Mentoring

It’s important to create an atmosphere of learning and growth at a hackathon, especially at student-driven events. Students or attendees who are just getting started with code need to hear that it’s okay to get confused and ask for help. It’s important for them to hear that they won’t be judged. It’s also important for people to be available to help them.

After opening ceremonies, I typically pull aside a group of mentors and ask them to make four contributions during the first evening of the event:

• As teams are forming, orbit the perimeter of the room and find attendees who are having a hard time finding a team. Understand what they hope to accomplish at the event and help them overcome their anxiety by walking them around to different groups and helping them make a match.
• Inside the first few hours of the event, visit with each team and make sure they aren’t getting snagged on issues that would prevent collaboration: environment issues, database connectivity, repository issues, etc.
• Verify each team has discussed their schedule. The number one reason projects fail is because a team member leaves prematurely. Help the team be courageous about this topic and help them surface schedule conflicts.
• Work with each team to ensure they target the most minimal version of their idea possible. First time hackathoners are famous for being too ambitious.

Committing to create an environment of learning and growth, and putting mechanisms in place to ensure an event starts off strong is one of the best ways to hold a successful hackathon.