We’ve hosted and attended over 150 hackathons, which means we’ve seen exactly what makes a hackathon great, and what makes it an infuriating waste of time.
Hackathons are gaining popularity all over the globe.
These fast-paced, high-energy events give people the opportunity to step out of their comfort zone, challenge themselves, meet new people, learn something new, get an adrenaline rush, and gain confidence.
But while great hackathons give life to new ideas and drive exciting results, not every hackathon turns out to be a success.
Too often, organizers focus all their efforts on the day itself and as a result, lack the strategy necessary to create an event that inspires innovation and change.
So we’ve rounded up six of the most important tips to help hackathon organisers put on a great event and stand out from the crowd.
Table of contents
- Create quick and simple forms
- Announce the hackathon at least one month in advance
- Make community engagement a priority
- Create specific themes
- Provide coaching and mentoring
- Be clear about desired roles
- Create the right environment to let teams thrive
- Promote your hackathon in the right places
- End the hackathon on a high note
Let's start with the registration forms!
1. Create quick and simple forms
There’s one fast way to put people off from applying to participate in your hackathon and that’s with long and complicated forms.
Give your hackathon its best shot right from the get-go by creating forms that are quick and painless to fill out.
Only ask the questions you need the answers to (double-check this) and make sure it’s optimized for mobile so people can access it from any device.
A complicated (or just plain ugly) form is a huge tell-tale sign that a company is outdated, so take the time to create something modern, responsive, and on-brand.
While you’re at it, it’s worth taking a deeper look into your application journey to fish for any signs of an outdated submission process.
2. Announce the hackathon at least one month in advance
Hackathon organizers that use Eventornado give participants the option to join on their own and then become part of a team later.
But even if participants don’t have to find a team in advance, they still need adequate time to research, come up with ideas, and network with their peers.
Announcing your event in advance might seem obvious but we’ve seen plenty of hackathons that get announced as little as one week before the event date.
That kind of last-minute organizing puts participants at a huge disadvantage.
That’s obvious.
But it cuts down the time you have for communication and community engagement, which brings us to the next point…
3. Make community engagement a priority
One of the biggest mistakes people make when organizing their hackathon is in assuming that getting people to sign up is the hardest part.
The most successful hackathons have high community engagement, and it’s your job as the organizer to facilitate that.
From the second someone registers, right until the end of the hackathon and beyond, you should aim to keep them engaged with communication that inspires action.
There are a few ways you can do this but it all starts with automation.
From the moment someone registers to participate in your hackathon, they should have instant and seamless access to an environment where they can easily meet other participants and organizers.
Then they should receive timely communication throughout the entire process, from general instructions to helpful resources and tips for the event itself.
We also have a separate post on how to keep your participants engaged.
4. Create specific themes
Some hackathon organizers might be happy running an open-ended event where everyone’s free to interpret the guidelines as they see fit, but you shouldn’t be one of them.
These types of hackathons—the ones without any focus—tend to result in complete randomness.
The final ideas may have the wow factor and they might even stand out but usually, they won’t achieve much on the technical side.
Why?
Because having a specific theme or constraint leads to faster results and more focused thinking.
Not having a theme or focus can lead to procrastination and half-baked ideas.
Layout specific themes and goals for your hackathon and be clear about them in your announcements, calls for submissions and anywhere else you’re promoting.
5. Provide coaching and mentoring
Not everyone at a hackathon wants to be coached, mentored, or watched over, but there will be lots of participants and teams who could benefit from the help and who actively seek it out.
A successful hackathon isn’t just made up of great teams, but great mentors too.
Try to find a few skilled people in the industry who are happy to come along and share their expertise where it’s needed.
In case you're going with horizontal mentoring you should aim to have 6 mentors per 100 participants as a general rule.
Once the hackathon begins, have the mentors introduce themselves to their teams and be closely available for them from start to finish.
We have a separate blog post where we go more in-depth about the role of mentors at a hackathon.
6. Be clear about desired roles
Many hackathon organizers make the mistake of assuming that everyone knows what’s involved in a hackathon.
But the reality is that there will be lots of first-timers applying, which means you could end up leaving out information that could influence the number of signups.
For newbies, in particular, there’s a big misconception that hackathons are only for coders and developers.
Obviously, that’s not true but it’s up to you to let people know that.
You could attract tons more people to your hackathon but if they don’t know about the hackathon roles that have nothing to do with coding, you might miss out on quality talent.
On your event description, promotional material, and online channels, make it clear what roles are needed and who should apply to participate.
If you don’t tell them, they won’t know!
7. Create the right environment to let teams thrive
Occasionally, ideas born from hackathons take off like crazy and grow to become million-dollar companies.
Sometimes, product updates that we all use and love (like Spotify Weekly) are direct results of company hackathons.
Other times, a hackathon might be the beginning of a new community.
While you can’t control the outcome, you can control the environment, which is why it’s important to create one that gives teams space and opportunity to thrive.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself during the planning process:
- Do you want to choose winners? (not all hackathons have a clear winner, eg. if the goal is simply to start a community and generate ideas)
- Do you have specific criteria to help you select winners?
- If you are going to have winners, who will judge them? (it’s important to have a fair panel of judges that are unbiased and knowledgeable about the industry)
- What criteria will teams be judged on?
- What will the prize(s) be?
- What’s your ideal outcome? Identify it and then work backwards to determine the steps you need to take in order to achieve it.
- What will things look like post-hackathon? (will you offer networking/meet-up opportunities for participants? How will you keep the innovation alive?)
8. Promote your hackathon in the right places
If you want to maximize your reach, you’ll need to have a few foolproof strategies to promote your hackathon.
Think about where potential attendees, sponsors, and mentors spend their time online and put details of your hackathon in front of them.
Anywhere where you can use a hashtag is a strong start: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc are all great platforms to promote your event and encourage interaction.
Tip: a week before the hackathon, start a countdown on social media and each day, write a short ‘spotlight’ post introducing the judges on the panel.
They’ll likely share the post on their own social channels, helping you reach more people.
9. End the hackathon on a high note
Once you’ve announced the winners, the worst thing you can do is give them their prize, thank everyone, and call it a day.
Hackathons are supposed to leave people feeling inspired, energized, and wanting more, which means how you end things is just as important as how you start it.
If you’re hosting your hackathon online, that might seem difficult but with some planning, there are lots of ways to end your hackathon in a way that’s climactic and gets people buzzing for more.
You can give special thanks to sponsors and mentors and get applause going.
Were there other teams that impressed the judges but didn’t make the winning list?
Give them some recognition.
Create a hashtag and encourage participants to share their experiences on social media to create a buzz around the hackathon.
Let everyone know about future events.
Bonus points if you give out some hackathon merch like mugs or printed t-shirts.
Everyone loves a freebie!
Organizing a successful hackathon: key strategies for an innovative event using hackathon management software
Whether you want your hackathon to birth the next-generation tech tool or start a community of entrepreneurs, these top tips will help you address each area of your planning process so you get the best possible outcome.
And if you want to make sure you leave a solid first impression and give participants their best chance of winning, hosting your hackathon on a dedicated platform can give you that edge.
From the first point of contact with participants, all the way to post-hackathon communication, a simple hackathon management platform can help you manage ten or ten thousand participants in one place.
You can give participants their area on the platform where they can submit their applications, add their ideas, get in touch with other applicants, and even edit their ideas before hitting submit.
And the best part is that it only takes you a few minutes to set up.
Set up a free demo to get started and find out how easy it can be to set up your next hackathon.
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