Organizing a Hackathon: How to Set Up a Winning One Yourself

Want to host your own hackathon or curious how it works? We applaud you! A hackathon is an amazing event that can help your organization make huge strides in no time. We’ll share four secrets to help you get the most out of it.

Let’s get straight to the point.

In a nutshell, these are our four secrets to organizing a truly successful hackathon:

Taking action starts with preparation.
Keep participants’ energy levels high
Pitch your challenge in five minutes
Attracting participants is key

Next, we’ll walk you through each of these steps, showing why they matter and how to make the most of them.

Scroll to the bottom to discover exactly what a hackathon is and how the term came about.

Organizing a Hackathon: How to Set Up a Winning One Yourself

1. Taking action starts with preparation.

It’s happening. That brilliant idea at your hackathon—a breakthrough you never saw coming. That’s why preparation is key. You need to account for situations like this right from the start.

That’s why you should dedicate plenty of time to preparation, and answer the following questions:

What’s the big goal we’re chasing? And what does success look like?
Who’s doing what, and who’s got the skills to make it happen?
Should we create a dream team to bring these solutions to life?
Will the participants who generated the ideas play a part?

We always kick things off with a prep session (a design session), where we work through the questions above with our clients. The insights gained here are invaluable—sometimes they even shape the hackathon itself.

2. Keep participants’ energy levels high

Hackathons are intense. Brainstorming and prototyping for 8 to 24 hours straight is a serious brain workout. That’s why it’s crucial to take breaks and step away now and then.

Recharge breaks
Plan for downtime during the hackathon. Think energizers, warm-ups, singing, or physical activity.

Never forget: participants often join just because it’s fun; connecting with others and diving into subjects they love. Make it an unforgettable event. And the kicker? The most brilliant ideas often sneak out during the breaks.

Bonus tip: the venue is the hackathon’s secret VIP. Never, ever compromise. Lots of light, fresh air, and top-notch acoustics can supercharge energy and spark creativity like nothing else.

3. Pitch your challenge in five minutes

What’s the challenge you really want cracked? We know that you know, but do the participants? We see it all the time: problem statements get locked down too tight or over-explained, and participants end up lost in the details.

You can do better. Cut that half hour down to five minutes and watch as solutions become faster, sharper, and more impactful than ever. We promise.

Pitch your hackathon in just five minutes.
Here’s the challenge. Two or three key obstacles. Imagine the breakthrough if we tackle them. That’s all it takes.

Use the rest of the time to answer participants’ questions.
How do they view the problem? What do they need to get started? Encourage them to explore new paths. Giving them this space makes them feel more invested in the challenge.

Bonus tip: That fully fleshed-out case with every detail of the challenge? Shoot it over by email. Participants can dive in whenever they want.

4. Attracting participants is key

This may seem obvious, but it often goes wrong: make sure everyone knows your hackathon is happening. Please. Rally colleagues, partners, and friends to get the word out about your hackathon. Feature it boldly on your channels and those of every partner involved. Share the news far and wide.

TIPS

Craft a plug-and-play promo text. Make it so easy to share that everyone becomes your hype squad.
Plan your communication in advance. Start months ahead, not just in the final week.
Appoint a jury. Serious feedback on participants’ ideas sparks engagement and gets them fully on board.
Planning for 30 participants? Aim for at least fifty sign-ups. There are always no-shows, and a waitlist makes your event feel even more exclusive.

Finally: follow up like a pro. Send participants a killer group photo, hire an illustrator to bring the day to life visually, and craft a summary that proves real progress was made. Let them feel the impact, they’ll remember it forever.

Bonus tip: A mailing list is pure gold. Start building it ASAP! Use it to share the date, directions, and dietary info. After the hackathon, you can even ask participants to vote on the coolest idea.

Check out our hackathon page for a downloadable version of this article, including a handy checklist to tick off everything with ease.

So, what’s a hackathon, really?

A hackathon is your secret weapon when you need a surge of creativity and out-of-the-box ideas. Gather three to six teams, ideally with people from outside your department or organization, and challenge them to crank out as many ideas as possible in an intense 8-to-24-hour sprint.

Hackathons shine when the path forward isn’t clear yet. Perfect for tackling challenges that need fresh, unexpected solutions.

Hackathons started in the tech world back in the 1990s. The name, coined in 1999 by programmer and author Eric Raymond, fuses “hack” and “marathon”, because it’s all about sprinting through ideas with intensity and creativity!

No worries, “hack” isn’t about breaking into systems; it’s about sprinting to craft innovative solutions and prototypes. “Marathon” captures the intense, marathon-like hours that make a hackathon such a high-energy, high-output event.