Category Archives: Events

BIC ART MASTER AFRICA CONTEST, 2026

Application Deadline: 11:59 pm GMT Monday 20-July-2026.

LOCATION: Africa

BIC® brings to you the “Art Master” Ball Pen art contest that encourages the talents across Africa and the Middle East to showcase their creativity and compete with fellow artists.

Contest Theme: “Tomorrow in Your Hands” is a theme that celebrates the power of creativity to shape what lies ahead. It invites artists to express their hopes, stories, and imagination, showing that tomorrow is something we create with our own hands.

ELIGIBILITY:

Entry is open to all Africa and Middle East residents aged 13 years or older. Entrants under 18 years of age must have the consent of a parent/guardian to enter. Further, the parent/guardian of the entrant must read and consent to the Terms. Parents/guardians may be required by the Promoter to enter into a further agreement as evidence of consent to the minor participating in this competition. All warranties and agreements provided in the Terms by an Entrant are also deemed to be provided by the parent or legal guardian of such an Entrant if the Entrant is a minor

Eligible Countries: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Competition Period starts at 12:00 am GMT Monday 20-APRIL-2026.

The competition closes at 11:59 pm GMT Monday, 20-JULY-2026.

No entries will be accepted after this time

Entrants should ensure that content is original, authentic and the rightful property of the entrant. It is a condition of entry that the prize winner agrees for their name to be published for marketing purposes anywhere in the world in any format

Entrants are required to create a large scale (no smaller than A3) piece of art using only BIC® Ball Pen. Once an entrant has completed an art, art can be submitted through the Competition Platform.

Entrants can submit 3 entries that are substantially unique and submitted separately in accordance with these terms.

BENEFIT:

BIC Art Master of Africa receives 2,000 USD cash prize, personalized virtual gallery developed by BIC for the winner (to manage, upload the winning artwork for 1 years) and possibility of getting the artwork featured in La BIC collection of Art by purchasing the artwork.

Second Place Prize Winner: receives a 1,000 USD cash prize only.

Third Place Prize Winner: receives a 500 USD cash prize only.

National Winner of Country: receives a 500 USD cash prize only.

Lucky Voter winner receives prize valued at 250 USD

APPLY

BUILD SMALL HACKATHON

Application Deadline: Monday, June 15, 2026

LOCATION: USA

The pace of AI over the last year has been anxiety-inducing. Labs release larger and larger models that do more of the things that make us feel human—writing, drawing, speaking, and coding. Register through the app below and join the org. 

ELIGIBILITY:

Chapter One

Backyard AI: Solve a real problem for someone you actually know. Pick a person—a neighbor, a parent, a small-business owner on your street—and build something that makes their day measurably better.

Judged on:

The problem is specific and real

The person actually used it

Honest fit between problem and the small-model constraint

Polish of the Gradio app

Chapter Two:

An Adventure in Thousand Token Wood: Build something delightful that wouldn’t exist without AI. Wander somewhere weirder. A toy, a tiny game, a strange interactive story, an art experiment that surprises you. The AI should be doing the fun thing—not just helping you build it. Strange is good. Joyful is the bar.

Judged on:

Genuinely delightful (would you show a friend?)

AI is load-bearing for the experience

Originality of concept

Polish of the Gradio app

The Constraints—Three rules of the trail:

Small Models Only: Total parameters must be ≤ 32 billion. The model fits on a laptop. So should your ambition.

Built on Gradio: Your app must be a Gradio app, hosted as a Hugging Face Space. That’s the canvas.

Show, Don’t Tell: A short demo video and a social media post are part of the submission. Make it sing.

To Participate:

Register: Join this org on Hugging Face. Register on the app.

Find your people: Hop into the Gradio Discord. AMAs. Connect with Gradio and HF folks. Potential teammates live there.

Build & ship: Build your Gradio app and host it as a Space under this org.

Submit: Drop your Space link, a short demo video, and a social post by the deadline.

→   Register on Hugging Face

BENEFIT:

Total Prize Pool: $40,000+ in cash & physical prizes across both tracks

APPLY