Apply to be a MLH Member event
- Major League Hacking (MLH) is a company that operates a league for student hackathons. By partnering with them, HealthX will be added to their roster of hackathons and they will provide guidance and help along the planning process. MLH provides hackathon organizing mentors as well as a hardware rental lab for your hackathon. The application to be a MLH member event needs to be done 4 months before the event date. To apply the follow items are needed : Venue confirmation, Itemized event budget, Sponsorship package, Potential sponsors list. Apply here : https://mlh.io/event-membership
Book required venues
- There are a few rooms that are generally recommended for a hackathon. More information in the Venue section.
Book venue services if needed
- Sometime custodial services or security is required for a venue. Please make sure that these requirements are satisfied and that staying overnight is allowed at the venue if that is something that you would want hackers to do!
Reserve wi-fi if needed for venue
- Some venues do not have free wi-fi so external wi-fi will need to be brought in for the event.
Book venue rentals
- If the venue does not come with the needed equipment then it needs to be rented or purchased. Generally these items include table, chairs, power bars, or anything needed to serve food.
Start looking for speakers
- We generally have speakers at opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies, and sometimes workshops. It is good to contact and search for speakers early to ensure you can get speakers that are diverse and are a good fit for the hackathon's goals. For HealthX it would be good to get a mix of people from life sciences and tech.
Research and order meals
- Included here are some examples and suggestions of meals that we usually have for hackathons.
Finalize schedule and tasks for event
- Linked here is a template schedule for HealthX. It also includes some scheduled tasks throughout the event, like garbage clean-up.
Release the website and start marketing the event
Finalize meal orders
- Pay the necessary deposits and confirm dates and quantities with the vendors for the event.
Make venue map
- This will be given to participants, volunteers and other attendees. It should include all the main rooms for the event as well as bathrooms and emergency exits. It should also be printed out and posted somewhere in the venue.
Order swag for the event
- Swag is a large part of the hackathon culture. It is good to do this early as sometimes shipping can take a long time. Read more here.
Plan workshop slots
- Work with sponsors or mentors to schedule and plan the workshops for the event. These should be educational/helpful to the hackers. Sponsors may also want to promote their technology or company. There are some workshop slots in the template schedule.
Plan pre-hackathon workshops
- We usually host a few workshops the weeks leading up to the main event. These workshops are aimed more towards hackathon beginners and are a great way to market the event and serve as an introduction to the event. Workshop materials can be found here.
Open hacker applications
- This should be done about 5 weeks from the event, the forms can be found here.
Post reminder on Facebook event page when there is one week left to register for the event or capacity for the event is at ~80%
Print venue signs (Optional)
- This is optional, but for a larger event/venue it will help attendees know where to check in and where the important rooms are.
Review judging process
Buy/prepare prizes
- If you are planning to give out any prizes that are not monetary, buy them ahead of time. Otherwise make sure that the funds for the prizes are good to give out after the event.
Ask for volunteers for the event if needed
- Ask volunteers to apply through Google form here.
Open mentor applications for the event
- Ask mentors to apply through Google form here.
Create Opening ceremony slides
Create Closing ceremony slides
Create Volunteer information package
Create Mentor info package
Create Hacker information package
Close hacker sign-up form
- This can be done on a set deadline or once capacity is hit. Capacity should be about a little more than 2 time expected attendance. Anyone else can be added to waitlist or at this point sign-ups can just be closed in general.
Send out volunteers RSVP form
Contact/book photographers (optional)
- Photos and other media can really help when promoting the event in future years. Hackers and sponsors also generally appreciate photos of them with other attendees at the event. Photographers can be organizers or volunteers that have experience with photography. They should be compensated with swag and food for helping out with the event. General photos of of hackers are good for most of the event, always try to get a variety of people. There will be some attendees that do not consent to having their photo taken. These attendees should wear a highlighted nametag or something that will make them easily identifiable to photographers.
Send out Volunteer information package
Send out hacker RSVP form
- Send out RSVP forms to collect basic information about the hackers. Send out the RSVP email to more hackers than the event's capacity. We usually expect about a 40%- 50% of the people who RSVP to show up. After initial spots are filled up, everyone else should go onto a waitlist. RSVP form linked here and email can be found here.
Close mentor applications and send out mentor information email and mentor information email
Send out hacker information package
Send waivers to hackers by email
- Hackers need to sign image/media waivers and liability waivers before attending the event. If hackers do not want to be photographed they need to specify this at registration on the day of the event. The forms can either be printed out or signed digitally and emailed back to the organizing team. Find the waivers here on google drive.
Buy gifts for sponsors, mentors, and speakers (optional)
- A nice gesture to show appreciation to sponsors, mentors, and speakers for helping out with the event.
Host pre-hackathon workshops
- Read more about the workshops and find the slides here.
Create Slack workspace
- Slack is the main form of communication with the hackers during the event. Each channel has a specific purpose and special permissions. It is recommended to get familiar with how to use Slack before the event. Leverage it to communicate clearly and to engage with attendees.
- Most of the channels are self explanatory and have different permissions for hackers and organizers. Make sure to have organizers monitoring the slack for issues, questions and misuse. Optionally we will hold contests (trivia, guessing games) for small prizes in one of our slack channels.
- Examples include: #announcements #ask-organizers #slack-contest #random #general #ask-mentors #ask-sponsors #sponsor-1...
- It is advised to write out template Slack messages before the day of the event, so that things will go faster. Some recommended messages to pre-write would be :
- Announcing mealtimes
- Announcing workshops
- Announcing mini events
- Submission deadlines
- Judging instruction
- Slack linked here
Order coffee (optional)
Buy food/supplies
Set up Devpost
- All submissions for the hackathon will be submitted via Devpost. The Devpost for HealthX can be found here: healthx-2021.devpost.com. Devpost allows the hackers to share their project and for organizers to assign winners and prizes.
Schedule in organizers and volunteers
- Organizers and volunteers should be shifted into the schedule. It is usually a good idea to have one organizer and a couple of volunteers per task.
Do a retrospective
- A retrospective will help to identify things done well and things to improve on for next year. This can be done in any format.
Send post event emails
- The post event emails should recap the event, thank you sponsors and mentors and include a link to the feedback form.
- Emails can be found here and feedback forms can be found here.
Follow up with travel reimbursements
- If travel reimbursements were offered now is the time to follow up and send out the reimbursements.
Contact winners to distribute prizes
- Make sure all winners get their prizes. If some sponsors would like to get in touch with the teams directly for their prizes, pass on the contact info.