Vectara recently hosted a virtual worldwide hackathon with 1205 participants, exploring advanced techniques to build RAG-based applications. The event was a huge success, with 206 teams forming during the hackathon and 47 final submissions showcasing creative power unleashed by applying advanced RAG techniques. Vectara provided a core platform with additional capabilities from Together AI, LlamaIndex, Unstructured.IO, and Tonic.AI, simplifying the GenAI development process for developers. The event highlighted innovative solutions to important problems, and some projects continued to evolve into real businesses.