Hosting a hackathon involves a lot of planning for the main event. Whether you want a hackathon that births the following generation tech tool or begin a community of entrepreneurs, strategies help you address all areas of your planning process to ensure a successful outcome.
Here are essential strategies you should try:
1. Educate Participants on What They Will Be Doing
Education is the most fundamental element of success at a hackathon. You cannot expect participants to unleash their genius if they are unaware of what you want to achieve.
Especially if you’re organizing a hackathon in your company, education on your mission, vision, and purpose can go a long way in crafting success.
An excellent hackathon challenge material that directly relates to your purpose can be your initial input for participants.
2. Promote the Right Environment for Teams to Thrive
You need to set up the right environment for teams to thrive. You want to get creative people to come and express their thoughts and ideas. Therefore, you want to make sure that your venue is conducive to creative thinking.
For example, you would want to ensure that you have plenty of power outlets, comfortable tables and chairs, Wi-Fi, and food and snacks that your participants would enjoy. You want to make sure that your space is open and inviting so that people feel comfortable interacting with one another.
3. Provide Coaching and Mentoring to All Teams
Outstanding ideas need mentors to come to light. Without proper guidance and help, the chances of your teams coming up with an exceptional idea diminish.
Mentors can help you iron out any kinks in your teams’ creative process and help them become more confident in the execution of their ideas. Additionally, mentors also make participants feel valued, which encourages them to come back to future hackathons.
4. Promote the Hackathon in the Right Spaces
Now that you’re organizing a hackathon, the last thing you want to do is limit your promotion scope. You want to make sure that you are marketing your hackathon in spaces where your participants will see it.
If you’re organizing a hackathon for your company, you want to ensure that your employees have seen your announcement. You also want to use social media apps to let the world know of your hackathon.
If you’re organizing a hackathon in the local community, you want to make sure that you are promoting your event in local spaces like libraries, bookstores, and cafes.
5. End the Event on a High Note
The final leg of a hackathon is the culmination of all your hard work. You want to put all your energy into the last two hours of the hackathon. You must end the event on a high note so that participants have a positive experience at your event.
You can end your hackathon with a fun, low-key activity that reinforces your relationship with your participants. To make your event successful, you want to ensure that participants feel like they are a part of your community and welcome to be at future events.
The Final Leg
Being able to clear obstacles, plan for your hackathon, and evaluate your event allows you to create a meaningful experience for your participants. Implement these essential strategies for a successful event!
Hackathon.com is the largest online hackathon community worldwide, connecting over 2000 hackathon organizers with our more than ten million member innovators around the globe. We can help you learn how to host a corporate hackathon event that yields the best outcome! Check out our Corporate Services site to get started.
