Until an event has a website, it doesn’t exist to most people. Publishing a basic website the second you’ve committed to hosting a hackathon will help you drive interest to it, capture potential attendee email addresses, and answer questions from interested students.

Think about your hackathon as a movie. You first release a teaser, then a trailer and then on the eventful weekend, the movie releases! This website will serve as a teaser for your event - the first step to spark a huge interest in your hackathon.

The first iteration of your site should include:

• Event Date: If you don't have an exact date, try to include at least the month of your hackathon.

• A Pre-Registration Form: Capture the initial interest of your hackers. Getting their name, email and some social channels can be a great starting point.

• A Support Email: You should be ready to answer potential attendees’ questions. This will have a great impact on the word of mouth marketing.

• Social Handling: Links to your event’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account

• Release Date: A date when visitors should check back for more info

• Frequently Asked Questions: A basic FAQ about your event to explain things to someone who has never seen or been to a hackathon before.

• Sponsor Interest Page: A page just for sponsors, including:

  • An email address for sponsorship inquiries

  • Some information about your event and your team

Resources:

• ​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.