TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026 is just weeks away. If you're preparing an AI, web, or mobile project for the technology competitions in Şanlıurfa, now is the time to make sure the infrastructure behind it is ready too.
Visitor registration is now open for TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026, which will take place at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport from September 30 to October 4.
The scale of this year's event is significant. Technology competitions span 61 main categories and 143 sub-categories, with more than 100 million TRY in financial support available to teams that advance beyond the preliminary stage. More than 75 million TRY in prizes will be awarded to successful teams as per TEKNOFEST's September 2026 visitor announcement.
Described by its organizers as the world's largest Aerospace and Technology Festival, TEKNOFEST brings together technology teams, developers, students, entrepreneurs, institutions, and technology enthusiasts from across Türkiye and beyond. TEKNOFEST has also grown far beyond a traditional technology competition. Since its launch in 2018, the festival has been held 14 times, bringing large communities of young builders and technology enthusiasts together around emerging technologies.
For the teams competing this year, however, there is a much more immediate deadline: September 30.
The final weeks before a competition tend to be about fixing bugs, polishing the product, testing the demo, and preparing to show months of work to judges and visitors.
If you're building an AI-powered application, web platform, or mobile app for TEKNOFEST, there is one more thing worth testing before you arrive in Şanlıurfa:
Is your backend as ready for TEKNOFEST as your demo is?
TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026 at a glance
Dates: September 30 - October 4, 2026
Location: Şanlıurfa GAP Airport, Türkiye
Visitor admission: Free with prior online registration
Technology competitions: 61 main categories and 143 sub-categories
Financial support: More than 100 million TRY
Competition prizes: More than 75 million TRY
Visitor registration: Open now
The event is organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Türkiye, together with a broad network of companies, universities, public institutions, and other partners.
Visitors can register for free before the event. The official information also notes that individual tickets are required for participants, except children under seven, and that the festival grounds will be accessible between 09:00 and 20:00.
Register to visit TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026
Your TEKNOFEST Demo Is Only as Reliable as the Infrastructure Behind It
A project can work perfectly throughout development and still fail at exactly the wrong moment.
Maybe your application has only been tested by five members of your team.
Then a judge opens it.
Another judge tries it.
Twenty visitors scan your QR code.
Someone shares the project online.
Suddenly, the traffic pattern you've been testing against for months looks completely different.
For an AI-powered application, the backend can also be doing much more than storing a few database records.
It may be responsible for:
- user authentication and accounts;
- application data;
- API requests;
- files;
- permissions;
- server-side business logic;
- background processes;
- real-time functionality;
- and communication with external AI models and APIs.
The weeks before TEKNOFEST are therefore a good opportunity to test not just whether your product works, but whether the infrastructure supporting it is prepared for people to actually use it.
Here are five questions we think every web, mobile, or AI application team should answer before competition day:
1. What Happens If You Reach Your Backend Request Limit?
During development, backend usage can look deceptively small. A few developers and test users might generate only a fraction of the traffic your application will see once people begin actively exploring it. And one user does not necessarily equal one request.
Opening the application could trigger several API calls. Signing in generates more. Loading data, saving a result, uploading something, refreshing a dashboard, or initiating an AI workflow can each create additional backend requests.
Multiply that by dozens or hundreds of people, and usage can increase quickly.
Before heading to TEKNOFEST, check:
- How many API requests does an average session generate?
- How many requests does your current backend plan include?
- What happens when you exceed that allowance?
- Does your provider stop requests, throttle them, or charge for additional usage?
- Are there separate limits for compute, database, storage, bandwidth, or server-side execution?
- How quickly can you increase capacity if you need it?
You don't need to predict exactly how many people will discover your project in Şanlıurfa. You need to understand what happens if your prediction is wrong. Ideally, unexpected attention should be an opportunity, not an outage.
2. Can Your Backend Handle a Sudden Increase in Traffic?
Monthly request allowance is only part of the question. Your application also needs enough capacity to handle users arriving at the same time. This matters particularly during a live demonstration.
A project might have relatively modest overall traffic while experiencing a short period where many users are performing the same actions simultaneously. That is a very different workload from gradual development traffic.
Testing this doesn't mean you need to become an infrastructure engineer two weeks before TEKNOFEST. In fact, that is precisely what you probably don't want to be doing. Your time is better spent improving the application, fixing the user experience, testing your AI workflows, and preparing the actual presentation.
This is one of the reasons teams choose a managed backend like SashiDo. Our platform runs applications on the open-source Parse Server stack while managing the underlying infrastructure for you. You keep building and focusing on your product. We take care of running the infra behind it.
3. Where Is Your Backend Running?
Location isn't the only factor affecting application performance, but it is worth thinking about when most of your users will be accessing an application from the same part of the world.
For teams presenting in Türkiye, a backend in the European region can be a logical option to test.
SashiDo offers deployment in Europe, allowing teams serving users in Türkiye and other European markets to keep their backend geographically closer than infrastructure hosted on another continent.
That does not automatically guarantee a particular response time.
Application performance also depends on database queries, Cloud Code, file sizes, external APIs, network conditions, frontend architecture, and, for AI applications, the response time of the model provider itself.
So don't make assumptions. Test the complete application from Türkiye before competition day.
Run through the same workflows a judge or visitor will use.
Sign up.
Log in.
Load the important screens.
Trigger the AI functionality.
Upload files if your application supports them.
Test the complete journey rather than measuring an isolated API request.
4. Already Built Your TEKNOFEST Project on Parse Server? Don't Rebuild It Just to Change Hosting
This is particularly important for teams that already have a working application, but started running into limitations around requests, capacity, pricing, performance, or infrastructure requirements, this is the moment to understand your options. Not the night before your presentation.
If you've spent months building your TEKNOFEST project, changing infrastructure shouldn't automatically mean starting over.
A mature Parse Server application might already contain:
- registered users;
- database classes and relations;
- roles and permissions;
- Cloud Code;
- files;
- background logic;
- integrations with third-party APIs;
- and a web or mobile frontend built around the Parse API.
That's a lot to replace two weeks before a competition.
If your application already uses Parse Server, moving to another Parse Server environment may allow you to preserve much more of the architecture you've already built.
A typical migration assessment may include:
Database → Users → Roles and permissions → Cloud Code → Files → Configuration → External integrations → Application testing → Production switch
The exact process depends on the application.
SashiDo is based on Parse Server, so you can continue working with the Parse ecosystem rather than rewriting your backend around a completely different technology. And if you need sume help woth the migration contact our friendly support team.
5. Do You Know What Happens to Your Bill If Your Project Gets Attention?
There is another kind of limit that is easy to overlook while building a competition project.
Cost.
Infrastructure pricing tends to feel simple when usage is tiny. It becomes more important once people actually start using the application. Before choosing or changing your backend, understand exactly what you're paying for. Look beyond the headline monthly price and ask:
- How many requests are included?
- What happens after the included requests are consumed?
- How is additional compute charged?
- How much database storage is included?
- What about file storage and data transfer?
- Are background processes charged separately?
- Can the infrastructure scale without changing the entire plan?
- Can you see what is generating additional costs?
For example, SashiDo's base application plan currently starts at $14.95/month and includes 5 million API requests per month.
Additional infrastructure and usage are priced separately depending on what the application actually needs.
That distinction matters.
A backend can't be free forever and it does not need to. It needs to give you a reasonable understanding of what happens technically and financially as your application grows.
For a competition team, the question isn't:
"What's the cheapest backend we can find?"
A better question is:
"If 1,000 people suddenly try our project, do we know what happens?"
A Backend Checklist for TEKNOFEST 2026 Teams
With September 30 approaching, this probably isn't the moment to redesign your entire architecture.
It is the moment to remove obvious risks.
- Check your API usage - Measure how many backend requests a real user session generates. Don't estimate traffic based only on registered users.
- Review your infrastructure limits - Know your request, compute, database, storage, file, bandwidth, and execution constraints.
- Test concurrent usage - A successful test with one developer clicking through the application tells you very little about what happens when many people arrive simultaneously.
- Test the application from Türkiye - Test the actual workflows your visitors and judges will experience.
- Test your external AI services too - Your backend may not be the bottleneck. If your application depends on an external LLM, image model, speech API, vector database, or another AI service, check its rate limits and expected behavior under heavier usage as well.
- Prepare for more traffic than you expect - You don't need infrastructure designed for millions of users just because you're going to TEKNOFEST. But you also don't want the application to fail because 100 people decided to try it.
- Don't migrate at the last minute - If you've identified a genuine reason to move your backend, leave enough time to validate the data and test the complete application.
And once you've tested everything:
Stop changing the infrastructure unless you have a good reason. By competition day, your backend should be one of the boring parts of the project.
Why Parse Server Can Be a Good Backend for a TEKNOFEST Project
There isn't one backend that makes sense for every TEKNOFEST team. A robotics project, an AI-powered web platform, a healthcare application, and an autonomous vehicle project can have completely different infrastructure requirements. But for teams building web and mobile applications, Parse Server can provide a useful shortcut.
Instead of building common backend functionality from scratch, Parse Server provides capabilities such as:
- database APIs;
- user authentication;
- roles and permissions;
- Cloud Code;
- file handling;
- push notifications;
- Live Queries;
- and SDKs for different application platforms.
And importantly, Parse Server is open source. That gives teams another useful property when experimenting with a new product: the backend technology itself isn't something you can only run through one proprietary provider. You can start with a managed Parse Server platform when the team is small and infrastructure isn't where you want to spend your time. If the project eventually reaches a stage where you want to operate Parse Server yourself, the underlying technology remains open source.
With SashiDo, the idea is to make the first part easier.
You build the application. We operate the Parse Server infrastructure behind it.
Building an AI Application? Your Backend and Your AI Model Don't Have to Be the Same Thing
There is another misconception worth clearing up for AI teams. Using SashiDo as your backend doesn't mean your AI model has to run there.
Think of the architecture as separate layers. Your application might use SashiDo for:
Users + Authentication + Application Data + Files + Business Logic + APIs
while your AI functionality comes from:
an external LLM, vision model, speech service, custom model, or another AI API.
Your backend becomes the layer connecting users, application state, permissions, business logic, and AI services.
For example, a user could authenticate through your application, submit information, trigger server-side logic that communicates with an AI API, and then save the result back to the database.
That separation can make it easier to experiment with different AI providers without rebuilding the rest of the application every time.
For a TEKNOFEST team moving quickly, that flexibility can be useful.
What Happens If Your TEKNOFEST Project Becomes More Than a Competition Project?
This is the scenario worth preparing for!
You arrive in Şanlıurfa with a competition project.
People try it.
They like it.
You continue working on it after TEKNOFEST.
The first real users arrive.
Maybe the project becomes a startup.
At that point, the questions change.
Instead of:
"Will the demo work?"
you start asking:
"Will the product keep working as usage grows?"
You may need more compute resources.
Your database may grow.
Background processing may increase.
You may start storing more files.
You may introduce real-time functionality.
Eventually, you might even reach a stage where dedicated infrastructure or running parts of the stack yourself makes more sense. You don't have to solve those problems today. You just want to avoid creating an unnecessary technical dead end while you're moving fast.
That is one of the advantages of building on a managed backend like SashiDo using a open-source Parse Server framework.
You can optimize for speed today without completely giving up flexibility tomorrow!
Ready to prepare your project for TEKNOFEST?
Start your SashiDo app Now
When is TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026?
TEKNOFEST Southeast will take place from September 30 through October 4, 2026.
Where is TEKNOFEST Southeast 2026?
The festival will be held at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport in Türkiye.
Is TEKNOFEST Southeast free to visit?
Yes. According to the organizers, visitor admission is free, but visitors need to complete online registration before attending.
Can I use Parse Server for a TEKNOFEST project?
Yes, if Parse Server fits the technical requirements of your application. It can provide common backend capabilities such as authentication, database APIs, Cloud Code, files, permissions, push notifications, and real-time functionality.
Can I use SashiDo for an AI application?
Yes. SashiDo can handle the backend layer of an AI-powered web or mobile application while the application communicates with external AI models or services.
Can I migrate an existing Parse Server application to SashiDo?
Yes. However, the migration process depends on your existing application. Production projects should account for database data, users, permissions, Cloud Code, files, integrations, and configuration and should be tested thoroughly before switching production traffic.
Is SashiDo an alternative to Back4App?
SashiDo and Back4App both provide services around the Parse ecosystem, so a developer looking for managed Parse Server infrastructure may evaluate both. Which platform makes sense depends on the application's requirements, existing architecture, expected usage, infrastructure needs, preferred region, support requirements, and pricing.
Which backend region should I consider for a TEKNOFEST project in Türkiye?
If most of your users will be in Türkiye, a European region is worth testing. SashiDo offers European hosting, but geographic proximity alone does not determine application performance. Test your real user flows from Türkiye before making the final decision.
