| Adding on to what others have said already: Success: A successful hackathon is where interests are aligned and everyone gets value from the event: the producers, sponsors, api providers, organizers, hackers, volunteers, event scribes, mentors, emcees, judges, audience, bloggers et al. Generally many things generally need to come together to make this magic. Objective: What is the hackathon's objective? to test an api or tech (sf chatter 2010)? popularize it? build things on it (google wave hack '09)? cross pollinate apis? supercharge a conference (launch '15)? introduce a new tech paradigm (uc berkeley btc hack '14) start a developer program? build a dev program? find great devs or a great team (lady gaga backplane sxsw '12)? to find out whether to release tech (twitter annotations '10)? to pre-accel teams (angelhacks)? to have fun [go hack w/ rbodo @ singularityU:]? create solutions to problems (amex creative-currency '11)? Prizes: can inspire (pp's 100k prizes), be complicated (sfdc $1m prize(s) '13 hack), be too little (as some have commented) or be just right - which depends on the objectives & aligning interests. Setup: a page with links to all tech offered / available for the event. If setup is complex & lengthy consider creating virtual machines for devs (transparency & blockchain hack '14). Consider having an harassment policy (tcd sf '13). Rehearse: if it's your first and you've many people coming, rehearse when doors open & devs pile in. Rehearse the hacks, make sure presenters can easily connect to the projector, have screen settings correct, sound on or off, have right sound level, know how to use a mic. If you've lots of demos - ideally have two podiums. If someone's preso can't start or gets stuck, you can quickly switch over to other podium. Scribe: Have a hackathon scribe. Blog before/after the event. Create a tweet handle. During rehearsals create tweet for each pitch describing what it does & handles or name of at least the team leader. During each pitch, send out their tweet. Tweet each and every winning team. Tweet thanks to your sponsors. Guides:
hackathon.guide
hackdaymanifesto.com
socrata.com/open-data-field-guide/how-to-run-a-hackathon |