Main Website

Your hackathon's face to the external world!

Once you've published your placeholder website, your team should immediately prioritize deploying the main hackathon website. This website should be designed to reflect your hackathon's goals and serve as the face of your event to the whole community. Great design language can significantly raise the perceived reputation of your hackathon to your attendees. Check out our design guide for more!

A typical hackathon website contains the following sections:

• Landing Page: The landing page contains your hackathon's name, logo, dates, and most importantly, your hacker registration form. We also suggest including supplementary information like judging and mentorship interest forms.

• About the Hackathon: This section is a space for the lengthier information about your hackathon, including the event's ambitions and motivations, a short reference of your team, etc.

• Sponsors: This section lends professional credibility to your hackathon by featuring your sponsor companies. Including brand assets and links to each sponsor's website is a great way to thank them for their support.

• FAQ: A well-written FAQ can reduce the load of your support emails and is a crucial read for anyone attending your hackathon. The following bulletpoints are formatted to be easy to copy and paste, but you should customize as needed to fit your event.

  • Is HACKATHON NAME free to attend?

    • Yes! Food will be provided for the duration of the event. We will also have swag and prizes!

  • Where is the event? Is it in person or virtual? Where can I park?

    • The event is located in the XXXX Building at STREET ADDRESS.

    • You can park in Lot X,Y, Z which you can see on this campus parking site - LINK

  • Who can attend? What if I don't have any experience? Do I have to be 18?

    • This event is open to any students. It is beginner friendly, with workshops to help you learn during the event, and mentors available to help you as you work on your project.

    • Attendees must be at least 13 years old due to child privacy laws. If under 18, you will need to fill out this liability form from the university to participate - LINK.

  • What is the team size limit?

    • Teams should be between 1 and 4 people. We will have a team building activity right after opening ceremony if you'd like to find team members!

  • Are there travel reimbursements?

    • We are not able to provide travel reimbursements at this time.

  • What should I bring?

    • Your laptop, charger, headphones, deodorant, and a pillow/blanket.

  • When can we start working on our project? Can I work on a previous project?

    • You cannot start until after opening ceremony. You may come up with ideas, but are not allowed to start coding. You cannot work on a previous project, but can use frameworks if you clearly credit them in your readme and differentiate what you made vs what you used.

  • How many challenges can I apply for?

    • As many as you want!

  • Do I have to stay overnight?

    • No, you can leave and come back if you would prefer.

  • What kind of activities will there be?

    • We will post the schedule closer to the event. There will be workshops and activities to take a break and meet other hackers and our wonderful sponsors.

  • What is a hackathon?

    • A hackathon is an event where students "hack" together and create an app, website, game, etc. in 24-48 hours. There will be no malicious "hacking".

  • Will hardware be available?

    • We do not have hardware available, but you are welcome to bring your own. Due to building fire codes, soldering kits are not allowed in the venue.

  • Are you sending out acceptances? Is there a deadline to apply? Is there a waitlist?

    • We will send out acceptances XX days before the event. If you need earlier confirmation to book travel, please reach out to our team at EMAIL ADDRESS. Applications will close once we reach the maximum amount of hackers we can support, but we will open a waitlist on the day of the event for any local hackers who want to fill the spots of any accepted hackers who do not end up attending.

  • How do I sign up to be a mentor/judge/volunteer?

    • You can sign up here - LINK

  • I have a different question!

    • Email us at EMAIL ADDRESS!

• Footnotes: This section generally contains all the important documentation of your hackathon including the rules, code of conduct, support emails and/ or any contact form.

Regular website updates

Ideally, you’ve been updating your site on a rolling basis as more details get finalized. This is a great way to keep your hackers engaged and motivated to check out all the offerings at your hackathon. You'll want to add the following sections at least a month ahead of your event for the best hacker experience.

• Schedule: This is a great way to increase visibility and keep hackers informed of what to expect at different times during your hackathon. You should be prepared to make live edits on the weekend of your event to reflect last minute delays or room changes.

• Venue Address and Map: An address can help hackers from other universities find your building. A map highlighting areas for workshops, hacking, and sleep is also strongly encouraged.

• Link to your Hackathon Chat Channel: Set up a single channel of communication for day-of updates.

• Prizes: Get your hackers excited by publicizing your prizes!

• Tracks: Let hackers know about the different themes they can work upon during the hackathon.

• Speakers, Judges & Mentors: It's best to include information about the different people attending your hackathon with different roles to thank them and let hackers know of their presence. This will also help on the day of to manage hacker interaction.

MLH Tips:

• You should update this site on a rolling basis as you land speakers and sponsors, create your schedule, confirm transportation offerings, etc.

• As early as possible, celebrate what differentiates your event.

• It's never too early to open registration. Check out MyMLH for an awesome single sign on solution to make signing up for your hackathon really simple!

• MLH-Hackathon-Boilerplate - Boilerplate code for any new MLH Member Hackathon looking to build a website integrated with MyMLH. Written entirely in Jekyll, which GitHub pages automatically compiles to make hosting seamless.