Three countries. One problem.
The future of search.
Forge goes global. For the first time, NMG Labs runs a single live AI build sprint across three countries at once, Team India, Team UAE and Team Belgium, all building against the same problem, in the same window, on one Discord stage. The theme is the thing every brand is now scrambling to solve: being found in the age of AI search.
IndiaNMG Labs, Gurgaon
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UAEDubai · on Discord
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Belgiumon Discord
When a buyer asks AI "what's the best X?", whose brand gets named?
Search has changed more in 18 months than in the previous fifteen years. People no longer just type keywords and scroll ten blue links, they ask AI assistants and get one synthesised answer. If your brand isn't inside that answer, you are invisible. Forge 5 is built around the three layers of modern discoverability:
| Layer | What it means | The builder's job |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Search Engine Optimization | Ranking in classic Google / Bing results | Technical health, content quality, links, structured data |
| AEO Answer Engine Optimization | Being the answer, snippets, voice, "People Also Ask" | Question-led content, clean liftable facts, schema, entity clarity |
| GEO Generative Engine Optimization | Cited & recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews | Brand salience, truth alignment, citable sources, AI share-of-voice |
You get a real brand and a real visibility problem on Sprint morning. Your team diagnoses where that brand is invisible across AI search, then builds and ships something that measurably improves it, content, schema, an audit tool, a query-fanout map, a citation strategy, an AI-visibility dashboard or your own bold idea.
Three teams, one problem, one global champion.
Team India
Builders from Delhi NCR and across India, building together from the NMG Labs office, Gurgaon.
Team UAE
Builders from Dubai colleges, coordinated by Gilles, live on Discord.
Team Belgium
Builders from Belgian colleges, coordinated by Gilles, live on Discord.
Up to 30 builders per country (~90 total). All three teams receive the identical problem statement at the same moment and build inside the same window. At the close, the single best build across all three countries is crowned Global Champion, with the strongest team per country recognised regardless of who takes the global crown. Everything runs on one Forge 5 Discord server: a shared main stage for the opening and problem drop, per-country build rooms, a live scoreboard and the closing ceremony.
A 7-hour build window, shown in all three zones.
| Block | 🇮🇳 IST | 🇦🇪 GST | 🇧🇪 CEST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening ceremony (main stage) | 12:30 | 11:00 | 09:00 |
| Problem drops · build begins | 13:00 | 11:30 | 09:30 |
| Build window (7 hours) | 13:00-20:00 | 11:30-18:30 | 09:30-16:30 |
| Submissions lock | 20:00 | 18:30 | 16:30 |
| Finalist demos | 20:15-21:45 | 18:45-20:15 | 16:45-18:15 |
| Global Champion announced | ~21:50 | ~20:20 | ~18:20 |
Times may flex ±30 min. The window gives Belgium a normal daytime build, UAE midday-to-evening and India an afternoon-to-night sprint in the NMG Labs office.
One rubric across all three countries. The single highest score wins globally.
| Visibility Impact , measurable before/after across SEO, AEO, GEO | 30 |
| AEO/GEO Depth , how AI engines retrieve, trust and cite | 25 |
| Execution & Craft | 20 |
| Diagnosis Quality | 15 |
| Strategy & Business Sense | 15 |
| Presentation | 15 |
Tie-break: Visibility Impact, then AEO/GEO Depth, then both builds run against a surprise query set released at lock.
"The prize is not the cash, it's what comes after." For the international hackathon, that's bigger than ever.
NMG & international internships
Structured, paid internships on a path to a full career, including cross-border placements, not just local.
Paid global client work
Standout builders get put on real NMG international client projects across the LA · London · NZ · India network.
Worldwide exposure
Your build, name and profile in front of an international network of clients, partners and mentors. Sponsor AI credits + certificate + global community.
Awards: 🏆 Global Champion · 🇮🇳 🇦🇪 🇧🇪 Country Champions · Top Finalists with NMG fast-track. Cash prize pool revealing soon as international sponsors are confirmed.
Powered by Visiblie.
Forge 5 is sponsored by Visiblie, the AI-visibility platform that tracks and optimises how brands show up across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, exactly the AEO/GEO/SEO problem you will build against. Visiblie also coordinates our UAE and Belgium campuses for the international hackathon.
VisiblieAI Visibility Platform · visiblie.com
Gilles PraetCo-Founder, VisiblieInternational coordinator · UAE & Belgium
You choose your tools.
- AI engines to test against: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews / AI Mode, Gemini, Claude.
- Search & SERP data: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, free SERP checks.
- Technical SEO: Lighthouse / PageSpeed, crawl tools, schema validators.
- Schema: Schema.org, JSON-LD, Google Rich Results Test.
- Build & GEO tracking: any code stack, static site or dashboard; share-of-voice logging or a tool you build.
Sponsor credits (announced before Sprint Day) may unlock premium AEO/GEO/SEO platforms for the window.
Eligibility
- Students / recent graduates (final-year UG, PG or graduated within ~12 months) at recognised institutions in India, the UAE or Belgium.
- Build with your country team on the Forge 5 Discord. India builds from the NMG Labs Gurgaon office; UAE and Belgium build remotely.
- No fee. No travel required.
- Marketers and developers both welcome, strategists, content builders, schema/technical people and a demo lead all have a lane.
Forge 5 in Photos
A few moments from the floor. Builders mid-sprint, the roundtable, the certificate handout.
Put your country on the global stage.
Register for Team India, Team UAE or Team Belgium and join the Forge 5 Discord. We will email you the brief window and check-in details before Sprint day.
Bring your campus in.
Forge Captain: Ayush Gupta · labs@nmgdigital.com. International (UAE & Belgium) coordination: Gilles. Forge Director: Mohit Maheshwari. Judging Chair: Rohit Maheshwari.
Forge Sprint 05 · The International Hackathon · AEO · GEO · SEO · date to be announced · Live on Discord across India, UAE & Belgium · An initiative of nmg.labs by NMG Technologies.