Earlier this month, on April 11th, I was lucky enough to travel to Ahmedabad, India, to attend the re-booting of the Liferay User Group in that city, and to co-host the inaugural Liferay Marketplace Fragment Hackathon.

Before I start on the results, a couple of big "Thank You's" are needed. First, to Bhavin Panchani, and his team, at IGNEK, a proud partner of Liferay in Ahmedabad, who did all of the organisation on the ground. And, secondly, to Kenexai - who are nothing to do with Liferay, but, thanks to their strong relationship with Bhavin, offered up their offices to host the event!

The catalyst for both User Group Meeting and Hackathon came from my first meeting with Bhavin at Liferay DevCon 2025 in Madrid.

(And, on that point, a shameless plug - our next DevCon is taking place this November 2nd to 5th in London - check out the details - and submit a paper - and take advantage of early-bird pricing here - and see you all there!)

Bhavin and his team have been implementing Liferay for many years, and recognised the potential to generate interest and engagement in Ahmedabad due to the large number of Liferay Partners and Developers in the city. He was vocal about wanting to give back to the Community and re-boot in-person events.

And so, here we were - nearly 110 people registered for the User Group Meeting, and over 100 came on the day - a staggering turn-out. Then, more than 40 of those stayed for the afternoon and developed a series of new Fragments - most of which you can find, download, and use, in the Liferay Marketplace!

Some stats on the event:

• 22 teams (of between 1 and 3 people) took part
• 18 of those teams delivered a Fragment (or in some cases Fragments) by the end of the day
• 18 Fragments or Fragment Collections can be downloaded from the Marketplace

Our team of judges assessed the fragments on the following criteria:

• Innovation (25%)
• Technical Implementation and Quality (30%)
• Business Value and Market Potential (20%)
• User Experience (UX) and Design (15%)
• Presentation and Demonstration (10%)

The scoring was tight - with a maximum of 40 points our 3 winners were separated by less than 1 point. This is a testament to the quality of the submissions!

And this was serious stuff - with big prizes to go to the 3 winners:

• First Place: ₹50,000
• Second Place: ₹25,000
• Third Place: ₹10,000

But, enough of my rambling, let's get to the important business - announcing the winners!

First Place - Grand Prize Winner!

Our first place went to Bhargav Vaghasiya, from IGNEK, who submitted 5 fragments that make up his Dashboard Components. This flexible collection of Fragments provides two Chart fragments, one of which allows end-user run-time configuration, a Workflow visualiser, a Tile, and a Modal side-panel!

 

Second Place

Separated by less than 1/2 a point from first place, were Shreyas Vasoya and Jay Thakkar, also from IGNEK, who submitted their AccessiPlus Toolbar and MediTrack fragments. AccessiPlus improves usability for users with impairments, while MediTrack adds day-to-day pharmacy billing on top of Liferay's Commerce capabilities.

 

Third Place

And, less than 1/2 a point behind second place, Pravar Jain and Rimpy Mittal from Engineers Mind delivered their Commerce Insight Hub, a collection of no less than 7 fragments designed to transform Liferay Commerce data into real-time business intelligence!

And to everyone else!

Not everyone could win on the day, but I also want to thank and congratulate everyone else that took part - the day wouldn't have, and couldn't have, been as much as a success without your participation!

Darshan Jethwani, Diksha Raturi, Nishita Sahajwani, Nishant Tankariya, Jilpesh Kanzariya, Teena Dhakad, Avan Golakiya, Kush Patel, Satish Dabhi, Abhishek Ramanandi, Ravi Hirpara, Dixit Baravaliya, Jay Vanpariya, Barot Bhargavkumar Kumudchandra, Prem Nareshkumar Prajapati, Harshit Butani, Poojan Rohitkumar Suthar, Yash Khatri, Kalbehusain Chaudhary, Purvesh Kachhiya, Keval Kathiriya, Parth Ranipa, Alkama Dodiya, Ankit Hadiyal, Kajal Ramani, Nirav Patel, Laxit Khanpara, Shani Patel, Varun Agrawal, Nimish Ghatliya, Prince Katrodiya, Pushti Bhadja, Brijesh Ladva, Sojitra Dhaval, Dhruvi Bhayani, Mishrita Solanki

And, we're only just getting started!

Watch this space, or our Meetup Groups, because this is just the beginning - more User Groups, more Hackathons, more engagement!