Hackathon Organizer Guide
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Introduction
overview
What is a Hackathon?
What is MLH?
MLH Community Values
Event Types
General Information
Hackathon Timeline
Finding the Date & Purpose
Build Your Leadership Team
Locking down a Venue
Getting Sponsorship
Hackathon Website
Marketing your Event
Managing Registrations
Event Logistics
Hackathon Software
Ordering Swags & Prizes
MLH Organizer Event Fulfillment
Setup your Event
Hosting Hackers with Dietary Restrictions
Organize Transportation
Distributing Meals
Prepare Your Emergency Plan
Working with Food Vendors
Judging & Submissions
Hackathon Scheduling
Mentorship
Hacker Experience
After The Event
Organizer Resources
Getting support from others
Leadership Resources
Sponsorship Resources
Hackathon Website Resources
Marketing Resources
Registrations Resources
Logistics Resources
Host Exciting Mini-Events
Keeping Records
Software for Hackathons
Contributors
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Hackathon Software
The tooling and software needed to run a Hackathon

Communication Platform

Pick a communication platform and ensure your hackers join it. Slack and Discord are two of the most popular. We recommend Discord for your event because of their free voice chat capabilities.
Before joining and once on the platform, make hackers know that their behavior and actions are still subject to MLH Code of Conduct, and to be respectful. Digital spaces can increase harassment as people are hidden behind a computer, so it is key to make sure your attendees know you still take this seriously.

Include the following channels on your platform:

  • Team-Formation: Channel for hackers to form teams
  • Ask-Organizers: Channel for hackers to ask organizers any questions that come up throughout the event.
  • Introductions: Channel for hackers to introduce themselves. Have your team set the norm for this by introducing yourselves.
  • Random: Channel for anything that isn't hackathon related.
  • Ask-Mentors: Channel for hackers to connect with mentors when they need help on their projects.
  • Mentors-Internal: Channel for mentors to talk with each other and with organizers.
  • Admin: Channel for your organizing team. We recommend creating an admin voice channel as well!

Streaming/Video Conferencing Platform[Digital Events]

Digital hackathons depend entirely on the different you wish to choose to host them over. Making or breaking your hackathon will highly depend on the flexibility and the experience of using the platforms and how well your team is able to manage it. We highly recommend organizers to be aware of the different platforms they might be using so as to avoid any difficulties or edge cases on the day of.
Your team may choose to stream different aspects of the event including the opening ceremony, workshops, mini-events, and closing ceremony.
You may consider streaming to:
Tools like Streamyard make it super simple to stream to multiple places at once.
If you are running events that require attendees to join a video call, make sure you choose a platform that will allow for the correct number of attendees.
Some popular options are:
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Event Logistics
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Ordering Swags & Prizes
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Communication Platform
Include the following channels on your platform:
Streaming/Video Conferencing Platform[Digital Events]