Hackathon Organizer Guide
  • Introduction
  • overview
    • What is a Hackathon?
    • What is MLH?
    • MLH Hackcon
    • MLH Community Values
    • Event Types
      • Digital Events
        • Digital Mini Events
          • Marble Races
          • Pokemon Showdown
          • Wiki Races
          • Hacker Hangouts
        • Streamyard
  • General Information
    • Hackathon Timeline
    • Finding the Date and Purpose
    • Build Your Leadership Team
    • Locking Down a Venue
    • Hackathon Budgeting
      • Legal Considerations
    • Getting Sponsorship
      • Introduction to Fundraising
      • Understanding Your Sponsors
        • Evaluating In-kind Sponsorships
      • Potential Sponsor Perks
      • Sponsorship Prospectus
      • The 5-Step MLH Sponsorship Process
      • Cheat Sheet: Emailing Your Sponsors
    • Hackathon Website
      • Making an Accessible Design
      • Placeholder Website
      • Main Website
    • Marketing Your Event
      • Promoting Your Event
        • Marketing Email Template
      • Marketing Goals & Timelines
    • Managing Registrations
      • Registrations
      • Free Registration Tool - OrganizerHQ (OHQ)
      • Sending Reminders
        • Email Templates
      • Check-in Process
    • Event Logistics
      • Hackathon Communication Platform
      • Project Challenges
      • Ordering Swag and Prizes
      • Set Up Your Event
      • Working with Food Vendors
      • Hosting Hackers with Dietary Restrictions
      • Distributing Meals
      • Transportation/Travel Plans
      • Hardware
      • Prepare Your Emergency Plan
    • Judging and Submissions
      • Rules for Your Hackathon
      • Judging Plan
      • Cheating Check
      • Judges Communication and Recruiting
      • Hackathon Submission Portal
        • Using Devpost
        • Using Devfolio
        • Using DoraHacks
    • Hackathon Scheduling
      • Detailed Run of Show
      • Run-Through with the Team
      • MLH Tips and Templates
    • Mentorship
    • Day of Logistics and Hacker Experience
      • Help Desk Recommendations
      • Fun Mini Events
      • Workshops
      • Opening Ceremony
      • Closing Ceremony
    • After the Event
  • Organizer Resources
    • Template Links
    • Getting Support from Others
    • Leadership Resources
    • Marketing Resources
    • Registrations Resources
      • GDPR in Europe
    • Host Exciting Mini-Events
      • Cup Stacking
      • MLH Mini Events
        • WereWolf
        • Slideshow Karaoke
        • !Light
        • MS Paint Bob Ross
    • Keeping Records
    • Software for Hackathons
  • Contributors
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  • Activities via Slack/Discord
  • Online Gaming
  • Other Activities

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  1. General Information
  2. Day of Logistics and Hacker Experience

Fun Mini Events

Time to start planning how you’re going to make your event fun for hackers. We’ve brainstormed some fun activities you can do.

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Last updated 2 months ago

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Most hackathons have a couple fun events as a break from hacking and more technical focused workshops. Activities can range from simple chat activities for a better introduction to facilitate a conversation to more active games to play.

You can make the brainstorming events a fun activity by involving your organizing team. Have a different gaming round for each and selecting the best of them to be hosted at your event. This can be a great team-building activity as well!

To support you better, we’ve collected some fun activity options for what you can do. The following link has some examples from other events, and the rest of this page has more digital focused examples.

Activities via Slack/Discord

Start discussions in threads on your #random, or create specific channels for chatting. See below for some potential questions you can use as conversation starters.

  • Two Truths and a Lie

    • Hackers post two truths and a lie about themselves. Folks vote via emoji and react if they think 1, 2, or 3 is the lie. After a bit, they reveal what the lie was.

  • Question of the Hour

    • Stimulate the conversation by asking a “question of the hour” on Discord/Slack. Potential Ice breaker questions include:

      • What’s your coffee/tea order?

      • What’s your #1 Bucket List item?

      • What city would you love to move to?

      • What’s your favorite meal?

      • What useless fact do you know?

      • What is your favorite book?

      • What’s your school mascot?

      • What’s your go-to karaoke song?

  • Trivia Tournament

    • Host a trivia tournament and let hackers know it’s honors system to not google answers. You could do this via stream where the first hackers to chime in for the correct answer win, or you could do a multi-choice quiz that you distribute via Slack/Discord.

Online Gaming

Online game tournaments are one of the most common ways to engage folks. You can get creative with the games you’re hosting. Due to the processing power needed to stream, keep in mind the capabilities of your computer. We recommend streaming in no higher quality than 720p @ 30fps and hard-wiring your computer to the network via an ethernet cable when possible. Also, try not to do processing-heavy work on the computer that’s streaming.

There are numerous online gaming tournaments, and here are a few ideas:

  • Stream multiplayer games – League of Legends, Dota, Rocket League, and Smash can all be fun games to play over the web. Just be mindful that bad internet connection can make any of these games a bad time.

  • Online Chess tournament

  • Create a Minecraft server for hackers to build in

Other Activities

Keep in mind that not all your hackers will be video game players. Host some non-gaming activities as well. Some of our ideas are:

  • Music – If hackers have Spotify Premium, you can stream background music on Discord. Think about hosting an organizer DJ of the hour and have hackers vote on their favorite playlists.

  • Show and Tell – Allow hackers to share with groups things they’ve been working on, interesting podcasts they’re listening to, a fun recipe they tried, or anything else they want to share.

  • User Experience Design Competition – Give hackers a limited amount of time to create a design based on a theme you announce. Have them post it in a thread on slack/discord and participants can vote on their favorite.

  • Bob Ross painting competition using MS Paint – Hackers can watch Bob Ross painting tutorials for free on YouTube. Have a competition to see who can recreate a Bob Ross landscape using MS Paint or other online drawing tool.

****: We highly recommend Jackbox and Jackbox- style games because they are an extremely accessible event to run. You only need 1 person to own the game for everyone to participate! (Run it in family mode to avoid inappropriate prompts!)

**– Code-in-the-dark activity where participants have 5 minutes to recreate a website without previewing the code they’re writing. Show the host’s screen so that hackers can see what everyone else built and vote on their favorite.

– Presenter picks a random slidedeck based on suggestions from the audience. Have a volunteer present it without knowing what it is while the presenter controls the slides.

Typing contest – Host an online typing contest to see who can type the most words per minute using websites

– Draw and guess words with your friends and people all around the world! Score the most points and be the winner!

Host Exciting Mini-Events
Jackbox games
!Light
Slideshow Karaoke
like 10 Fast Fingers.
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