What Makes a Great Hackathon?

Having attended around 15 hackathons, both in-person and online, here are my thoughts on what makes a hackathon truly great. This covers booth setup, merchandise distribution, necessary support, and prize structures.

Booth Setup

Merchandise Distribution Three approaches work well: encouraging social media engagement in exchange for merch, offering rewards for completing specific tasks (my preferred approach), and simple giveaways (less effective for engagement).

Cheat Sheets Providing comprehensive reference materials with relevant links and commands helps participants immensely. One of the best examples I've seen was from Scroll at EthIndia 2023 - they had everything a developer needed in one place.

Ideas to Build Offering curated project suggestions addresses the common challenge of developers who show up excited but don't know what to build. Having a repository of potential projects and starter ideas makes a huge difference.

Developer Availability This is critical: technical expertise at sponsor booths is essential. Marketing personnel alone cannot provide adequate assistance. Developers need to talk to developers.

Booth Goals Clear communication about what happens after the hackathon matters. Talk about post-hackathon project incubation and guidance on viable minimum viable products.

Prize Distribution

Category-based prizes work best - they encourage focused work across innovation, user experience, and technical complexity. Pool prizes for specific technologies increase real-world deployment likelihood. What doesn't work well: single large prizes for one winner, which discourages broader participation.

Hackathon Organization

ETHGlobal exemplifies effective organization through proper workspaces, reliable Wi-Fi, continuous mentoring, rest areas, refreshments, and networking spaces. These basics matter more than flashy keynotes.

Online Hackathons

Beyond setting deadlines, effective online events need workshops throughout the event, sponsor support sessions, and progress check-ins. The community aspect shouldn't be lost just because it's virtual.

Conclusion

The best hackathons provide comprehensive support, encourage broad participation, offer meaningful rewards, and help with post-event product scaling. It's not just about the 48 hours - it's about what comes after.