The market in information technology has been much competitive these days. Everyone in this field cannot have new ideas or innovative technologies that can open the gate for development, but there are also many people who think differently. They do not get the right platform to present the idea to the people who can act on it. To make this platform available the companies have created a platform in the form of competition where such people can present the ideas and prove as an asset to the organization for which the development aspects can be improved with the help of such new ideas.
Most of the times, it found that the Hackathons are organized haphazardly which reflects the fault in the organizing committee and the members. Hackathon involves a lot of team spirit and good rapport system to solve a given problem.
Defining Hackathon
Hacking is a problem-solving event in which creativity dominates technology. This particular event comprises of people coming together to participate in the workshop. Hackathon, generally, involves 2 to 5 individuals who, with their laptops or any supporting system break through the problem.
Now, what are the various things organizations must know before conducting hackathons?
When a broadcast like a hackathon rings the eardrum of the creative minds, the only thing that passes their head is to find a creative solution to their problem and get recognition in the technology world. These hackathons have a clear advantage over the traditional practices to find solutions. Along with finding solutions, these platforms provide multidisciplinary collaboration and innovative cycles.
It promotes employee engagement, customer-focused innovation and builds leadership, brand, and community. How Hackathon Works? Once you, as an organization, make up the blueprint in your mind to organize a hackathon, two generic things that should be kept in mind, ‘how and whom.’ How you would like to engage your team and whom you would want to engage in the making of the hackathon.
Characteristics of a good Hackathon project
- Newcomers
Hackathon can be a winning game for some and a battle to lose for another team. But, the pivotal motto that should be maintained is that there should be a place for newcomers to learn from the entire process. For, the newcomers, the tasks should be easy going and which can be accomplished at the end of the session.
- Articulation of Projects
It is important to announce a clear and projectile task or GitHub problem. The reason for the opaque problem is to gather the probable solution to the question; otherwise, everything would be puzzled up.
- Accomplishment
The participating aspirants of the hackathon are always with a goal to feel accomplished. At the end of the session, if, any team feels the absence of completing the solution within the specified time, calm them with grace time. Do not interrupt the hackathon with additional information during its parchment. Either inform them at the beginning or arrange an interval to specify the information.
- Maintenance of Time
During the commencement of the event, do not permit any member of the participating team to raise any idea which they are not going to work in the process. This eventually will lead to dividing their time.
Requirements of the Venue of Hackathon
The significant thing that you should maintain while organizing a hackathon is to fix the venue and a date. In finalizing the appropriate venue, certain things to be kept at the first step are:-
- Check whether the venue supplies with proper seating as a seating arrangement is different for hacking and workshops. It should provide ten people to accommodate in a banquet style.
- If you are going or an internal hackathon which goes on within the employee of the organization, strictly, avoid the weekends and national holidays. Similarly, if you are going to organize an external hackathon, then summer holidays should be avoided in a professional capacity.
- A proper map to evacuate the place and accommodation f the venue before and after the event gets over should be a mandate to follow rigidly.
- Plan your budget. The simple reason is that different venue for conducting hackathon will cost you differently. It will always depend on the size of the room you ask for and the facilities that will be a host to your hackathon.
- Sponsorship is the key to the success of the hackathon event that you will be going to conduct on a future date. Always remember what will counterbalance your bond with the sponsors. Some sponsors will supply you with the – logo t-shirts, food and space. But, some may want to advertise their product to get the recognition they need to. So, analyze and work with the sponsors applying with the terms and conditions.
A hackathon company organizing the event should take up a survey of the registering and the interested candidates. Make a list of their names, email address, job title, newcomers or not, kind of hacker (developer, domain expert, designer, data scientist, project manager, advocate or communicator), interest in hacking, from where did they hear about the event and any kind of special requirements, if they need from the organizing entity.
On the Due-Day
Before ten days and, you should have made the schedule intact and email it to the candidates or participants who will participate in the hackathon. Make sure you visit the venue beforehand, attest sign boards to mark the location so that it gets easy to detect the venue. Set up a registration desk and allow the badge to the hackers for the event.
Secondly, take a moment to introduce the organizers, venue, and sponsors, explain the code of conduct of the hackathon, read out the logistics and encourage the gathering to share session notes.
Wrap for a meal and record the day in your blog to re-build it in a more improvised manner.
There is no exact way to organize, but certain requirements do matter to organize a hackathon. These points will let you know the demands of a hackathon event.