The floor-raiser · after every hackathon · from July
Power-Up Week
The week we bring everyone up to speed.
Three hackathons a year push the frontier with a few. Three Power-Up Weeks bring the whole studio with them — live, hands-on, in every region. No one watches from the sidelines. No FOMO.
The move
A hackathon is a spark for the few. Power-Up Week is how it reaches the many.
The few go deep at the hackathon and build the new power-ups. Then the whole studio gets a week to learn them — hands-on, on real work, inside their own day. That's the deal: the frontier moves, and no one gets left behind.
01 The rhythm
Three hackathons. Three Power-Up Weeks.
Every hackathon is followed by a Power-Up Week that turns what the few built into something everyone can use. The build and the spread are one rhythm — all year.
Hackathon 01 · London · done
Sprint Zero
↓ becomes
Power-Up Week 01
July — the first six power-ups reach the floor.
Live nowHackathon 02 · Bangaluru · Sept
Prove it
↓ becomes
Power-Up Week 02
October — the next wave, taught everywhere.
PlannedHackathon 03 · Costa Rica · Dec
Productise
↓ becomes
Power-Up Week 03
January — the year's builds, in everyone's hands.
Planned02 How a week runs
Two sessions a day — every region, inside its own working day.
One content spine, delivered live. EMESA and APAC take the same two sessions in sync on the overlap of their days; AMR runs the mirror later, in its own hours. Nobody trades a working day to attend.
EMESA + APAC
In sync · the shared live sessions
Both regions take the same two sessions, timed to the overlap of their working days. One delivery, two regions, live together.
AMR
The mirror · later, in-region
Same content, run again in AMR hours — and the fallback for anyone in any region who missed the live slot. Led out of Costa Rica.
Two sessions a day means every timezone can attend inside its own day — and topics repeat, so there are ~4 chances to catch each one.
02b How a single session runs
Ninety minutes, always the same shape.
01 · Ignite
Show, don't tell
15–20 min
Live-demo the power-up on a real case — the "this couldn't exist without it" moment.
02 · Make
Hands on keys
75–85 min
Everyone runs the packaged workflow on their own live work — a real proposal, a real asset.
03 · Share
What we made
15–20 min
A few show their output; the champion captures what was missing → feeds the backlog & Library.
04 · Power-up
Level up + homework
5 min
Recognition, plus a short "bring-it-home" brief to apply on real work before the next week.
03 Who runs it
Regional leaders. Topic champions.
Two roles carry the week. Regional leaders own it in their region — the schedule, the room, the turnout. Topic champions each own one power-up and teach it everywhere.
APAC · leaders
Pritish Tandon
+ Diwakar Singh
Bangaluru hub
EMESA · leaders
Jose Eguidazu
+ Paula Sanchez
Office anchor — TBC
AMR · leaders
Ave Versteeg
+ Gema Arrieta
Costa Rica
Topic champions — one per power-up
Each champion owns the demo, the run-sheet and the follow-up for their topic.
They're the face of one power-up across every region — the person who makes it land and keeps improving it. The first cohort is forming:
Shaped once by the Lab. Esteban, Stephen, Bill, Fernando & Pritish package each power-up once (with Abhi on the Library); the regions run it. The Lab builds the kit — the regions carry it.
04 What I need from you
What I need from the Creative Directors.
You're the long-term owners of Creative AI in your region. To lead this well, I need four things from you.
Champion
Visibly back the week — make AI fluency part of how the studio defines quality, not an extra.
Activate
Connect the practice to the work; remove the friction so it reaches every team, not just the keen few.
Identify
Name your regional leaders and topic champions — and free up their time to do it.
Own the ladder
Track fluency; grow the next champions and the future Lab pipeline from your region.
Concretely, now
- →Name 2 regional leaders + your topic champions — by end of July.
- →Protect their time. This is delivery, not a favour squeezed around billable work.
- →Commit to the three-a-year cadence and the fluency targets.
- →Feed the backlog with real regional needs — so the next hackathon builds the right things.
Next
Let's bring the whole studio up together.
The first Power-Up Week runs in July. To set it up, I need your regional leaders and topic champions named by the end of the month.
Esteban Zapiola · Creative AI Lead · BCG Design Studios