---
title: Hackaton ideas
description: hackaton ideas
tags: public-sharing
---

## Hackaton ideas

*Gonçalo Pestana*

- Quais os tipos de desafios que foram feitos nos hackathons que participaste, como foram desenhados? 
- Já tinham um output pensado ou simplesmente esperaram pela criatividade dos participantes?
- Quais as atividades que na tua experiência melhor resultaram em termos de dinamismo e criatividade?
- Quantas horas foram os eventos? (sei que anda sempre entre as 24 e as 48)

For a bit of context, I participated/organized many hackatons across the world (Finland, San Fran, London, Switzerland, Estonia, Berlin, Portugal, online etc) where the formats of the event really differed from one another. The hackatons spanned from 1 day to a few weeks and had different goals, models, outputs and expectations, etc. So I'll try to give you some ideas based on what I found more exciting and cool in those experiences. I'm happy to go into more detail if you find it useful or even have a call to discuss about anything that may help you! (the call can be in portuguese by the way 😄)

- **Quais os tipos de desafios que foram feitos nos hackathons que participaste, como foram desenhados?**

As I mentioned, the hackatons I participated had very different formats. I will try to outline the few things that the greatest and most exciting ones had in common:
1. They spanned for a few days: One day only is def not enough time to let people to know each other, learn and mentor and for great output. Giving participants time, guidance and mentorship goes a long way for a successful event for organizers, participants and partners. That can be achieved when there's at least 48h to hack! Another important thing regarding time is that providing information upfront and helping people form teams *before the event starts* is a great way to save time and streamline the whole event.
2. They had good mentors: mentors are key! Mentors help teams to answer the questions they have, guide the teams and even give short keynotes in parallel during the hacking time. Usually it is great to have partners (sponsors, etc) providing mentoriship during the event -- and sponsors like this too, as it gives them visibility and a good bang for the buck they invested in the event. Another important thing in hackatons that have a specific theme (as yours) is that mentors should be "expert" or know about the subject. A good strategy is to assign teams with mentors and make sure the mentors check often with the teams in case they need support, help, directions, etc;
3. They allowed me to meet and team up with great people: this is probably the most important part of any hackaton! As a participant, I always look forward to meet new people and learn with them and also build relationships for future work and collabs. This is key and thus you should make sure that team formation and team dynamics are good -- given them time to work together, bring people with different backgrounds together, etc. Great events have a way to connect people together that maximizes relationship building and optimizes the project output!
6. The partner companies provided valuable input (and did not *only* advertised their products): this point is also very important in my opinion. The sponsors can be a great help during the hackaton by proving mentorship, organizing side keynotes, etc. When sponsors/partners only care about shilling their product and nothing else, it's a lose-lose scenario -- participants don't take much out of it and the companies who sponsor the hackaton don't take the most out of the event.
7. Well defined hacking tracks: A good hackaton lets teams to work on the problems they want but obviously that are somehow related to the theme of the hackaton. Having a set of thematic hacking "tracks" really help teams to set the directions and focus on explicit outputs. Once again, up front information about the different tracks and mentor help really go a long way to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the output is the best!
8. Prizes (!!) and real possibility for the best projects to collaborate with companies after the hackaton: let the participants know they may win prizes as incentive for them to put the work, time and effort on the event;
9. Demo, demo, demo: Save a few hours at the end of the event for the best teams (or all?) to demonstrate their end solutions and present them to other participants and mentors. This is one last opportunity for everyone to learn more about the event's theme and other team's output. I like when there's time to "go around the table" and let all the participants to check on everyone's outputs, ask questions, etc. Sometimes hackatons also let participants to vote on their favorite projects, which is a great way to make sure everyone catches up with what happened during the event.
10. The food and the venue was great: hehe this may sound like a secondary thing but it certainly is not. Specially as a student, I really enjoyed good food during the events and the feeling that I was cared for. This is a great strategy to make the event memorable and to make people come back for other editions. Also very important is to make sure the internet connection is good, there are eletrical sockets for everyone, space to work (silent and more collaborative) etc. It is insane how sometimes this is not taken care for, but I believe it is a pretty hard task for organizers to make sure everything is working neatly, specially in large events.

- **Já tinham um output pensado ou simplesmente esperaram pela criatividade dos participantes?**

Please do both! As I mention above, it is good idea to define a set of "tracks" with explicit themes for teams to work on and to provide them directions. Within those tracks, let the participants decide what to do, define the outputs and be creative. The mentors can be a great help to go from when teams decide the "track" to the directions to work on. It is a good practice to define those tracks before hand and let the participants know about them *before* the event starts. That will streamline the whole event and make it easy to form team before and during the event.

- **Quais as atividades que na tua experiência melhor resultaram em termos de dinamismo e criatividade?**

1. Ice breaking activities for people who come without a team -- these should be very quick ice breaking activities that don't take up much time but allow people to get to know each other and form teams.
2. Organize parallel keynotes and presentation from mentors and "experts" where participants can make a break from hacking and attend to. Don't make these mandatory to attend though.
3. Good and continous mentorship!! (I can't stress this enough)
4. Assign some time for team demos so they can show off what they achieved!

- **Quantas horas foram os eventos? (sei que anda sempre entre as 24 e as 48)**

From 1 day to a few days (2-3) and sometimes spanning weeks, specially in case of online/hybrid events. I'd say that 24h is very few time depending on the expected outputs. Usually the first few hours (5h+) are spent on getting people up to speed, forming teams, etc, so it is very hard to the output from the teams to be great with 1 day hackatons. 2-3 day hackatons are the best for physical events but bear in mind that the time is limited and it is a good idea to provide as much information up front to the participants as possible (guides, FAQs, a lot of explainers on how the event will proceed, let people form teams beforehand, etc)