At a glance
- Experienced process leaders with 120+ hackathons delivered across the Nordics
- Four roles work together: lead facilitator, AI coach, challenge owner and pitch coach
- Daily users of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and n8n who understand both AI and the business context
- Average satisfaction of 4.9 out of 5, and 87% of teams have a prototype within 48 hours
- Contact: call or email Jarle Kondrup on +45 22 77 28 08 or at jarle@ilab.dk
AI facilitators with 120+ hackathons behind them
A good AI facilitator is half AI expert, half process designer and half psychologist. That is not a combination you pick up on a course. It takes a great deal of time in the room with real teams and real problems.
The average score of 4.9 out of 5 comes from our internal satisfaction surveys and evaluation meetings with former clients and participants.
Meet the facilitators
Innovation Lab was founded in 2001 and has planned and facilitated more than 120 hackathons, for public agencies, large international companies and ambitious small and medium-sized businesses.
Jarle Kondrup
Innovation expert and partner, Innovation Lab
Your contact person. +45 22 77 28 08 or jarle@ilab.dk
Jarle started his first company at the age of 12 and has kept the entrepreneurial mindset ever since. He has lived and worked in six countries and has been with Innovation Lab for the past 12 years. Jarle helps companies realise their commercial potential through strategic innovation, grounded in user insight, new technology and a strong commercial focus.
100+ workshops and hackathons delivered. Clients include the Danish Agency for Digital Government, Ørsted, Deloitte, Grundfos, Kamstrup and Danfoss. MA in Experience Economy, BSc in Business Development Engineering.
Mads Thimmer
Partner and CEO, Innovation Lab
Mads has worked with the strategic consequences of digitalisation for almost 20 years. He explains the digital landscape with humour and concrete examples, and he has a rare ability to make complex subjects relevant to people who do not work with technology every day.
Guest lecturer at the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurship. More than 500 keynotes delivered, including for Maersk leadership, Danish ministries, Semco Maritime and the Offshore Energy Association.
Mads Voigt Hingelberg
Head of AI research, Innovation Lab
Mads has 23 years of experience with data systems and AI and was among the first in Denmark to work professionally with GPT models, from 2019. He is a technical specialist in generative AI and prompt engineering, and he combines deep technical understanding with the ability to translate it into business value.
Teaches for the Confederation of Danish Industry and legal organisations. Has delivered AI solutions across supply chain, defence, media and healthcare.
Chris Weier
Leadership strategist and partner, Innovation Lab / Nordic Connective
Chris works on what decides whether an AI prototype survives its first month: how leaders and teams actually adopt new technology without losing people along the way. She designs and facilitates programmes that create real movement, including strategy expeditions, innovation safaris and leadership programmes, and she brings the human side into the hackathon room, so what gets built also gets used.
Originally a software engineer, with 20+ years across technology, organisational development and leadership facilitation. She founded her first agency in 2007 and moved to Copenhagen in 2017. Partner at Innovation Lab and founder of Nordic Connective. Her clients include HDI, PostFinance, Sparkassen, Matas Group and Tetra Pak.
Four roles. One team. One goal.
We match the size of the facilitation team to the format and the number of participants. This is what each role actually involves, without the fine words.
Lead facilitator
Keeps the overview and manages the energy in the room. Makes sure teams do not drown in overanalysis and that nobody is sitting there bored. The person who senses when something is about to go wrong, and quietly puts it right.
AI coach
The technical expert teams call on when they are stuck with a tool. Knows the shortcuts in ChatGPT, Claude and n8n and solves in minutes what would otherwise cost a team the best part of an hour.
Challenge owner
Works with management 2 to 3 weeks before the hackathon to make sure the problem is defined sharply enough for teams to build something meaningful. Makes sure the results take root afterwards.
Pitch coach
Helps teams tell the story behind their prototype in a way that lands with a panel that has the authority to decide. Technically impressive is not the same as convincing.
This is not something you pick up from a YouTube tutorial
This is what really sets an experienced AI hackathon facilitator apart from one who has just started.
Hands-on experience with AI tools
Our facilitators use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and n8n every day and know when a tool solves the problem and when it creates a new one.
120+ hackathons behind them
Nobody learns to manage energy on a course. It takes having stood in the room when a team is stuck, moving too slowly or losing heart shortly before the pitch.
They talk business, not code
Our facilitators understand return on investment, how change takes root in an organisation and what it takes for a prototype to survive its first week after the hackathon. That is not a given.
At home across the Nordics
We work across the Nordics and facilitate in English or Danish. It sounds obvious, but a good facilitator speaks the language that comes naturally to the participants.
A method built on experience
Design thinking and lean startup, adapted to working with AI. We do not use methods because they are fashionable, but because experience from more than 120 hackathons shows that they work.
Always up to date
AI tools change every month, and it is not enough to have kept up a year ago.
What happens before the event
Half the work happens before the hackathon starts
Hackathons quite often fail because the problem was defined too vaguely or too broadly. Our preparation process is designed to prevent exactly that.
- 01
Kick-off meeting 2 to 3 weeks before
We meet management and the challenge owners and ask the uncomfortable questions. Is the problem real? Can it be solved with AI? Is there backing to implement a prototype? That conversation decides whether the hackathon becomes an investment or an expense.
- 02
Challenge brief and pre-reading for participants
We write a tailored challenge brief with context, data and examples from similar industries. Participants receive it before the hackathon, so nobody starts from scratch.
- 03
The hackathon itself
We manage energy, time and technical support. We help teams over the bumps that always come up, keep the pace high and make sure every participant is with us all the way.
- 04
Follow-up and implementation roadmap
After the event we deliver a written summary, documentation for every prototype and a concrete implementation roadmap. That is where prototypes either live or die.
Call Jarle before you decide anything
Jarle Kondrup, partner at Innovation Lab
Jarle answers the phone himself, and he facilitates himself. Tell him about your challenge, and he will give you an honest view on whether a hackathon is the answer and who on the team suits you best. No sales pitch, no obligation.
Call +45 22 77 28 08 or email jarle@ilab.dk. We reply within 24 hours.