Nothing beats the sheer energy, convivial atmosphere, and innovation collaboration produces with team-bonding organizations like a hackathon! It’s the perfect, high-octane event that brings the sharpest minds in the industry under one roof, all of which are putting their heads together to propose new ideas to propel your business forward.
While corporate hackathons can shape the kind of work culture that positively stimulates experts, there are many ways to optimize this team-building activity, so your company can make the most of its potential. After all, a hackathon creates a rare opportunity to bring different departments together, so why not take the experience to the next level by hosting an event that inspires change?
Different Ways to Improve Your Hackathons
Tip #1: Create Quick, Simple, and Mobile-Friendly Forms
Signing up for a hackathon can set the tone of the entire event in more ways than one, so why not start with a bang by providing forms that are easy to fill out in a few minutes? Focus on relevant questions only and be sure the forms are mobile-friendly, so anyone can join in on the fun without dealing with long queues.
Tip #2: Focus on Specific Themes
A hackathon aims to explore fresh ideas from different minds, but an open-ended event can be chaotic more than conclusive. The sheer randomness makes it harder to determine and implement pitches from different teams joining the hackathon, so it’s better to set a specific theme to encourage hyper-focused thinking.
Asking members to solve a single problem, for instance, can yield higher-quality results that are sure to offer real-world solutions rather than half-baked answers. Not to mention, hackathons that aim to solve problems on the spot with no limitations can only address things on a surface level compared to sticking to a certain theme.
Tip #3: Provide Mentorship and Coaching Opportunities
A hackathon shouldn’t only aim to test prototypes or collect game-changing pitches, but it should also help other participants who want to sharpen their skills and pick up industry-specific learnings. With that in mind, offering a few mentoring sessions for teams interested in learning something related to your industry can make your hackathon more dynamic.
Tip #4: Live Voting
When you let different teams provide feedback on each other’s works, you’re creating a collaborative environment that boosts everyone’s excitement for the long hackathon ahead. Hustling to pitch revolutionary ideas in a short period has likely left the participants high on emotions and reeling with thoughts, so giving them enough time to share their reflections by casting a live voting session can give your hackathon a lively boost.
Live voting also allows you to compare different impressions, allowing you to collect more valuable insights and understand why the winner made the most impact.
The Bottom Line: Making the Most of Your Hackathon
Hackathons should be fun, exciting, and more importantly, useful for both the organizers and the participants; that’s why the tips above aim to hold an event where different teams across multiple departments can thrive.
How Can Hackathon Help You?
If you're looking for effective business solutions and want to learn more about how you can advance your business and product development efforts, we can help! Check out our Corporate Services page to find out how easy and extremely beneficial it is for your business to host a hackathon!
