The Perfect Guide to plan your Virtual Hackathon.

Want to run a state-of-the-art online hackathon? In this post we will examine in detail all the steps. This is a real case of one of KreativDistrikt’s successful past global events. We selected developers worlwide to create a thermal app, capable of making the most of thermal camera features.

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Online Hackathon Website

A good, clear and engaging website is crucial. Take a look at the one we designed.

It contains all the main sections. Consider it while designing your online hackathon website.

Registration form

Of course, it’s important to get contact details. But trying to understand if registrants are serious about it is also. Therefore, we asked them to provide the following:

• Perceived Effectiveness. That is, how effectively the idea/solution addresses issues related to one of the four challenge categories (If the challenge has categories)
• Technical Feasibility. I.e., how technically feasible would the solution be to create and produce.
• Uniqueness. In brief, how unique the idea/solution is? Moreover, how can it help promote the usage of the challenge technologies and/or products?
• Business Potential. For instance, how much short and long term revenue potential would the idea represent? Also, how feasible the proposed business model would be to implement?

At last, this WordPress plugin will help you keep track of the registration form in a simple way and. At the same time, you don’t need to know much about databases.

Once we got a minimum of 40 registrants, we scheduled a couple of explanatory webinars. Surely, you want to do this before the selection announcement.

Google Meet is a valuable tool in that sense. Firstly, you can add up a considerable amount of people. Secondly, you can also register a video. Lastly, you can upload and share it with stakeholders that couldn’t attend it for any reason.

In these calls we went through any technical aspect of the challenge. In sum, we clarified any registrants’ doubt collecting requests and suggestions.

Only if your online hackathon is global, try to find a suitable time for each country.

Undeniably, you want to keep track of project progress. Another key point is monitoring participants commitment. To this end, we set the following 4 milestones. As can be see, to be delivered before the Project Submission:

#1 – Essay: this document explains the idea behind the app. Nonetheless, it should also describe the methods and laying out flows and features.

#2 – Mockup Demo: It’s a basic visual prototype. However, it also gives a look and feel of the future app. This is useful to test the core concepts and clear the loose ends.

 #3 – Overall Progress Report:  This document, above all, allows you to make strategic decisions. For example, project deadlines extensions and new dedicated technical support channels. Moreover, we didn’t want our participants to rush in crossing the line. We want them to develope the right product instead.

#4 – Final video: That is when participants showcase the different structures of the app they designed.

 #5 – Project Submission: Make clear from the beginning how you want the project delivered. In particular, language required, email a ZIP file, Apple App Store / Google Play Store, etc.

And the winner is…

Spread the word in many ways:

• Online hackathon website update.
• Posts on social media.
• Online blog articles.

For instance, one can provide teams’ company and project links. Also, honorable mentions, prize pool and information about the future events should be included.