Hackathons
they suck you in, transform you and toss you out afterwards —
but you’ll sleep like a baby when they’re over.
Why I Love Them
A hackathon is a great way to meet like minded people, learn new tools and languages. They kick you out of your comfort zone. If your comfort zone does not include constant pitching in front of a random crowd while stressing about the recent code changes which broke your whole project.
The most interesting part to me is the big share of randomness, which might be missing in your everyday life. When signing up for the recent Prague Dance Hackathon I wasn’t sure what kind of event and people to expect. Yet I had an awesome time hacking away with an EEG device and an Oculus Rift.
The goal of a hackathon is to come up with an idea and to build a (hopefully working) prototype with a random group of people in one to three days. They can be organized independently, by universities or companies.
My Experience
Besides the recent event in Prague, I participated in the NASA SpaceApps Challenge in Stockholm. That doesn’t make me an expert, but a highly motivated guy who wants YOU to visit a hackathon. I will not talk about corporate sponsored events, as I haven’t participated in one.
During both vastly different events I talked a lot to the organizers, judges and other participants. Out of these and my opinions, I created a list with the most important things to run a hackathon.
Moderator and Schedule
One or more dedicated moderators can make the mess of this adventure feel organized and structured. Responsible for the information flow, they should be in constant conversation with teams and organizers. Moderators can introduce the aim of the whole event, give unbiased feedback and help negotiate between teams and judges. Due to the constant exchange they can point out unnoticed connections between people in different teams.
Updates to the schedule, which will definitely occur, should be clearly communicated. Adapt to the spirit of the crowd — don’t start too early in the morning when everyone had too many drinks the night before. The schedule is only a reference point for what is really happening at the event.
Gather everyone for a short session after breaks to talk about their progress and problems they might be facing. Members of other teams will often come up with fresh ideas and can help you think about solutions from a new angle.
Topics & Teams
Topics vary from technical (IoT, Big Data, Space) to artsy (Dance, Music, Museums) and everything in between.
Teams should form around a common goal, even if it’s just about toying around with a Kinect or an Oculus Rift. If a team can’t focus on a specific idea and run with it, better split it up early. Join another team or find someone with complementary skills and do your own thing.
Sleep
Make people get some sleep! Everyone will think, pitch and code better with a few hours of sleep. If the hackathon goes on for more than two days, drag everyone still awake to the closest couch and sing them a sweet-sweet hackathon lullaby.
Food
A constant supply of tasty and healthy snacks should be available. Offer a few options, but no need for hundreds of them. Publish a list of places to eat out near the event space, some people may need a quick change of location to think, code or take a break.
Winners
Everyone should be a winner. Sounds cheesy, but it actually makes a huge difference. Teams are encouraged to give their best, by announcing prizes for the best ones before. You should give something tangible to every participant, it makes them feel good in the moment and acts as a souvenir later on.
Aftermath
Make it easy for participants to connect with each other. Do so by reminding everyone to join the event on social media sites or give their details in an online notepad. A shared folder to upload photos is an easy way to help with restoring your memory of the last days.
Instead of just dropping what you build during the hackathon, you should finish the work. If you really don’t care about the outcome, try to polish the code and write a quick README, so you or anybody else can pick up where you left off.
Pro Tip: Get brunch the day after! It gives you an easy way to talk more about the experience, dive deeper into topics and relax after the stressful event.
Resources
I hope you’re at least motivated enough to look for an upcoming hackathon in your area. The three website which I found the most useful and clear:
Thanks for taking the time to read this article!
