A Hackathon is a time constrained competition where the expectation is that teams go from an idea to an working application. It is an opportunity for developers to come together and build really awesome applications, while potentially learning a particular technology.

Participants typically form groups of about 2-5 individuals, take out their laptops (if the event is technology themed), and dive into problems. Training workshops are a great parallel track especially for newcomers but also for all participants.

You should conduct a hackathon, if you want to drive innovation and in depth usage of your software and technologies in a large community of developers. Please do not consider hackathons as a means to drive registrations and simple awareness for your technology/software. There are simpler ways to drive awareness and registrations namely Meetups and/or Workshops.

The main objectives of organizing a hackathon is to engage with the developer community. We want to drive developers to use our runtimes and APIs, to network, meet new people, learn, compete, make money, have fun, show off skills, test ideas and launch products (if possible).

Many 3rd party hackathons are weekend events (so as not to interfere with work). Partnering with a technical conference in your area is a great way to market it, and maximize the pool of developers to recruit from. There is usually a “Sponsorship fee” and the Owner handles many of the logistics (location, physical infrastructure, security, food, registration, promotion, submissions, etc.).

Planning your own – Includes everything from a sponsored event, plus you are now responsible for the overarching themes, infrastructure, promotion, registrations, submissions, etc.

Ideally, it takes 12 weeks to plan and run a successful hackathon

For ideas, see:

• Example Judging Rubrik
• Example Hackathon Scoring Sheet

Find a venue that can provide:

• Proper seating (see below)
• One power strip per table
• Wifi (is it fast and reliable? can it connect all of your participants? does it block any ports?)
• Projector
• A microphone, at least in large rooms
• Accessible entrances and wheelchair-friendly seating space (and if there is a stage, check if it is accessible, if applicable)
• Gender-neutral, single-occupancy, accessible bathrooms
• Separate spaces for the number of teams that you expect

Provide clear prize information, including the number of prizes being awarded, the theme for each category of prizes, the prizes that are being awarded, how developers will collect their prize(s).

Hyperledger is interested in sponsoring hackathons that support our goals with increasing gender and geographic diversity in the Hyperledger community and for bringing Hyperledger technology to students. For example, the Hyperledger will be happy to consider supporting:

• Hackathons focused on under-represented coders (e.g., women, developing countries, people of color)
• Hackathons focused on university

If your event meets any of these criteria, please reach out to hackathons@hyperledger.org. Sponsorship can include support with promotions, prizes, swag, judges and mentors.

If you are interested in support in finding other sponsors for your event, you are welcome to reach out to us at hackathons@hyperledger.org, and we can help connect you to Hyperledger member organizations who may be aligned with the goals of your event and may want to provide sponsorship.

Determine who will judge submissions

Determine people who can answer technical questions about the tools that people will use to develop their applications/hacks. In addition, consider mentors who can provide insight on the applicability of the chosen use cases.

Hyperledger Technical Ambassadors are a good resource (ambassadors@lists.hyperledger.org) for Hyperledger expertise.

Here are a few ways that you can promote the event:

• Social Media - Post tweets and messages on social media to promote Hyperledger hackathons (@hyperledger)
• External hackathon listing sites (e.g., https://devpost.com/hackathons)

Please note that we ask you to review and follow our Brand Guidelines and Trademark Usage Guidelines when making use of the Hyperledger name or logo. And please reach out to us at trademark@hyperledger.org and hackathons@hyperledger.org if you want to refer to your event as an official Hyperledger Hackathon.

Using an external hackathon listing site, such as https://devpost.com/hackathons, you can provide information to developers on how to register, what the event is about, judging criteria, etc.

In order to help prepare participants for the event, we encourage you to share out this learning material before the event:

• https://www.hyperledger.org/resources/training
• https://www.hyperledger.org/resources/tutorials

Hyperledger Stickers, Hackathon-branded stickers, and shirts, etc. from the Hyperledger store

Don’t get one-size-fits-all t-shirts because people are not all alike. Read Hopper Conference Diversity Guide’s section on t-shirts.

Ensure to provide enough food and beverages. Since hackathons run 24 hours, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as, snacks should be provided. Caffeine is always recommended.

Learning sessions will ensure that all participants can engage and contribute. Consider providing a learning session for the different technologies that you wish the participants to use.

Use https://devpost.com/hackathons to gather submissions

Provide judges with the criteria that should be used to evaluate submissions.

• Example Judging Rubrik
• Example Hackathon Scoring Sheet

It is easiest to award prizes at the end of the Hackathon before people go their separate ways

Develop a blog post for winning submission and provide to pr@hyperledger.org. Guest blog guidelines can be found here.

We encourage you to follow up with attendees of your event and share information with them about how to get more involved with the Hyperledger community. In particular, we ask that you share the following links:

• Hyperledger Community
• Collaboration Tools
• Get Involved Webinar

• https://hackathon.guide/
• IBM's Hackathon Event in a Box