Somerset organisations turn AI ideas into working community tools
Two Somerset organisations are bringing together local people, businesses and technology to explore how AI can solve real problems.
CulturaLinks Community CIC and Nexus Innovation Hub are running practical AI Hackathons in Taunton, where participants work in teams to identify a problem, develop an idea and turn it into a working AI concept in a single day.
The initiative is led by Oksana Logvynenko, founder of CulturaLinks Community CIC and co-founder of Nexus Innovation Hub. Her work focuses on using AI to address practical challenges faced by communities and workplaces, and on creating opportunities for people to experiment with the technology themselves.
The first AI Hackathon, held in August, brought together 26 participants. Five teams were formed and five different AI products were developed during the day.
At the end of the event, teams presented what they had built to a judging panel which included Naomi Johnson from Somerset Council. The Pilot Pick was an AI Interview Coach designed to help people practise interview answers using the STAR method.
Oksana said:
“We didn’t want to create another event where people sit in a room and talk about what AI might do one day. We wanted people to take a real problem and see what they could actually build in a few hours. Five teams came in, and five different products came out. That is the part I find exciting.”
The project presentations and awards from the first hackathon can be watched here:
CulturaLinks and Nexus Innovation Hub are now building on the first event with the Career Access AI Hackathon on 8 October at the Firepool Centre for Digital Innovation in Taunton.
This time the focus is employment and career access. Participants will explore real barriers people face when looking for work and develop practical AI based solutions during the day.
CulturaLinks brings experience of working directly with people facing employment, digital and other practical barriers. Nexus Innovation Hub brings together founders, professionals, businesses and people interested in turning ideas into real projects.
For Oksana, the combination is important.
“CulturaLinks gives us direct experience of the problems people are dealing with. Nexus gives us a space to bring different people together and ask: can we build something useful around this? Sometimes the answer will be no. Sometimes we might end the day with something worth taking further. That is exactly why we test.”
Participants do not need to arrive with a startup, a technical team or a finished idea. The emphasis is on identifying a genuine problem, working with others and testing what can actually be built.
Career Access AI Hackathon
8 October 2026
10:00 to 16:00
Firepool Centre for Digital Innovation, Taunton
Free to attend
More information:
https://nexusinnovation.io/events/career-access-hackathon
Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1986583066429?aff=oddtdtcreator
First AI Hackathon presentations and awards:
https://youtu.be/UgGGpJvCt5c
CulturaLinks Community CIC:
https://www.culturalinks.co.uk/
Nexus Innovation Hub:
https://nexusinnovation.io/
