Best practices to host a successful hackathon

This informal CPD article ‘Best practices to host a successful hackathon ’, was provided by Product Marketing Alliance, a company founded in 2019 with a mission of uniting product marketers across the globe.

A hackathon, also sometimes known as a codefest, is an event that brings computer programmers and other interested people together to improve upon or build new software programs. According to data (1), more than “80% of Fortune 100 companies conduct hackathons to drive innovation”, with over 50% of them being recurring events – this means hackathons work.

Examples of successful hackathons (2) include NASA’s, MIT’s, and AWS events, where people from all sorts of backgrounds, including tech, compete to find solutions to problems. These events are a great way to indirectly market your products or services, since you’re drawing attention to them without aggressively promoting them. As developers are an audience wary of marketing tactics and pushy sales, hackathons can help you reach them.

Let’s take a look at the best practices you should follow to make the most of your hackathon event – and, therefore, to better engage and reach your target audience.

Before the hackathon

Have a clear purpose

It goes without saying that you need to define the goal of your hackathon. Are you looking to boost product adoption rates, increase community engagement, or get ideas to improve your product?

Establish these goals early on, as they will help guide you and your team, as well as help you create a cohesive event.

Choose the right format

Should you create a virtual hackathon or an in-person event? Virtuals are extremely accessible even if people live on opposite sides of the world and are also much more cost-effective.

In-person hackathons are great for networking, to encourage people to collaborate, and to guarantee a more hands-on workshop.

So, you’ll have to pick what suits you best.

Theme is also important. What is your audience looking for? Perhaps they’re heavily invested in AI or open-source software? Or maybe your audience lies in crypto. Make sure you know who you’re targeting so you can host an event that’ll resonate with them.

Streamline registration

Another thing to take into account is to make sign-ups easy with a user-friendly platform, as well as collect relevant details like skill levels, preferred tech stacks, and team preferences. In addition, offer flexible options for individual and team registrations.

Provide developer-friendly tools

Ensure your developer audience has access to APIs, SDKs, cloud credits, and any other tools they may need to use during the event. Every single tool you provide needs to be well-documented – they should also have tutorials to make it easy for developers to use the software.

Create buzz

Marketing the event is crucial, so make sure you’re building hype ahead of the hackathon by promoting it on developer forums (like Stack Overflow), social media, and your existing developer community. Some ideas to promote the hackathon include sharing teaser content, such as challenges to come, potential prizes people can win, and speaker announcements. To further generate this buzz, you can partner with influential developers or other tech communities to grow your reach.

Offer incentives

Prizes like cash, gadgets, job opportunities, or mentorships can be really attractive to developers, so think about what your audience would like to receive. In addition, make sure to highlight the value of the event itself, especially the networking, learning, and portfolio building opportunities.

Prepare to support

You can’t do everything yourself, recruit people to support participants during the hackathons to ensure it all goes smoothly. This can include building a dedicated channel to answer questions (e.g., Slack) and provide real-time assistance.

During the hackathon

Encourage team formation

Everyone knows that, if you get strangers in the same room together (or people who don’t know each other that well), it can make for an awkward environment at first… however, you can bypass that by hosting icebreaker sessions to make people feel at ease. Encourage inclusivity by promoting diverse and balanced teams as well.

Create a supportive environment

As mentioned, developers should have access to all the resources they need, as well as mentors and technical help throughout the event. This way, you’re more likely to have positive feedback from people – and a boost to your brand reputation.

Foster collaboration

A hackathon wouldn’t be a hackathon without collaboration. Use platforms like GitHub and Figma to help foster seamless team workflows, and encourage networking through meetups, discussion rooms, or casual hangouts.

Keep the energy high

Keeping people engaged can be a challenge, but it can also be fun (and definitely rewarding). Things like trivia games, raffles, and social breaks can go a long way to make people feel energized and happy.

And why not share progress updates and ask people to post on social media using a dedicated hashtag? This would help you further promote the event while making it interesting for participants too.

After the hackathon

Show the results

Developers will want to know the results of the challenges they participated in, so host a demo session where teams present their projects to judges and the audience, and celebrate creativity and innovation by highlighting unique or impactful ideas.

Provide value beyond prizes

Prizes are a great way to keep people interested, but not the only option you have. You can also offer certificates, LinkedIn badges, and publish recognition for all participants. On top of this, you can share resources and opportunities for further learning, like free courses or bootcamps.

Get feedback

Surveys or post-event interviews are great to collect insights and feedback from everyone who participated, which will help you identify areas for improvement (as well as what worked).

Keep up the engagement

Once the event is done, there’s no reason why things have to become quiet. For instance, why not create blog posts, video recaps, or social media posts that show off the projects and even behind-the-scenes moments? Invite people to join your developer community or subscribe to your newsletter for future opportunities too.

Measure the impact of the hackathon

Analyze how the hackathon went. This means evaluating your goals against the metrics: number of people who attended, projects submitted, tools used, feedback received, etc. Then assess how the event contributed to product adoption, community growth, or branding.

In short

Whether you’re hosting a hackathon to develop better solutions for your org, foster team bonding, or spotlight your company’s culture, make sure to follow best practices to boost your chances of success. Create a space where people feel inspired to experiment, fail, learn, and thrive. To do this, you must plan thoughtfully and be flexible.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Product Marketing Alliance, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.

REFERENCES

(1) https://www.hackerearth.com/community-hackathons/resources/e-books/guide-to-organize-hackathon/

(2) https://www.developermarketing.io/your-guide-to-hackathons-what-they-are-and-top-tips-for-success/