Hackathon 101

hackathon: (noun) an event in which a large number of people come together to collaboratively solve a single problem.

It sounds like startup jargon, and in all honesty, it is. It marries the words ‘hacking’ and ‘marathon’. In other words, it means breaking down problems and creating tangible solutions over an intense period of time, in a high pressure situation.

For students, this presents a remarkable learning opportunity, no matter their background or area of academic study. Gone are the days where hackathons are just for coders. Today, we run them with diversity at their core, which leads to more creativity, better business models, and genuine plans to launch. This requires Philosophy students mixing with Engineers, mixing with Geographers.

Having recently attended #IEEC2017, one our key takeaway learnings for everyone operating in the enterprise education space is that “if we want to help students become entrepreneurial, then we must be entrepreneurial in our methods” [Professor Brian MacCraith, DCU]. Here at Edvent, we firmly believe there is no better method of learning the skills and mindset necessary to be an entrepreneur than by going through the motions of a hackathon, and having students create their very own product or service from scratch, within two days.

Hackathons can be on any subject; hot tech topics like AR and VR through to the Internet of Things are popular, as are socially driven hacks, tackling the Sustainable Development Goals, or regional problems, like high levels of homelessness around the city where a university is based. Naturally, the type of challenge you choose to address effects what kind of students will attend. Ultimately though, with the right marketing, expert facilitation, great prizes, and a well articulated challenge, hackathons will appeal to a broad range of students on campus. The best hackathons embrace and welcome diversity of thought and experience and by no means targeted for just the tech minded, but those looking to get into the startup world, to learn new skills, and people who care about the social challenge.

After a year of running hackathons with the likes of LSE, KCL, Aston, Teesside, and many more, we have refined our methods, taken our facilitation to the next level, and have learnt just what it takes to run the ideal on campus hackathon. Whilst we love it when students take the initiative and try running their own hacks, we offer the same quality of service we have provided for our corporate hackathon clients, which include Google, P&G, and the NHS.

“If we want to help students become entrepreneurial, then we must be entrepreneurial in our methods”

Though hackathons and all the attendees operate under a challenging time pressure, we are able to run a range of workshops, bring in expert mentors, and personally work with all the hackathon teams to develop their ideas. Regardless of whether they go onto fully launch their businesses, the experience that students are able to enjoy, and the transferable skills they gain are remarkable. Our feedback from events demonstrates genuine, lasting empowerment of students, with skills they can take forward into securing their first graduate role.

What better way for a student to demonstrate commercial awareness, problem solving, communication, teamwork, leadership, than by saying they worked in a team with five strangers, tackled a social issue, built a solution drawing on everyone’s skills, and then pitched it to our fearsome judges?! All in just one or two days!

Here at Edvent, we simply love hackathons as a means of student development. To quote Peter Drucker, “innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth”. If we are to promote enterprise education, then we need innovation. And if we are to get students innovating, then we need hackathons.