Why do people come to a Hackathon?

[bogdans83]

https://www.google.ro/search?q=Why+do+people+come+to+a+Hackathon yields

http://blog.sumall.com/journal/company-needs-host-hackathons.html http://blog.pluralsight.com/should-you-go-to-hackathons http://www.huffingtonpost.com/women-20/3-reasons-why-you-should-_b_4594159.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2014/01/21/why-dont-more-women-go-to-hackathons/3/ http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/why-hackathons-suck http://arcticstartup.com/2014/03/25/why-do-48h-hackathons-work http://www.fastcolabs.com/3028693/six-things-experienced-hackathon-planners-know-that-you-dont http://www.fastcolabs.com/3028552/new-hackathon-patterns-that-dont-subsequently-disrupt-your-entire-life http://www.dutiee.com/guide-organizing-successful-hackathon-social-good https://westminster.impacthub.net/2014/01/28/what-do-you-need-to-run-a-successful-hackathon-10-tips/ http://gwob.org/hackathon-best-practices/ http://sunmichelle.com/post/26891284996/first-hackathon http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/feb/19/hackathon-apps-developers-hack4good

[bogdans83]

from @mihneadb https://stripe.com/blog/stripe-open-source-retreat

[liviulica]

TC Disrupt got a lot of press and what seems like a ton of positive responses by offering as a prize free hosting via Tix for 1 year:

As I understand it a prize that can help an individual or team with their project / passion might work. Might be some mentorship + some resources (cash, access to data?) that could attract the kind of people we want.

[ovidiuch]

Mentorship sounds interesting. People are pretty interested in uberVU as a company whenever they come here for an unrelated event, especially after the latest hype. Maybe we can leverage this to generate more interest for a hackaton

[liviulica]

4) DON’T: Offer Large Cash Prizes “Prizes can make or break an event,” Swift says. “I work on the largest hackathons in the world and I would never go over $1k.” “When you go above that price range it turns into a paycheck and suddenly the dynamic changes from ‘I'm going to this event for fun’ to ‘I'm going for a payday.’ I see some of the highest-quality events reduce the amount of prizes year after year,”

“Companies can say, ‘We can only fund four projects this year and the top two [hackathon] winners are going to move to the top of the list,’” Simons says.

From: http://www.fastcolabs.com/3028693/six-things-experienced-hackathon-planners-know-that-you-dont

The whole article is quite good

[liviulica]

1. Judging criteria and rules – Should be documented and available prior to the hackathon to avoid confusion or disappointment. From https://westminster.impacthub.net/2014/01/28/what-do-you-need-to-run-a-successful-hackathon-10-tips/

Judging and Prizes: Determine how many winners you’ll like to select and the prizes. Also determine the judging criteria and set-up a panel of some heavy-weights from the industry. Judges credibility and their standing in the sector is key, as many a times the motivation for programmers to participate in these hackathons is to get their work recognized and seen by the industry leaders.

From: http://www.dutiee.com/guide-organizing-successful-hackathon-social-good