective date, and new acceptance obtained where required. Changes do not retroactively expand licences over existing private submissions or waive accrued rights. Event-specific instructions may explain logistics but cannot silently override these Terms or the Privacy Notice.

Disputes are subject to applicable law and may be brought before a court with lawful jurisdiction. Nothing in these Terms limits mandatory local protections or a forum available under applicable law. There is no mandatory arbitration or class-action waiver.

If a provision is unenforceable, the rest continues to the extent legally possible. Failure to enforce a provision once is not a continuing waiver. These Terms, the Code and any expressly accepted event-specific conditions comprise the participation agreement; the Privacy Notice governs transparency about data practices and does not authorize undisclosed processing. Contact info@divan.ac for questions, accessibility arrangements or concerns.