Ordering Swag & Prizes
Adding a physical touch to your events!
When it comes to prizes and swag, you should do what your budget allows. While swag is great for marketing/branding, you do not want to sacrifice quality of the other aspects of your event.
Prizes
Prizes are a great way to reward hackers for their hard work. When selecting them, it’s important to consider why you are giving a prize, what sort of behaviors that prize rewards, and how you can go about motivating those behaviors. No one wants to be seen as stingy, but prizes say a lot about who you are as a community, why you are there in the first place, and they influence the vibe of your event — big time. Check out this article for a larger discussion on hackathon prizes.
While cash prizes are easy for events, we do not recommend them. The perceived value of a cash prize is much lower than traditional prizes.
Save the receipts for any prizes. If a winning team has 3 members instead of 4 you can return the prize to add to the next year's budget. You could also raffle the extra prizes or do social media challenges.
Many cool items will be backordered. Order prizes early to have them in time.
Prize Ideas
Gear – Cool Items To Use With Future Hacks
Unreleased hardware
Rechargeable battery packs
Laptop, tablet, etc.
Parts or Gift Cards for Inventables, Sparkfun, or Adafruit
Novelty – Things Hackers Love, But Might Not Buy For Themselves
Retro Video Games
Limited Edition Swag
Personalized action figures
Polaroid Camera
Audible Subscription
Geeky posters
Office Warfare gear (ping pong ball launcher, nerf guns, etc.)
Experiences – A Memorable, One-time Adventure With Friends
Movie Tickets
Trip to Medieval Times or an amusement park
A trip somewhere (may cost $1000/person, but still less overall than many cash prizes)
Lunch with your hero
Laser tag tournament
Conference tickets
Company trip – visit and hang out with your favorite companies for a day
Budget Conscious Prizes
Numbers may vary, but when collected these options were approximately these ranges.
Wireless Earbuds
Yubikey Security Key
Drawing tablet
128 GB USB Drive
Anker PowerBank
Hardware / Development Kit
USB Converter
Echo Show 5
Bluetooth Speaker
128GB SD Card
TB External
Fire 8 Tablet
Anker Wireless Charger Bundle
Gaming Mouse
Blue Yeti Nano USB mic
Anker USB-C Hub
Anker Wireless Power Bank
Mini Projector
Soldering kit
LG XBoom Speaker
LED Desklamp with Wireless Charging
Belkin Face Tracking Phone Mount
Reusable Notepad by Rocketbook
Blue Snowball Mic
Anker Wireless Charger Bundle
Apple AirTag
Swag
Lanyards/Wristbands are an easy piece of swag to help make it easier to identify who has checked in and is supposed to be in your venue space. We recommend doing lanyards or wristbands at the very least. If you are making lanyards, include a space for
Name
Pronouns
Role (hacker, sponsor, mentor, organizer) - Potentially get different color versions so even easier to identify
Make sure double sided so if flips around still has name visible.
Also include your event Discord/Slack and who to contact in case of emergency.
A fun alternative for pronouns is to have a sponsor print pins to add to the lanyards that hackers can pick up at check-in. Check out an example from WEHack, where they had a sponsor co-design with their event theme as a special branding perk.
If you have a significant budget surplus, consider making swag bags for everyone, this can be as low cost as $5 per participant.
If you have multiple types of swag, consider distributing the swag throughout the event at different workshops/mini-events to keep hackers engaged.
If you plan to get t-shirts, remember to collect t-shirt sizes so you know the approximate % distribution you want of each size. You can also use the % below that we use here at MLH.
Women's XS
1.48%
Women's S
6.84%
Women's M
5.39%
Women's L
1.54%
Women's XL
0.27%
Unisex XS
0.72%
Unisex S
13.60%
Unisex M
42.94%
Unisex L
21.02%
Unisex XL
6.19%
Article: Are Hackathon Prizes the Worst Thing Since Moldy Sliced Bread?
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