Hackathons have become ubiquitous with innovation. Corporations organized 40% more hackathons in 2018 than in 2016. Hackathons designed for non-programmers have slowly gained adoption. Heck, some people have become professional hackathon competitors and travel across the world to compete for prizes.

Hackathons will continue to grow. But how? Unsurprisingly, the evolution of hackathons will likely mirror open source software development. Hackathons will start to utilize the growing megatrends of remote work and globalization. Suddenly, the dynamic of hackathons shifts. Hackathons become scalable. In an effort to see how hackathons will adopt these trends, let’s examine the various reasons why remote/virtual hackathons will become the go-to option for innovation competitions for institutions and individuals.

Bringing More (And Better) Hackers Together

Hackers are obviously the most important part of the Hackathon equation. After all, they’re the creators, engineers, developers, and builders. However, let’s not forget the mentors and judges that also volunteer their time that ensure for even better hackfests. Companies hire remote workers because it allows them to find the best talent. Similarly, remote hackathons can garner better hackers, mentors, and judges all of which combine to enhance the overall quality of the event for a fraction of the cost.

Moreover, virtual hackathons support teams across the world from multiple countries. Remote-first hackathons encourage diversity both geographically and culturally. More diverse teams naturally include contrasting perspectives and life experiences. In turn, teams that have broader experiences will have the advantage to not only address unique problems but approach them from multinational and multicultural viewpoints.

Traditional hackathons are limited to individuals that can afford to travel to the event (if expenses aren’t included) and take the necessary time off. Hackers and entrepreneurs around the world have busy lives with demanding schedules making it difficult to plan an entire trip around a single hackathon. Virtual hackathons enable participants to stay in the context of their personal lives, compliment their schedules, and overall allows for more participants who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to join the hackathon.

Operational and Logistical Benefits

Hackathons have grown increasingly larger throughout the past decade. They are now sponsored by major tech companies, orchestrated in massive venues or conferences, and contain many ancillary services, such as food, swag, games, gifts, etc. At the end of the day, hackathons are expensive.

Startups and medium-size firms that host hackathons don’t have the same resources, which means hackathon eat a large portion of their marketing and events budget. Even internal hackathons within large companies usually involve on-site teams or flying everyone to a singular off-site meeting location.

Remote hackathons ensure that venues, meals, and the other associated hosting costs are eliminated or significantly reduced. Additionally, remote hackathons require less staff, whether that includes internal employees or external agency staffing. These cost reductions can either flow into greater prizes or result in an organization’s ability to host more hackathons per year both of which benefit the hackers and the organizations.

Ultimately, being in the same room or the same location doesn’t scale. If we’re building software shouldn’t we utilize the principles of why we love software? It’s open, global, and can scale quickly. Virtual hackathons benefit from following these principles.

More Time For Product Development, Sleep, and Life

One of the greatest benefits from virtual hackathons is the ability to create longer events and therefore even better projects. The longer time frame opens up time to further iterate on ideas, consult with subject matter experts, and request project feedback from stakeholders or end users. The ability to obtain robust and pertinent feedback supports the development of actionable projects that have significant momentum by the end of the hackathon. The longer time frame enables new models for hackathons such as creating phases for problem exploration, ideation, product development, and feedback.

The extended time helps create a balanced event, instead of a 24–48 hour sleepless night only sustained by caffeine, junk food, and poor blood circulation. More and more programmers recognize the benefits of sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet which makes the hackathon less stressful and more enjoyable. Additionally, it allows hackers, programmers, entrepreneurs, judges, and mentor to live out their daily lives. They can keep their routines, pick up their kids from school, and don’t have to endure travel days. After all, we know everyone loves a long bus, train, or plane travel day!

Finally, virtual hackathons promote networking and greater bonds. While some nonverbal communication is lost without the constant in-person presence, longer time periods to chat and work together facilitates stronger bonds. Twenty-four hours hackathons demand intense focus solely on the project at hand which eliminates the opportunity to learn more about fellow hackers.

Blockchain Networks Necessitate Virtual Hackathons

Ethereum and the overall crypto community is a remote-first ecosystem, so naturally, it makes sense to create a remote-first hackathon.

“Crypto is interesting because these crypto companies are open-source projects for the most part…and because it’s decentralized in nature. It’s kind of a global movement with mathematicians and cryptographers and hackers working on it. By its nature, it ends up being much more distributed, much more remote.” Naval Ravikant, CEO and Founder of AngelList

Many well-known entrepreneurs have been incredibly outspoken about how they believe remote-work cultures will continue to grow and gain a competitive advantage over non-remote companies. We practice what we preach. ConsenSys operates with a remote-first culture and maintains employees around the world.

What Makes Virtual/Remote Hackathons Primed for Mainstream Adoption?

A past problem with remote hackathons is that they weren’t easy to set up and previous tools were underdeveloped. The tools for a remote hackathon are finally available and efficient. Here are some of the most commonly used tools:

Slack, Discord, and Telegram are becoming increasingly used for companies and stand-alone communities.

Zoom, HouseParty, and Facetime have perfected seamless multi-user video chat. Platforms like zoom enable screen sharing, recording, and other valuable aspects that enhance remote work capabilities.

Google Docs are a great way to capture insights and create pitch decks.

Trello, Asana, and Airtable have created task management systems that are easy for remote teams to use to facilitate asynchronous work.

Github has become an incredible tool for product development and iteration.

Figma is our go-to for a light weight design tool to collaborate with teammates across the world.

Bounties Network is a great way to find users in any geographical location.

Twitter and Reddit are also excellent forums for finding people who have the problems you’re trying to solve.

Win-Win

Marc Andreessen once wrote, “software is eating the world.” Well, shouldn’t the fundamental concepts of software eat hackathons too? Hackathons should be open, global, and scalable. Open hackathons recruit the best talent. Global hackathons are more impactful. Scalable hackathons are a more efficient use of capital. Remote hackathons are eating the world.