Organizing hackathons

Purpose and goals of a hackathon

Hackathons are useful for fostering innovation, collaboration, and testing ideas for building/making.

The following factors help in producing outcomes that lead to innovation, collaboration and testing ideas:

1. Curation by (an) editor(s) who is a subject matter expert. Curation leads to tight focus, and clarity for participants and sponsors on what to expect from the hackathon.
2. A focussed theme, with clear sub topics.
3. Mentors who will give feedback to participants on their ideas.
4. Strong jury - to provide clear and incisive feedback which will help participants to think about the work they have done at the hackathon, and pursue their work after the hackathon.

The core value of a hackathon is to provide feedback to participants, and for editors, mentors and the jury members to learn from participants, so that all parties gain in knowledge, and go back with insights that they can apply at their work.

Roles of the organizing team

The roles and responsibilities for a hackathon include:

0. Financial operations and fiscal managment is a core role which:
   *Estimates the spends.
   *Sets revenue targets for sales.
   *Plans the budget.
   *And thereby sets the framework for the operational workflow for the hackathon.
   A budget and knowledge of the sales and revenue targets for adequately compensating staff, editors, jury, give cash prizes, etc is key to running a hackathon smoothly.

1. Editor is a subject matter expert who sets the theme and topics for the hackathon. Editors must also have good wriiting skills, so that they can help in writing/editing the initial copy for the hackathon announcement.
   It is ideal for a hackathon to have two editors, so that editors can take rotational responsibilities in answering participants’ queries and giving feedback for projects and ideas that come in early on.
   Besides setting the theme and topics for the hackathon, Editors also do the following:

• Suggest candidates for the jury, and optioncally reach out to jury members from their networks.
• Work with the jury members to set the criteria for judging projects/ideas.
• Suggest sponsorship leads.
• Participate in sponsorship meetings to respond to technical queries.
• Provide inputs to marketing and communications to understand audience personas; review marketing strategy and copy.

3. Mentors are individuals from the community/specific field with subject matter expertise and deep technical experience. ** Mentors play a very valuable role at the start of the hackathon, when participants need ice-breaking and are nervous about finding collaborators. Similarly, mentors play a pivotal role at midnight (if it is an overnight hackathon) or in the middle stages, when participants are typically stuck on how to proceed next with their ideas.**
   The primary responsibility of mentors includes:

• Review the ideas/projects that have come in and stay updated - prior to the hackathon.
• Be present on the day of the hackathon to guide/help participants.
• Be proactive in reaching out to participants and understand their ideas.
• Help unblock participants, whenever participants are stuck with a technical issue, stuck with how to proceed next with their idea, or need a collaborator.

4. Jury consists of individuals who bring heft to the hackathon. While editors and mentors work with participants and give them feedback from the start till the end of the hackathon, the jury is important because the jury’s feedback gives validation to participants on the demo day. The role of the jury is:

• Finalize award/prize categories.
• Work with editors to set the criteria for awards.
• Be present on both the days of the hackathon, to talk to participants and walk through the projects.
• Be present for 4-6 hours on the demo day to give feedback for each demo, and decide on the final winners.
  The jury should ideally consist of influencers in the domain, and individuals with deep expertise, who have high credibility among participants. The jury members represents aspiration value for participants.
  It is also important to ensure that the jury is diverse, with at least 50% members being women and individuals from the non-binary spectrum.

5. Marketing and communications involves a strategy aspect and tactical aspects.
   The strategy aspect includes:

• Understanding the theme, topics and audience of the hackathon.
• Planning where and how to reach the audience. This work needs to take place in parallel, at the start of the hackathon.

The strategy work is best done by a marketing professional, in coordination with the editor. The marketing professional then prepares the outreach timelines and templates, which are executed as part of the tactics. Templates are set up for the following:

• Posters and copy for editors to post at the beginning (theme, value for participants), middle (jury and mentors’ announcement, sponsor announcement, and audience personas) and closer to the date (FOMO) of the hackathon.
• Posters and copy announcing jury members.
• Posters and copy for the jury to share.
• Posters and copy for mentors to share.
• Call for sponsorships.
• Sponsor announcements (after sponsors have confirmed).
• Testimonials (for the community and its activities).
• Snippets (video, with editors and jury members).

The tactical or execution aspects of marketing are best performed by one or two members of the community who have good communication skills, understand the subject matter, and know how to use scheduling tools to schedule social media posts, mailers and updates. Their primary role is keep drumming up excitement and anticipation for hackathon, and communicate the tangible and intangible value of participating in the hackathon for potential audiences.

6. Design involves putting together the visual communications - posters, mailers, etc - for the hackathon. If the hackathon is conducted by a community that has held several activities in the past, it is preferable that these visual communication templates be set up before or at the beginning of the hackathon. The templates can then be used by the marketing executives (i.e., individuals who are responsible for scheduling posts and emails, etc). Canva is a good tool which helps executives to use and re-purpose the templates.

7. Sponsorships and sales involves:

   • Preparing the sponsorship deck, with clear categories and deliverables for sponsors.
   • Identifying leads.
   • Following up with leads.
   • Closing the sale.
   • Managing the sponsorship deliverables in coordination with editors and marketing team.
   • Sharing reports and data with the sponsor at the end of the hackathon.

8. Logistics involves:

   • Setting up/updating the checklist for venues.
   • Sourcing venues.
   • Sourcing and onboarding vendors for food, collateral and any rentals required.
   • Finalizing and commissioning vendors.
   • Following up with vendors to ensure timely delivery.
   • Payments to vendors after completion of the hackathon.

9. Venue host does the following:

• Provide the venue for the hackathon.
• Make arrangements for furniture and set-up for participants to work comfortably during the hackathon.
• Provide WiFi and network infrastructure.
• Make arrangements - or assist with - for food and beverages.
• Provide access to drinking water, parking facilities, and toilets.
• Arranges for projector, screen, mics and sound system - all the pre-requisites required for participants (and anyone else) to present their work.
• Access to pantry.
• Access to a storage space - for participants to keep luggage, to store items required at the hackathon, and to store any beverages, drinks and snacks.

10. Hired staff for the hackathon includes:
    * Photographer makes pictures during the hackthon. The photographer is a professional. They are given a checklist of photos to make. Photos are shared during the hackathon for posting on social media. Processed photos are shared three days after the hackathon is completed.
    • Videographer makes short videos and snippets during the hackathon. The videographer is paired with a mentor or the editor to ask questions to participants and jury for making the snippets. Here, the editor/mentor is the subject matter expert, while the videographer is the skilled professional. The videographer edits and processes the short videos within a week after the hackathon is over.
    • Hackathon auditor is an independent auditor (who may not have an interest in the subject matter). The auditor’s job is:
      • a. To coordinate with the venue POC for serving beverages and meals as per schedule.
      • b. Update the venue if the number of participants is more that what was estimated for meals and beverages.
      • c. Collect verbal feedback from participants.
      • d. Distribute and collect feedback forms from participants.
      • e. Collate the feedback data, and produce a report of the hackathon three days after the event is completed.
        It is advisable to have two auditors who can back each other up during the hackathon, and in case an auditor drops out last minute owing to any emergency.
    • Emcee to make announcements during the hackathon, and emcee the demos and judging session. The emcee can be drawn from a mentor, someone who can engage the audiences in a meaningul and enoyable manner.

Planning the hackthon

0. Prepare the budget for the hackathon.
1. Define the hackathon’s theme, challenges, and target audience.
2. Determine the date, time, and location (virtual or physical). Also define the duration of the hackathon - 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours.
3. Identify potential sponsors and partners.
4. Develop a marketing and communication strategy.

Participant registration

1. Set up an announcement and registration page for the hackathon. The registration page should allow participants to share their projects and announce the ideas they will work on. This helps in giving early feedback, and also in helping the participant to find collaborators/teams.
2. Typically, 25% of registered participants turn up at a free event. Set the registration deadline accordingly, so that you have 4X the number of registrations that you actually need for showing up.
3. It is advisable to ask participants to pay a cover charge that goes into organizing energy drinks and snacks. The cover charge also helps in ensuring that participants who have paid show up at the hackathon. Refund the cover charge to those participants who do not show up, and inform 24 hours before. The refund policy should be explicitly mentioned on the registration page, and implemented in letter and spirit.
4. Publicise registration through various channels, and via editors, mentors, jury and other channels.

Hackathon logistics

1. Share a checklist with the venue host to make arrangements for the hackathon.
2. The hackathon team organizes everything on the checklist which the host doesn’t arrange.
3. Visit the venue at least 15 days before the hackathon to ensure that all the criteria specified in the checklist are fulfilled. Keep the checklist handy to audit the venue properly, and communicate to the logistics coordinator to make arrangements.
4. Update the schedule of the hackathon to include the break timings properly. This helps the venue host/food vendor to bring in beverages and meals on time.
5. Create a communication plan to keep participants informed about event updates. The marketing executives must send regular updates to participants about the event’s communication plan.

Meals and food planning

1. Hackathons should have proper lunch, dinner, and breakfast breaks. The break times should be clearly mentioned on the schedule.
2. Choose simple and wholesome meals for participants on all the days of the hackathon. Simple meals include a mix of carbohydrates and proteins. Ideally, meals should be catered by a vendor who can mass produce meals. This ensures timely delivery and service.
3. Snacks and food items should be stocked at the venue so that participants can help themselves to these whenever they want a break or a burst of energy. Stock peanuts, peanut butter spread, jams, bread, cheese, nutella, and such items which particpants can use to prepare sandiwches for themselves. Break times also serve as networking and collaboration opportunities. Hence, encouraging participants to hang out at the pantry to prepare quick meals also enables conversation.
4. Energy drinks, tea, coffee and drinking water should be available on tap for participants at all times.

Mentorship and judging on the hackathon days

As mentioned above, mentors work with participants prior to the hackathon. Jury members visit the hackathon venue and interact with participants on the days of the hackathon. This helps the jury members to get a sense of the participants, and the depth of projects, and to prepare for judging accordingly.

4-6 hours time is reserved for demos and judging on the day of the hackathon. Jury members are given pen, paper and clip board for scoring. The jury pre-decides the scoring numbers between themselves, and what the numbers represent. This helps the jury to collate the scores at the end of all the demos.

20 mins time is allocated for each demo. Participants have to prepare and deliver a 5-min elevator pitch about their project, and do a 10-minute deep dive into to the project. (Mentors can help participants to prepare their pitches in the second half of the hackathon.) Jury gets 5-mins time to ask questions and make notes on the project.

After the demos are completed, the jury gets 20-30 mins of private time to finalize the winners.

Awards and prizes

Feedback and validation are the greatest rewards for participants, editors, mentors and the jury members in a hackathon. In keeping with the trends in community run hackathons, prizes can be planned as follows:

1. Cash prizes - which are pre-decided before the hackathon announcement. Additional sponsorship can be brought in to increase the prize amount. A minimum amount should however be decided in advance to plan budgets and sales targets.
2. Compute and such resources, which help developers to use them after the hackathon.

Longevity of projects after the hackathon

Most hackathon ideas and projects do not see the light of the day after the hackathon. One of the ways in which to encourage continuation of projects is to plan and announce fellowships for three to six months duration where projects are supported with generous monthly stipends, and with a reporting format, structure and feedback cycle.

Post hackathon wrap up

This involves:

1. Collecting feedback from participants, sponsors, and partners.
2. Share event highlights, including project demos and winner profiles - with sponsors, media and the community in general.
3. Thank-you emails and social media posts describing the hackathon’s achievements and diversity among participants and projects.
4. The organizing team and stakeholders evaluate the event’s success against pre-defined goals, and update the hackathon playbook for organizers and communities to use in future.