2026 SurveyCTO Buildathon

September 9-30, 2026 | Free event | 📍 Virtual

With the right data, insight is possible. With connected data workflows, processes can be streamlined.

And with the right tools and helpful partners, you can achieve even more.

Register for the inaugural SurveyCTO Buildathon where we bring together builders and practitioners to tackle data challenges together. Whether you want to showcase your SurveyCTO expertise, learn by observing, or have a specific challenge that needs solving—this event is for you.

To maintain an intimate, high-impact environment for our buildathon, we’re limiting the amount of participants, particularly for this first year. Don’t miss your chance to solve a data collection challenge and register today!

Sign Up Today

Who will be at this buildathon?

Builders

Our Builders are the power users and technical experts who have deep understanding about SurveyCTO mechanics.
  • Builder Role: Lead the technical design, troubleshoot, and build out the actual data workflows.
  • Expertise: Deep knowledge of complex SurveyCTO features (like case management and dataset publishing), field-plug-ins, API integrations, and creating sophisticated survey flows.

Practitioners

Our practitioners bring the real-world context.

They are from organizations facing data challenges or are eager to learn how modern workflows are built from scratch.
  • Practitioner Role: Define the challenge, provide business context, and provide feedback as the solution takes shape.

Reasons to participate

If you’re a Builder, you can:

  • Showcase your expertise
  • Earn the SurveyCTO Certified Builder badge
  • Solve real-world problems experienced by other users

If you’re a Practitioner:

  • Get expert guidance on your unique data collection challenge
  • Learn from experts as they structure data collection surveys and workflows

How will this Buildathon be structured?

We’ve designed this event to center on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and achievable goals. To make this happen, we will form intimate working groups, pairing Builders with Practitioners to tackle a real-world problem.

To guide your focus, each participant will choose one of four tracks: Complex form design, Data workflows, Field plug-ins, or Integrations.

Practitioners bring a specific workflow bottleneck or question they want support with related to the four tracks. Similarly, Builders supply the SurveyCTO expertise to help architect the solution. A team representative will then submit the work along with an explanation of what challenge the solution is intended to solve.

Choose one of four tracks to build around

Complex form design

Focus on survey logic, dynamic routing, nested groups, and other advanced form design components.

Data workflows

Set up case management and longitudinal workflows using datasets.

Field plug-ins

Customize the look and feel of form fields to capture exactly what you need.

Integrations

Connect SurveyCTO to your wider tech stack by setting up webhooks, APIs, and automated pipelines.

Submission requirements

At the end of the Buildathon, each working group will submit their output via a simple form. A panel of SurveyCTO judges will review all outputs and use the judging criteria to come up with a shortlist of teams.

The shortlisted teams will be able to present their solution to all Buildathon participants during our Closing Ceremony day.

What to expect

Intimate working groups

Both SurveyCTO experts and those with data collection challenges will be in intimate, assigned working groups that foster collaboration and connection.

You’ll get to know your group and work closely together with them.

Intimate working groups in SurveyCTO Buildathon

A chance to innovate and build solutions

Tackle data challenges and come up with solutions together.

For builders, this means a chance to showcase your professional expertise in a group.

For practitioners, you’ll be able to get support in answering your data collection challenge or observe and learn.

Connect with the global SurveyCTO community

While in-person events do have a certain magic to them, with a global community like ours, a virtual event makes the most sense.

That’s not to say we can’t still build community. The SurveyCTO Buildathon will bring thinkers and doers across industries together so you get a chance to connect with other changemakers.

Connect with other SurveyCTO users from around the world

Official Rules and Terms of Participation

To read the full rules and terms of participation for the SurveyCTO Buildathon, please click here.

Frequently Asked Questions

We want this to be a shared win for the SurveyCTO community. 

All outputs created by the participants during the Buildathon remain their intellectual property.

However, by participating in the Buildathon, you also grant Dobility (the makers of SurveyCTO) the right to use, display, distribute, etc., your output for promotional purposes.

To read the Buildathon Official Rules and Terms of Participation, please click here.

Yes! Beyond the collaborative experience and networking, Builders will receive an official SurveyCTO Certified Builder badge.

This badge serves as a testament to your expertise, proving you understand organizational needs, can navigate complex survey logic, and create seamless data workflows. It recognizes you as an elite user capable of building the digital systems that empower organizations to work smarter, faster, and more effectively.

We encourage you to share the badge as a milestone in your professional journey!

No, we handle the matchmaking for you! When you register, you will let us know whether you are a Builder or Practitioner and which of the four tracks you’re interested in.

Our team will carefully curate intimate working groups to ensure everyone has a highly collaborative and engaging experience.

We recognize that everyone has busy schedules! We intentionally made this buildathon span three weeks so that everyone will have enough time to meet with their team.

Your team will manage its own schedule. We recommend setting aside roughly 4 to 5 total hours (or however long you can commit!) of asynchronous collaboration during that window to plan, build, and submit your workflow or solution.

No, the SurveyCTO Buildathon is completely free!

Everything will be conducted in English. Please ensure you are comfortable working and collaborating in English before signing up!

Unless you’ve obtained prior authorization from your organization, please do not use Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or confidential data during the Buildathon.