What is a Hackathon and how does it work? Hackathon: what is it and how does it work? Saturday - brainstorming

The word “hackathon” was formed from the merger of the words “hacking” and “marathon”. Hacking is understood, of course, not by computer scammers, but by IT technology enthusiasts who find pleasure in researching and finding extraordinary solutions.

The first one in the world took place in 1999. It was carried out by the developers OpenBSD OS in Calgary (Canada).

There, a group of researchers gathered who had to solve a difficult task: to find a legitimate bypass for restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of cryptographic products from the country. They called the event a “hackathon,” and their colleagues immediately liked the term.

After 10 days at the conference JavaOne company Sun Microsystems held a similar meeting where she suggested that the developer create a Java program for Palm V for exchanging data between the gadget and the Internet via an infrared port.

A focus on success, a pleasant friendly format, simultaneous communication and competition - all this made new types of events attractive to participants and investors. This is how hackathons got their start in life.

Why do businesses need hackathons?

In 2016, hackaton.com estimates that 3,450 hackathons were held around the world. The first on the list is now the USA - 1568 events per year, followed by the UK (470 hackathons), Canada (230), Germany (223), France (196). A variety of specialists took part in them: developers for the web (36%), mobile systems (36%), hardware platforms (15%), robotic systems and AI (8%).

Russia is not on this list. Because, according to this source, in Russia in 2016 only... one event was held.

Of course, this data is invalid. They only reflect the fact that hackathons as a format for developing an innovative economy are still growing in Russia. And even though the world still knows very little about hackathons in our country, the real state of affairs is much better than Western statistics.

Thus, according to the IT-dominanta portal, every month in 2016, 8-10 different events of this type were held in Russia. And in April 2017 alone, 19 major hackathons were held.

Perhaps hackathons would have remained a local phenomenon if large companies, investors, and “angels” had not paid attention to them. They recognized the potential for growth.

Instead of the tedious approvals and rework that one encounters in traditional projects, hackathons offered a new format for creating prototypes at minimal cost. Within a few days, the organizers receive several solutions to the technological problem they are facing.

On the other hand, companies attract: here you can not only meet strong developers, but also immediately test them in action. Finally, an important advantage of hackathons is networking with potential partners and promoting your own business.

What is the interest of the participants?

According to hackaton.com, today’s public hackathons are attended by specialists (42.8%), students (21.1%), “hobbyists” (18.9%), entrepreneurs (9.6%), as well as those who are looking for work (7.6%).

The theme of the hackathon is announced immediately, but the goals are not always announced, which adds mystery to the future event and attracts particularly adventurous participants. This is done in order not to interfere with the birth of the result right before our eyes. “Miracles” can happen with the prize fund.

Thus, at the final stage of the Design Hackathon, which was held in Moscow at the end of July 2016 by Sberbank Technologies, the initial prize fund was announced in the amount of 200 thousand rubles. However, the results of the hackathon impressed the organizers so much that the prize fund was increased to 500 thousand rubles.

The winner then was the Dream Team. She proposed a “smart solution for voluntary health insurance", which was based on DNA test data. Experience, knowledge and initiative allowed us to achieve excellent results.

Experience shows that participants, in addition to the announced prizes, are interested in several things about hackathons:

Employment Opportunity in leading Internet companies and the prospect of meeting people “necessary” for professional development.
Testing the strength of the development team in an unusual situation: time is limited, adrenaline is at its limit, the competitive spirit does not give rest.
Academic interest. As a rule, in this case we are talking about teams that work independently, that is, they do not seek employment from the organizers. They are interested in testing the hypotheses that they have for solving this or that software problem.

Rules of conduct at the hackathon

At first glance, becoming a winner is quite simple, but many people fall into mistakes that should not be made.

Mistake 1. Failure to comply with the ratio of speed and quality of project development

Many participants try to complete the project as quickly as possible, not taking into account that the most important thing for the jury is the result. Mistakes during hackathons are inevitable, and you shouldn’t be afraid of them. But the idea that will be demonstrated to the jury must be worked out in detail.

Mistake 2. Inability to work in a team

This is especially true in situations where you need to quickly get results. At a hackathon there is no time for long arguments; you need to be able to correctly distribute roles and make compromise decisions.

Mistake 3. Forgetting about real goals

And perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the solution that the team proposes must have a real practical use. As we remember, businesses are interested in working ideas that the company can implement tomorrow and get the desired result.

What will happen next?

If hackathons had no plans, there would be no point in talking about them.

Topic shift. Just five years ago, almost all hackathons were held with the goal of developing mobile applications. However, last year the topic of hackathons shifted towards the creation of systems related to artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Without any doubt, these topics will become top topics for future hackathons.
Internal corporate events. Today, the main trend for large companies is the emphasis on innovation and the development of creative connections within companies. Conducting intra-corporate hackathons allows you to form temporary teams within companies and bring together people with different expertise into such projects.

Today, the hackathon is gaining increasing popularity in the territory Russian Federation. Although not everyone knows what kind of event this is and for what purpose it is held. For those who know, there is a current updated one that is carried out in Russia.

Hackathon: what is it?

The term "hackathon" comes from the merger of two English words– marathon and hacker. Many people consider hackathons to be a gathering of hackers. But this is an erroneous judgment. This is a marathon for programmers, during which small teams compete in software development in various areas. The duration of such marathons ranges from several days to a week.

In most cases, hackathon participants work on creating software, but run marathons aimed at solving social or educational problems. The result is the development of:

Mobile applications;
Web applications;
Sites;
Design solutions.

The result of the programmers' marathon is an MVP (minimum viable product).

There are many topics for hackathons: from education and medicine to city design.

Origins of hackathons

Intellectual competitions have been held for decades. An example of such “brain battles” is the method of jointly completing cases (solving specific life situations), carried out in 1924 at Harvard Business School.

The originator of the term “hackathon” is the Sun Microsystems corporation and the OpenBSD developers, who dubbed their working together in 1999. At this time, OpenBSD developers and representatives of Sun Microsystems worked on creating encryption algorithms that were not prohibited by American export restrictions. A hackathon was a project to create software in the Java language.

And by 2005, the hackathon gained popularity among those who want to create startups or are engaged in rapid software development.

Stages of the marathon

Like any event, the hackathon takes place in several stages:

Opening and general acquaintance with clarification of the theme of the event (if any);
Discussion of ideas and formation of competing teams;
Team work on projects;
Presentation of works. Each team demonstrates a prepared project.

Teamwork on a project is the longest stage of the marathon. It can take from a couple of hours to several days. Hackathon participants eat spontaneously. In most cases, their diet consists of pizza, sandwiches and energy drinks. There is no sleeping space for participants. Therefore, those who want to relax arrange it themselves.

If the hackathon is held in the form of a competition, an invited jury evaluates the projects prepared by the teams and determines the winner, who receives an award.

Reasons for popularity

A hackathon is an event that allows young programmers, designers and other IT specialists to create a new joint project. And during the event:

Make acquaintances. Hackathon – perfect place to exchange experiences and new ideas for creating projects;
Create IT communities. The hackathon is aimed at uniting like-minded specialists interested in solving a specific problem or developing a topic;
Participate in a non-standard work process and friendly cooperation. The hackathon does not have a strict schedule or work format. It allows specialists from completely different fields to take part in a joint project, which would otherwise be impossible;
Enrich your knowledge. A special feature of the marathon is that participants solve problems that are unfamiliar to them. Therefore, the learning process during the hackathon occurs quickly with the opportunity to apply the acquired knowledge in practice. And the friendly team allows you to count on comprehensive assistance. A hackathon provides a unique opportunity to learn in a few hours or even minutes something that would normally require watching an entire video course;
Express yourself. The hackathon allows participants to demonstrate their professionalism;
Bring innovative ideas to life. Hackathon allows you to experiment, create and implement the most incredible ideas;
Companies find promising employees. The hackathon allows you to present startups that are of potential interest to companies.

Hackathon directions

Hackathon was created as a programming competition, but today the term has a broader meaning. It brings together designers, managers and journalists. There are medical, educational and social hackathons held to solve meaningful problems.

Hackathon features

A hackathon has long ceased to be an ordinary marathon of fast coding. Nowadays, the dominant role is given to teamwork - the ability to:

Correctly distribute responsibilities;
Use available resources wisely;
Coordinate joint efforts;
Achieve your goal in the shortest possible time.

Hackathons are held to attract young professionals (developers, experts) and provide them with the opportunity to communicate in an informal setting, exchange experiences and implement their ideas.

Such competitions are an excellent start for beginners. There are companies that began their rise from hackathons and have now received worldwide recognition. For example, GroupMe, which took part in the 2010 hackathon (as part of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference), was bought by Skype Corporation a year later (in 2011) for $85 million!

Experts compare hackathons to the notorious “kick” that stimulates the brain to work. And when combined with expert advice and collective wisdom, a hackathon can become a truly unique event.

Hackathon is an event at which a team of developers, within a limited time and in a small space, breaking into groups, solve a particular problem by creating a software (engineering) solution, product or service.

In my understanding, a hackathon is entertainment for programmers, which allows them to realize some of their goals in a short time.

developer goals:

Have fun
Try some technologies, practices
Test a hypothesis/idea in a short time
Do something you've been wanting to do for a long time
Check people, team, try to work together
Pitch an existing project, gain experience, reviews, investments
Do something useful
Receive material benefits from participating in a hackathon

I have put these goals in the order in which I perceive them as a developer and participant in hackathons. People are different, and their priorities are very different.

There are also different types of Hackathons.

hackathon criteria

Thematic / general
Competition/fan
Focus on technological solutions vs business focus

Based on these (and many other) criteria, both the hackathon and the audience that will come to it will differ.
It is very important that the presentation of the organizers and the audience in this place coincide.

Thematic hackathon clearly outlines a specific area in which the problem will be solved and (or) a set of technologies by which these problems will be solved.

Examples of topics:

Electronic control,
charity,
energy independence,
restaurant industry,
mind map tools,
mobile games.

Technology set usually defined if the event is held at the initiative or under the auspices of a representative of these technologies (company or community)
For example: Hardware hackathon on intel Galileo, photo hackathon by Nikon, Nvidia-CUDA, Unity 3d, ruby on rails in real world, etc.

General Hackathons do not define a clear topic of projects, and are differentiated according to individual parameters.

The more clearly you outline the topic, the closer the audience will come to it, but at the same time it will be smaller. If the hackathon does not have significant differentiation, no one may come to it.

Polarity competition/fan comes primarily from the position of the organizers and the topic.
For example, a hackathon on the topic “Most useless thing in a world” will have a small competition component.

The most important factor for this criterion is also availability and size of the prize fund. The larger and more actively it is announced, the more the atmosphere of race and tension will be present at the event.

Manufacturability vs Business orientation These are primarily criteria for evaluating solutions produced at hackathons.

It also comes from the essence of the organizers and the topic, and is perhaps the most important thing that needs to be constantly conveyed to the participants, since otherwise they may be very disappointed from the inadequacy of the assessment.

* Programmers are always technologically oriented.

Criteria for evaluating a solution based on manufacturability:

Technical excellence and functionality
Complexity of implementation, technologies and approaches used
Design, visual perfection of the product

Criteria for the business component:

Having a business model, understanding where the money will come from and how to return it.
The structure and quality of the presentation, communication to the audience, pitching, an idea of the project’s marketing strategy.
A team is a group of people who can systematically implement solutions.

Accordingly, the team that developed a super-technological and complex solution will be disappointed by the victory of the team with a beautiful presentation and a pitcher with a suspended tongue. To avoid disappointment, you need to clearly articulate the goals and criteria of the event.

Also, a mandatory evaluation criterion should be general excellence and efficiency proposed solution. It should work.
If this is not taken into account, then the hackathon turns into a competition of beautiful ideas.

Despite the fact that the above criteria are polar, they can and should be combined. This is the difficulty and the main challenge when creating the concept of hackathons.

Therefore, the first question that the organizer should ask himself is:

The reason, theme and purpose of his hackathons?

You need to understand that you are gathering a bunch of usually professional and expensive people in terms of salary, so that they devote their personal time to solving the problem that you pose with your topic.

Programmers love to do cool, important, useful things and so that everyone knows about it.

Your topic should be simple and clear.

Expectations from products developed at the hackathon

99.7% of startups die.
99.9% of solutions developed at a hackathon are thrown away. And it is right.

A solution at a hackathon is a quick and dirty attempt to test the possibility of solving a given problem.

Hackathon structure in terms of projects and teams:

Developers at the Hackathon register either as teams or individually.
In the second case, the task of the organizers is to form a team from individual participants.
Depending on the hackathon criteria, you can set requirements for teams - minimal amount, the presence of technical specializations in certain areas, etc.
Participants who are not included in any team will be very upset.

Idea presentations- regardless of whether they register with you in teams or individually, at the beginning of hackathons it is imperative to present projects.
This accomplishes several of the following goals:

Formation of teams (if not formed)
Introducing teams to competitors
Introducing the jury and organizers to the projects
Introducing participants to their own projects.

Presentations of ideas from people who will not take part in the hackathon do not make any sense. The project leader must be with the team all the time, hammering and brainwashing them. Otherwise the project will not take off.

Ideal Team Size for general/business hackathons 4-7 people with different specializations.

For hackathons with technical direction- minimum 2.

It is not advisable for someone to do projects alone; such projects sometimes even win, but they do not have the spirit of hackathons.

Date and duration

Hackathons last from 1 to 3 days.

For a large hackathon, the optimal duration is 48 hours, starting on Friday evening, ending on Sunday evening.

Internet

A good internet connection is critical for hosting hackathons. The recommended calculation for an external Internet channel is 1Mbit * 1 participant.
It is very desirable to have a backup channel that can be connected in case of failure of the main one.

wifi network- with a large amount of equipment (laptops, accessories), a wifi channel that works satisfactorily under normal conditions may not cope with the activity of hackathons.

Organizers

Obviously, the team is the most important component of anything.

Leading

This is the person who sets the tone and mood of the event, ensures that everything happens as scheduled, announces the stages, participants and other important information.

It is necessary that the presenter be as neutral as possible and not openly sympathize with any of the participants, much less “oppress” those who are not doing well.

The presenter’s task is to maintain the mood of the event and therefore it is he who must fill in all the technical moments, hitches between presentations and other faux pas. At the same time, the leader is the least important person on stage and his function is to raise the importance of everyone else.

Requirements for the presenter: ability to speak publicly, knowledge of the subject area, authority among participants.

The presenter can also be a judge or a mentor, although, in my opinion, this is not desirable.

Event Secretary

The person who deals with the schedule, mentors, sponsors, presenter, knows when who has a pitch, what the presenter should say and when. Often he can broadcast online and post photos on social networks.

Technical Specialist

A person who knows how the network for events works and where to connect it is good when he set it up. Also often among participants (despite the fact that they are programmers) problems arise that they cannot solve on their own - the computer does not connect to the network, it takes off operating system, no flash drive. It is very good when there is someone to take care of them.

It’s also good when an administrator can take care of the proper operation of microphones, sound, video streams, interactive feeds and other things that make a hackathon fun. If you are hosting a Hackathon and need good sound, you should consider renting speakers in advance. We advise you to contact only professionals.

Don't forget that Murphy's Law always works well when it comes to technical event infrastructure: If something can happen, it will definitely happen.

Help volume

The people who provide all the logistics of the event make sure there is coffee and the toilet doesn’t get clogged. Satisfying the needs of participants, finding and obtaining found things (for example, laptop chargers that participants forgot to take with them), doing the impossible.

Someone from the team must be present at the events all the time, day and night. These people should be known (the task of the presenter is to introduce everyone to them) and be easily identified by T-shirts, badges, etc.

Paid entry

It all depends on your capabilities and concept.

In general, I recommend that you make entry paid (with an emphasis on pre-registration) as this will work as a filter for “leftist” people, and will also give additional motivation to participants not to forget to come.

Also, with successful PR, registrations can significantly cover your expenses and provide exactly that cash that is difficult to get from sponsors.

Work after hackathons

This point is very often forgotten, although it is no less important than the work before the event.

We need to sum up the results, post photos, announce online the winners and what awaits them, and thank our partners again. Working after hackathons is a direct investment in your image and the next event. Don't forget about it!

Keywords: Speaker rental, Hackathon, goals, programmers, program creation, projects, Design, business

Hackathon(eng. hackathon, from hack (see hacker) and marathon - marathon) is a developer forum, during which specialists from different areas of software development (programmers, designers, managers) work together to solve a problem. Today, hackathons are no longer related to hacking, they are just programming marathons. Typically hackathons last from one day to a week.

Some hackathons are intended for educational or social purposes, but more often the goal of a hackathon is to create complete software. Each hackathon focuses on a specific area, such as a programming language, operating system, application, programming interface (API).

How do hackathons work?

Typically, hackathons begin with a presentation of the event as a whole and specific topics, if any. Participants then propose ideas and form teams based on interests and skills. After this, work on the projects begins, which can take from several hours to several days. Eating at hackathons (especially those that last more than a day) is spontaneous, and, as a rule, participants eat food like pizza and energy drinks. Also, participants can sleep during the hackathon if they find somewhere.

Hackathons end with project presentations, during which each team shares the results of their work. Sometimes hackathons are competitive in nature. In such cases, the jury evaluates the participants and selects the winners, who are awarded prizes.

Why are hackathons needed?

Hackathons are a good opportunity for designers, developers, and other professionals to get together and work on creating a project.

Acquaintance. A hackathon is a meeting place for designers, developers and other specialists, where they can get to know each other, exchange knowledge and ideas, or come up with a joint project that they will work on in the future.
Community building. Hackathons help build networks of talented and active people interested in a topic or problem.
Creative work process and collaboration. At the hackathon, participants have a unique opportunity to work in a free format that is convenient for them, with specialists from their fields with whom they may have never crossed paths.
New knowledge. The hackathon format means that participants are constantly faced with challenges that they have not encountered before. Accordingly, learning new things at hackathons occurs very quickly, and the knowledge gained can immediately be used in practice. In addition, there are many people around who can help. For example, a person nearby can explain something in 10 minutes that would require watching an entire video course.
Showing talent. For participants, the hackathon is an opportunity to show how good specialists they are.
Implementation of new ideas. Being a kind of platform for experimentation, a hackathon allows you to come up with and implement completely new ideas and projects.
Scene of startup projects. For companies, hackathons can be especially interesting because they provide a stage for potentially successful startups to continue working with.

If you decide to organize a hackathon

Hosting a hackathon related to your social mission is good way attract talented specialists to it, come up with and implement new ways to solve existing problems. If you decide to organize a hackathon, these tips may help you.

Define the goal of the hackathon. What problems are you trying to solve? What should developers do? Attracting developers is the key to a successful hackathon since they are the ones who know how to create applications. You should also involve experts in the field, people from the community, students - the wider the audience, the more creative the solutions can be.
Leave plenty of time for planning. Depending on the size of the event, preparation usually takes three to six weeks.
Select the venue and date. For obvious reasons, nothing can happen unless you choose where exactly it will happen. There are many places where you can hold a hackathon - from the offices of IT corporations to local cafes. Since most of the specialists are working professionals, weekends are more convenient for them.
Attract sponsors. The most expensive elements of a hackathon are the platform, food and prizes. Think about what and to which sponsors you can offer in exchange for support.
Tell potential participants about the hackathon. Post information about the event on relevant resources in order to attract those who the hackathon is intended for and who may be interested. Contact the press and influential community members who can spread the word through social media. Ask sponsors to spread the word too – it is in their best interest to have as wide an audience as possible.
Order (a little) more food. Ordering too much food and watching it go to waste is sad. But nothing compares to failure if there is not enough food and the participants are angry and hungry. The same rule applies to the second important aspect of the hackathon – coffee.
Make sure you have good prizes for the winners. As a rule, there is a direct relationship between the quality of prizes and the quality of projects.
Remember that no matter how thoroughly you prepare, something can always go wrong. You need to understand what is critical and what is not, and try to prevent the latter from happening (the critical thing will not be that a cloudy liquid is pouring out of the coffee maker instead of coffee, but that Wi-Fi has stopped working or there are not enough sockets).

In general, organizing a hackathon is not a very complicated process, and the result of each such event is the emergence of new ideas and projects that have the potential to be socially significant and useful for society.

Organization

Hackathon structure in terms of projects and teams:

Developers at the Hackathon register either as teams or individually.
In the second case, the task of the organizers is to form a team from individual participants.
Depending on the criteria of hackathons, you can impose requirements on teams - a minimum number, the presence of technical specializations in certain areas, etc.
Participants who are not included in any team will be very upset.

Idea presentations– regardless of whether they register with you in teams or individually, at the beginning of hackathons it is imperative to present projects.

This accomplishes several of the following goals:

Formation of teams (if not formed)
Introducing teams to competitors
Introducing the jury and organizers to the projects
Introducing participants to their own projects.

The ideal team size for general/business hackathons is 4-7 people with different specializations. For hackathons with a technical focus - at least 2. It is not advisable for someone to do projects alone; such projects sometimes even win, but they do not have the spirit of hackathons.

Date, duration and entry

Hackathons last from 1 to 3 days. For a large hackathon, the optimal duration is 48 hours, starting on Friday evening, ending on Sunday evening. Paid entry. It all depends on your capabilities and concept. We recommend that you make entry paid (with an underline on pre-registration) as this will work as a filter for “left” people, and will also give additional motivation to participants not to forget to come. Also, with successful PR, registrations can significantly cover your expenses and provide exactly that cash that is difficult to get from sponsors.

Organizers

Obviously, the team is the most important component of anything.

Leading. This is the person who sets the tone and mood of the event, ensures that everything happens as scheduled, announces the stages, participants and other important information. It is necessary that the presenter be as neutral as possible and not openly sympathize with any of the participants, much less “oppress” those who are not doing well. The presenter’s task is to maintain the mood of the event and therefore it is he who must fill in all the technical moments, hitches between presentations and other faux pas. At the same time, the presenter is the least important person on stage and his function is to raise the importance of everyone else. Requirements for the presenter: ability to speak publicly, knowledge of the subject area, authority among participants. The presenter can also be a judge or a mentor, although, in my opinion, this is not desirable.
Secretary of the event. The person who deals with the schedule, mentors, sponsors, presenter, knows when who has a pitch, what the presenter should say and when. Often he can broadcast online and post photos on social networks.
Technical Specialist. A person who knows how the network for events works and where to connect it is good when he set it up. Also, often participants (despite the fact that they are programmers) have problems that they cannot solve on their own - the computer does not connect to the network, the operating system has crashed, there is no flash drive. It is very good when there is someone to take care of them. It’s also good when an administrator can take care of the proper operation of microphones, sound, video streams, interactive feeds and other things that make a hackathon fun. If you are holding a Hackathon in Moscow and you need good sound, you should take care of renting speakers in Moscow in advance. Don't forget that Murphy's Law always works well when it comes to technical event infrastructure: If something can happen, it will happen.
Help volume. The people who provide all the logistics of the event make sure there is coffee and the toilet doesn’t get clogged. Satisfying the needs of participants, finding and obtaining found things (for example, laptop chargers that participants forgot to take with them), doing the impossible. Someone from the team must be present at the events all the time, day and night. These people should be known (the task of the presenter is to introduce everyone to them) and be easily identified by T-shirts, badges, etc.

Rule of five "don'ts"

“You can’t” hold a hackathon on your own

That is, you can, of course, but if you do not want this to be the first and last hackathon in your company, then you should contact those who have experience in conducting such events. Organizing a hackathon is a complex process that involves working with participants, teaching them the art of presenting their own ideas, and preparing speeches. It will be necessary to deal with logistics, catering, and purchasing the necessary office supplies.

We hold our hackathons together with old friends – Mikhail Kechinov’s Studio, which organizes a series of HackDay events. It is clear that you need to set aside a certain budget for this, but the quality of the event will definitely increase. You can read about their view on the process of organizing external hackathons here. You need to pay attention to any, even significant, little things, because you will only have one chance to make the hackathon exciting, memorable, and, most importantly, useful for employees. And if the first pancake is lumpy, then no one will come to you the second time.

“You can’t” motivate employees with expensive prizes

A hackathon is not a competition. The point is not in luring specialists from project to project, but in the possibility of cooperation between participants from different teams. The more engineers communicate while working on joint projects, the more favorable the climate on the site, and therefore in the working groups after the hackathon. Therefore, not personalized, but team prizes are important. They should be inexpensive, but definitely aimed at team pastime: multi-level complex puzzles, million-dollar puzzles, chess, radio-controlled toys and all sorts of cute things that are designed for the team. No expensive devices should become a bait for participation in a hackathon; If a person is counting on this, he is not coming to you.

Role proper motivation, as well as the marketing of the hackathon itself, is so great that, perhaps, this is the main thing you need to think about from the very beginning. How to attract people? With a properly built “promotion” chain, everything will benefit the business: creative advertising banners posted everywhere in the office; and a “warm-up” event, which is usually held 1-2 weeks before the hackathon.

An example is the idea of Andrey Pakhomov, head of the development team of the EMC Research Center in Skolkovo. He proposed creating a “lightweight” system for the collaboration of scientific communities. This is how he himself describes it: “We solved the problem of managing, storing and exchanging scientific data. The architecture is based on popular and reliable OSS solutions. Thanks to their use, our functionality represents a fairly small level of control, potentially scalable to any needs. In principle, the system can be used not only for scientific projects, but also for any tasks that require data management, including search and analytics.” This idea was born during an innovation manifesto and resulted in a working prototype at the nearest hackathon.

But this does not mean that things do not go beyond the hackathon. We invite employees to submit their ideas to the annual corporate Innovation Roadmap - an internal competition program for collecting innovative ideas. And here it is no longer vague plans that are assembled, but well-thought-out prototypes that have gone through the thick and thin of the hackathon, so that the hackathon helps someone become a winner at the corporate level as well. This is the second type of motivation in our company. And, of course, there is a third reason why employees come to the hackathon – it’s fun.

Comfort cannot be underestimated

A hackathon is a long and continuous event. Usually their duration is 48 hours, and this is the second year we have been doing 35-hour hackathons (Friday-Saturday). For the comfort of participants, just comfortable bean bags are not enough; we need full-fledged sleeping bags, more comfortable and larger. We also learned this truth from our own experience.

“You can’t” forget about feedback from experts

Why do employees come to an internal hackathon? Work through your ideas. Have fun. And, most importantly, get feedback on the presented prototypes. There is no need to limit participants in the “types” of ideas. These can be both tasks that teams or customers need to solve today, as well as ideas that lie outside the scope of your business.

Everything is also important here: from nominating the jury to organizing mandatory personal feedback from each jury member for each project! The role of the discussion moderator during the jury meeting is also important, who must ensure that all valuable comments are voiced and not a single project is ignored.

The composition of the jury should be diverse, it should include representatives of various departments, not only engineering, but also business, sales, and development. Feedback should be varied.

And the last thing: you “cannot” assume that there is no life after the hackathon

Quite the opposite: the success of the prototypes developed during the hackathon largely depends on the further implementation of the projects, on how much you can help the participants show their project to the right people in the company, whether the project will receive investment for further development, or whether the results of the work can be implemented into the product. Of course, there will be patent applications, incubation of ideas, and attraction of investments within the company, but that’s a completely different story.

How to win hackathons: 5 rules

1. Prepare thoroughly

Preparation for a hackathon begins from the moment you learn about it. It is important to clarify what of the “inventory” will be provided by the organizers, and what can and should be brought with you.

Consider bringing along a few friends with different technologies that could help the team. Be sure to study the topic of the hackathon and immediately sketch out ideas that you can try to implement during the event. And at the event itself, having understood the situation, you can finally approve the idea and the team. Don’t forget to take a laptop, charge your phone, take all kinds of adapters and a 3G modem - Wi-Fi router. As practice has shown, it won’t be superfluous.

2. Get the jury interested before judging begins.

As a rule, hackathons are organized by a group of sponsors who are interested in receiving a dozen commercial and technical ideas in a certain area of business. They also sit on the jury. If this is not given in the conditions, clarify which technologies will need to be used and which are optional. You can try to involve jury members as mentors in order to draw their attention to the team and your development.

Try to ask as many relevant questions as possible, this will show that you are deeply immersed in their technology or subject area. Sometimes, during the development of an idea, it is possible to find and show bugs in the technologies used by sponsors or find new uses for them. All this will also be additional points in your favor.

3. Focus on your Big Idea without fanatical elaboration of technical details

The technical component can captivate you so much that you spend all the allotted time debugging a small fragment of the program. In this case, perfectionism can be to your detriment. In just a few minutes of presentation, no one will have time to understand how carefully you wrote your code, and this may take all the time and effort allotted for preparation. Try not to delve into the implementation if you are not sure that you will have time to finish everything by the end. The main thing is the concept of the idea. And so that it solves the goals of the end customer of the hackathon as best as possible. And you can refine the rest of the ideas later, in a more relaxed manner.

4. Presentation of an idea is 30% of success

Often the team's presenter is the author of the idea or the one who writes the code best, or everyone is given the floor so that no one is offended. This approach doesn't work. Select the most charismatic member from your team who has at least minimal experience in public speaking. If no one has experience, choose the most “talking” participant, and let him prepare using videos of public speaking trainers available on YouTube. Preparing your presentation is as much a part of the project as writing the necessary code.

Hackathon is a place of freedom and inspiration. Tune in to a wave of creative atmosphere, new acquaintances and knowledge exchange. Enjoy the process and everything will work out!

IN modern world There are many new terms that people do not understand. What is a hackathon? This is an event that has become very widespread not only in other countries, but also in Russia. Therefore, you need to know how a hackathon is conducted, what it is, and what is necessary for it. There are also rules for successfully organizing this event.

Definition

The words “hacker” and “marathon” formed the new concept of “hackathon”. What it is? Today this term does not refer to the so-called marathon of programmers.

The event involves gathering a team from various areas of software creation. They are working on some task. Programmers, designers, and managers can participate in the event. Hackathons last from 1 day to a week.

Tasks

At this event it is important to create a full software, but some are conducted for educational and social purposes. It is customary to develop web services that will solve socially significant problems.

Creates mobile applications, web applications, infographics, also a hackathon. What it is? Thanks to this event, the first version of the application will be ready to launch. With its help you will be able to test the operation of the idea. Events vary in focus and theme.

How do they go?

First, there is a presentation, which begins the hackathon. What does this give? This allows you to familiarize yourself with the event and also learn about the tasks. Participants then propose ideas and teams are formed based on interests and skills. Then comes work on projects.

Participants at such events reinforce their strength with ready-made food, such as pizza and energy drinks. At the end, a presentation of the projects is shown. Teams also share the results of their activities. Hackathons are often held as competitions. Then the jury evaluates the participants and determines the winners, who are given prizes.

Why are events needed?

They are suitable for designers, programmers and other professionals who are ready to get together to develop a new project. This is exactly the goal of the hackathon. Moscow offers a large number of events, since many companies are concentrated in this city.

Hackathons are necessary for:

acquaintances - many specialists can find each other in order to share knowledge in the future, as well as work on joint projects;
community creation - events are needed for active people who are interested in a specific problem;
creative process - there is an opportunity to work in a free format;
gaining new knowledge - at the event you have to face challenges that were not there before;
display of talent - the opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism;
implementation of new ideas - the event allows you to implement projects;
startup projects - companies are interested in such events, choosing interesting projects for their further implementation.

Rules for organizing a hackathon

If the hackathon has social goals, then this is an excellent method of attracting talented specialists. The event is necessary to implement new methods of problem solving. To organize a hackathon you need to use the following tips:

Determining the goal: You need to establish what is important to solve at this event. Developers need to be involved in it because they know everything about creating applications. Experts and students will also be needed. The more specialists from different fields there are, the more creative solutions will appear.
Planning: It will take 3-6 weeks to prepare.
Choosing a venue for the event: it can be organized in the office of an IT corporation or in a local cafe. It is advisable to choose weekends for this.
Attracting sponsors: the most expensive things in a hackathon are food, prizes and a platform. It is necessary to attract sponsors in exchange for support.
Story about the hackathon: participants need to tell in detail about this event. You also need to spread the word about the event using all modern means. Social media and the press will be useful for this.
Food Ordering: There should be sufficient food and drink available at the event.
Preparation of prizes: There should be prizes for the winners as this affects the quality of the event.
You should think about what critical situations might be. You need to use proven methods to prevent them.

Event at Sberbank

Many companies hold an event. The Sberbank hackathon is also organized regularly. Specialists from various fields are developing a web service or mobile application. For financial institutions New functions are required in mobile payments and transfers. Security features and development of financial assistants are also needed. The winners are awarded cash prizes.

Thus, organizing a hackathon is considered not such a difficult process. You just need to use all the tips presented, then the event will be successful. Thanks to him, new ideas and projects will appear that will be very useful for society.