Into all that drama jumped Decoded Fashion with an exceedingly practical idea: a fashion hackathon where industry insiders tell techies what's actually lacking in the market. In other words, rather than the umpteenth street style photo-sharing apps, how about the next Fashion GPS, a digital tracker for samples and look books used by designers like Lanvin, Dior and many, many more.

The hackathon, which took place at AlleyNYC in Midtown last weekend--Betabeat was one of the judges--began with a panel of designers like Rachel Roy and Uri Minkoff, founder and CEO of Rebecca Minkoff, who stressed the need for innovation in areas like managing manufacturers, analytics tools around a product's success rate, and getting the right items in front of the right customer when they're ready to buy.

Decoded Fashion, which was founded in 2011 by Liz Bacelar, acts as a liaison--introducing startups and emerging technology to leaders in fashion and retail through events and discussions. Stephanie Winston Wolfkoff, the ringmaster of Fashion Week, is Decoded Fashion's co-executive producer. The organization is supported by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the hackathon winners were chosen based on a number of factors, including how well the hacks would further the mission of the CFDA. (Top prize: $10,000 and CFDA will build your app.)

There's been some grumbling about corporate hackathons of late--and the "fine line between engaging and exploiting." But in a Series A crunch, Decoded's set up seemed like a call for rationality, at least to us. There were also plenty of familiar Silicon Alley faces by way of tech bona fides. Mentors included Startup Bus conductor Mike Caprio, Andy Hagerman from The Design Gym, and Status Chart founder Chris Kennedy, whom we named one of the most poachable players in tech in last Spring.

In addition to getting the right balance of fashion vs. tech and startup folks vs. industry big wigs, the crowd of about 300 was also markedly diverse.

"I’ve been to many hackathons before. I’ve never seen a fashion hackathon with that much diversity of thought--this diversity of race, with this diversity of gender," a 7-months pregnant Ms. Bacelar told the crowd. "We’re 40 percent female here today and I’m so so proud. We didn’t recruit for that, it just happened. It shows how technology is changing and I’m so proud of it so thank you."

And, seriously, you've never seen such a well-dressed bunch of bleery-eyed coders. We spotted knee-high shearling boots, two shimmering gold numbers (one worn by Tumblr fashion evangelist Valentine Uhovski--a fellow judge) and plenty of leathah.

Unlike your traditional hackathon, the five finalists chosen had from Sunday until the grand finale, which will happen on the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week with a keynote from Zach Posen and Dennis Crowley. Yes, like QR codes, apps are about to make their big tent debut.

So despite concerns about vaporware, judges were looking for ideas that would present well in a couple weeks--with advice from mentors like Kevin Ryan along the way. (Notable considering some of the chosen few sounded like future Gilt Groupe acquisitions.)

The finalists included Coveted, a universal checkout platform for brands on Tumblr. That one is already in operation, as one of the hackers demonstrated by buying a $250 pair of sunglasses live during the demo. Fashion Dashboard, which analyzes how consumers are interacting with your brand, was another winner for displaying how Prada store windows are popular on Instagram and Foursquare check-ins on H&M. 42 was chosen for its attempt to measure and personalize in-store experiences, as opposed to offline ones. Then there was Avant-Garde, which wants to help with excess inventory by looking at the social media activity of customers on your mailing list. Lastly, SwatchIt is an app designed to help with inefficiencies of sourcing material from, say, rural parts of India so that designers can send questions and get a yes or no response to a database of artisans.

You can check out more information about the projects via Hacker League.

The five finalists will be whittled down to three before the 14th. Now we just have to figure out if there's anything in our closet that won't get us kicked out of the tents.

StartupBus NYC-> Austin circa 2011 (Photo: Betabeat)

"I would say that it takes a very specific type of person to want to go on a three day bus trip on a cramped, smelly bus to try to launch a startup," Jonathan Gottfried, a developer evangelist from Twilio told Betabeat last week. Mr. Gottfried was talking about the StartupBus, the pipe dream of an idea that started with a bus trip from San Francisco to SXSW in 2010, migrated to the New York City in 2011, and is now in Europe as well.

The bus trips--going to tech conferences like SXSW and now Le Web--consist of a competition where teams are formed, products built, and winners picked, all while hurtling along the highway.

"The goal is to have a prototype product that you can launch at SXSW," Mr. Gottfried explained. And, over the course of the trip, "build a team from nothing and business from nothing," he added, "The logistics of the StartupBus are very ad hoc, which is sort of the charm." Alumni from that rolling boot camp can currently be found at promising, well-funded startups like Branch, Instacart, and Pushd.  HipType, an ebooks analytics company formed on the Silicon Valley bus in 2012, even got backing from Y Combinator.

You can meet some of those community members Saturday, December 15th at the second StartupBus:Accelerate event hosted at the Alley NYC in Midtown. Veteran StartupBus rider Mr. Gottfried, whose company is one of the sponsors, emphasized that the BarCamp-like "unconference" will be organized according to the same ad hoc spirit. Thus rather than quietly listening to panels, designated facilitators help attendees discuss topics they're interested in. At the last event, there were workshops on how hacker culture could be good for business and teaching yourself to code. This year, UX design is also on the agenda.

"We essentially have sort of a brain trust where we discuss strategies we’ve developed over the years," which can be useful to new entrants to the startup scene, said Mr. Gottfried. "They get to sit and have deep off-the-cuff conversations about real problems and solutions that people have encountered."

And although you don't have to have participated in the StartupBus in order to attend, if you want to compete this year, the event is a good primer. "Accelerate is an awareness exercise as much as it is a community mind meld," added Mr. Gotfried.

Like the volunteer-driven StartupBus, Mr. Gottfried is hoping that Accelerate events in New York will be build a template that can be copied in other cities. "We're not necessarily going to fly out and run those," he acknowledged.

Tickets are $50 for general admission, $20 for students, but lucky Betabeat readers can click here for a 20 percent off discount. 

HIRING. As activity marketplace SideTour prepares to leave the TechStars offices for greener pastures this Friday, the startup has officially started hiring for a lead engineer and "host development manager." Business Insider is looking for a biz dev intern.

FREE PIZZA. Foursquare competitor SCVNGR is still at large; the company had several holiday-themed promotions and badges. Founder Seth Priebastch launched LevelUp, a mobile payments app complementary to SCVNGR, in October. Now LevelUp is announcing its first brand partner: Villa Pizza, which will offer $10 of free pizza in Times Square New Year's Eve.

SYNERGY. Fab.com has started selling Makerbots! "Fab.com will be selling two MakerBot 'Thing-O-Matic' products at two price different price points, one being the kit and one that is already assembled." The sale is on today and tomorrow.

MEETUPS. East Village Techies on Thursday; Android developers tonight and Dumbo Tech Breakfast Friday.

THIRD PARTIES. Public service announcement: there is a new Hype Machine app from Boston."We @ Dirty Water Labs in Boston have recently released our second music application is called 'uberHype' - social music discovery app built on The Hype Machine music platform. If you like reading music blogs and discovering new artists through that medium then this app should be the one."

THE RETURN OF THE SILICON VALLEY DIASPORA CONTINUES. Qwiki comes back, back, from Cali, Cali.

STARTUP BUS. There will be 12 regions up for the Startup Bus hackathon competition this year, and only those with popular support will participate. Last we heard, New York (which tied for first place with San Francisco last year) was in 13th place for the qualifying round—just shy of making it into the competition.

Hackers on the Startup Bus.

Remember the busload of entrepreneurs who hacked together six companies on the way from New York to South By Southwest? The experience was somewhere between summer camp and boot camp, and the participants have kept in touch ever since. (Betabeat received a few tipsy messages one night that revealed the buspreneuers had reunited for drinks and decided to raise $6,000 by the morning in order to stage an impromptu hackathon on a train.) Now the Startup Bus syndicate is planning StartupBus Accelerate, brainchild of Startup Bus hacker Mike Caprio, for this Saturday at New Work City.

"The event structure is in the style of an unconference. Attendees will play a key role in shaping the content. Bus alumni will lead sessions as needed but will serve mainly as facilitators," organizer Brian Fountain explained in an email. "We think this structure will lead to a lean and meaningful experience for attendees and Buspreneurs alike."

Unlike the three-day bus trip or the ill-fated train adventure, Startup Bus Accelerate is not a hackathon or a competition. The website calls it "a rare chance to meet the community behind The StartupBus, to network with other people interested in startups, and to share knowledge, get advice, and learn from the experiences of others." Sessions could include talks on how to craft a pitch, find investors, design your site or app, stay lean or demo. Attendees: if you can, check out a session on marketing. The Startup Bus people are genius at that.

Tickets are still available and the proceeds will go to pay for Startup Bus 2012.

Show Us Your Deck  is a collection of slide decks from New York City start-ups. Got a deck you want to show us? Let us know.

We're hearing that Fast Society has some potential suitors hot to get their hands on the app that's built to party. Is it Andrew W.K.?! We asked FS, and they "don't comment on rumors," but the company implied they'd be open to an offer. "We are going to do whatever is right for our business and vision," co-founder Matthew Rosenberg said in an email.

GroupMe's Steve Martocci has reached the next level! "There's a new party boy in tech town," the Daily News declared today, based on the rumor that in Austin Mr. Martocci bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which sells for about $250, for "each of approximately 40-employees in his New York office." Sounds like a lucky day for Jumo, which shares an office with the 13 GroupMes. WAIT--WE HAVE RECEIVED A TWEET--in real-time, from the GroupMe HQ! It seems the NYDN may be FOS. Or maybe Mr. Martocci just doesn't want to share with community manager, Sir "Sassy" Steve Spillman.

Philly Startup Weekend produced LaunchRock, the simple-yet-brilliant, single best hype machine for start-ups that have not yet launched, and we're now hearing that the company is getting funded to the tune of $400,000 and being shipped out to the Bay Area soon. They're having a party in New York, we heard, and you'll have to invite three people in order to get in--viral marketing in action!

It's a great day for hackathon-hatched start-ups! TripMedi, the app that was built on a bus, is suffering from an embarrassment of riches. A few investors from New York and beyond are going after the company, which isn't sure if it wants to go for AngelList or apply to TechStars or Y Combinator or what. One thing seems clear--it looks like three members of the team are off the bus, leaving a committed core of three: Roland Dillon, Steve Schlafman, and Londoner Ravi Kotecha, who is going to need a visa. It's been a total whirlwind for the company that was built in seven days--but they've got good training, considering they coded on the road during a tornado.

Did you notice that half of New York tech went on vacation after SXSW? Or maybe it was just Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, who headed down to Mexico to become mayor of Puerto Vallerta. Jealz.

Disclosure.

The binary is "the universal time travel code from Fry's butt in the Futurama movie," Mr. Laco explained in an email. CLARIFICATION: The binary part is from July; Mr. Laco got the ink on his wedding anniversary.

Anybody else get a nerdy tattoo during SXSW?