How To Run The Kickoff

At the kickoff for your hackathon is the time when you set the rules, and expectations for the event. In terms of planning your day, I would argue that this is one of the most important parts of your execution of the event. So, when you are planning an outline for your kickoff, be sure to consider and include the following:

Bring Positive Vibes

You may have heard that the technology industry has a pretty terrible track record of running events that that make woman and minorities feel comfortable. By making a more positive and inclusive experience, you are more likely to attract women and minorities to your event. As a technology event organizer, you have a tremendous opportunity to make a small difference and to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome.

Bring the PMA — just like this guy

My personal favorite hackathons are the hackathons that are positive, supportive, collaborative and welcoming to newcomers to the community and to the old pros. I have been to so many hackathons that feel competitive (in a bad way), support unhealthy eating and sleeping schedules, or foster secrecy. All of these things create an ugly dark event that leaves your attendees with a bad taste in their mouth.

Explain The History and Purpose Of The Event

Reiterate to everyone what the purpose of the hackathon is. You would be surprised how many people come to your event without having a good idea of what they are about to do. It’s also a great idea to talk about any previous events you have run or to get people excited about starting something new. Tell everyone about how awesome your event it!

Introduce The Organizers

Tell everyone who you are, and why you are putting it on the event. This is also a good time to give out your contact information incase anyone wants to get a hold of you during the event.

Encourage New Hackers

I think that a great way to start out the event is to thank the new comers to the event for taking a big risk and being brave. I like reminding everybody how hard it is to do what they are doing, and to remind the group to be patient and encouraging to new hackathon participants. I like to have everyone give a round of applause to the newcomers at the kick off. As an organizer, keep a list of projects and more senior mentors that you can pair your new comers with. You want to make sure that everyone at the hackathon feels like they have an important job to perform or else you will lose the new comers and likely, you will never see them ever again. It is in your power to make sure that they have a great time at their first hackathon.

Everyone likes to feel welcomed.

Be Clear About The Rules

At the day of the hackathon, we weren’t exactly sure what types of projects people would be submitting, so we wanted to leave the prize categories fluid till up till submission. This was challenging for some people at our hackathon. They wanted to have a clear understanding of the rules and how it was going to be judged. We also changed the submission time twice during the hackathon based on information about how people were submitting their projects. If I were to run this hackathon again, I would have been more clear up front about the rules and have a clear time table of events established up front.If I were to take this another step further, I would have a handout to give everyone with the rules, categories, and a timeline of events through out the day.

Thank Your Sponsors

Your sponsors are funding your event, they expect to get something in return. Usually this is recognition for their time, money and efforts in front of their techie audience.

Code Of Conduct

We wanted everyone to have fun at our hackathon, and we wanted to be serious about making sure that we ran an inclusive and diverse event. That’s why we put together a Code of Conduct for our hackathon. This code of Conduct was a conglomeration of lots of other anti-harassment policies put together by much smarter and much more diverse tech people than myself. I don’t want to pretend to be an expert on diversity in tech, but I do want to try my hardest to make sure everyone feels comfortable at my events. As with everything in this article, I am open to feedback.

Your Code of Conduct is more than a set of rules it is your way of setting the community norms at your event. Use your Code of Conduct as a means of creating a positive environment that fosters collaboration.

The Hackbright Academy’s code chimes in with four simple main guidelines:

Be respectful. Be thoughtful. Be open. Be awesome.

Simple.

When writing your own Code of Conduct, I would check out these awesome examples and take the parts that work best for you and your event. Here are some great examples:

If you’re interested in more, the Ada Initiative has a thorough list of conferences with anti-harassment policies.

Explain Logistics

Go over the schedule of workshops, lunch, end time, etc. You can also use this time to encourage people to take and share session notes and to record progress on projects.

Ice Breaker/Team Building Acitivity

In my experience, people groan and grumble when they hear that there is going to be a ice breaker activity, but having one has consistently made the vibes at events with them more positive and inclusive. I would highly recommend having one at your hackathon. This site has some great ideas for ice breakers for large groups.

I have also tried splitting into groups of anywhere from 5 to 10 people. Each person introduces themselves, and you can have a quick brainstorm of ideas for the hackathon as a group. This can be helpful if not many people have ideas prepared for your hackathon. It is also a good way for newcomers to meet other people and to possibly join a group.