[dsyang]

Having experienced all three types of judging formats as a hacker, I honestly enjoyed the Demo-athon types the best.

The most exciting part of a hackathon is seeing what other hackers have made and that's almost impossible when you're stuck at your table demoing. Especially if you're a solo hacker or a key member of the team.

The expo-style format may be the most scalable, but there's also a ton of room for improvement. I distinctly remember a hackathon (MHacks maybe?) where none of the sponsor judges came to see my app. Another time I overheard judges prioritized tables that had the most twitter mentions, turning the expo into a social network popularity contest of sorts.

Its exciting to see hackathons trying to solve the demo problem, and I'm really glad someone put together a guide, but I think the ideal judging format has yet to be found.