A hackathon is a challenge-based event that allows participants to share their ideas and solutions in a collaborative environment. It is a great way to get people thinking outside the box and coming up with new and innovative solutions.Hosting a hackathon can be challenging.It involves a lot of planning, preparation, gathering an audience, and a handful more steps to pull it off the right way. But there’s good news: it’s easier than you might think.If you're thinking of hosting a hackathon, here are some quick tips to help you get started:Choose a theme for your hackathon. This can be anything from product development to marketing campaigns.Draft a list of challenges that participants can choose from. These challenges should be designed to inspire creativity and innovation.Create a timeline for the hackathon and make sure everyone involved knows what's expected of them.Promote the event online and make sure it's accessible to anyone who wants to participate.Host a final judging session where participants can present their solutions to the judges.In this article, we’re going to dive deep into the technical setup and tools, but also the main components and processes you should be familiar with to get your first hackathon up and running in no time.Ready? Let’s go 🚀Table of Contents What is a hackathon? Types of hackathons Why host a hackathon? Planning your hackathon How to Host an Online Hackathon Tips for a Successful HackathonWhat's a hackathon?A hackathon is a design sprint-style event where teams of developers, software engineers, and innovators come together to create prototypes or finished products over a short period of time.Hackathons have been around for a while, but they've really taken off in the past few years.The purpose of a hackathon is to promote innovation and present new ideas or solutions. Companies resort to a challenge to seek community expertise in the hopes of developing a successful product or service.Participants, on the other hand, join hackathons for many different reasons: to win monetary rewards and prizes, network with peers, and gain experience, just to name a few.Companies are starting to use hackathons as a way of hiring talent, so it can also be a great place to land your first job or find a better opportunity.Types of hackathonsHackathons can generally be categorized into two types: internal and external.Internal hackathons - These hackathons are usually hosted by a company or organization and are only accessible to staff members. Internal hackathons are intended to solve particular corporate difficulties, promote cross-departmental collaboration, and stimulate innovative problem-solving. They allow employees to demonstrate their abilities, offer creative suggestions, and support the expansion of the company in a cooperative setting.External hackathons - These are open to participants outside the organizing entity, such as developers, students, startups, and professionals from diverse industries. The main goal of external hackathons is to attract fresh perspectives and innovative solutions while building brand awareness and engaging with the broader tech community. Besides, companies often use external hackathons as a recruitment tool or to crowdsource ideas for new products and technologies.Regarding the format of the event, hackathons can be categorized into 3 types of hackathons:In-person hackathons - These hackathons are held at a physical location where participants gather for a set period, typically ranging from 24 to 48 hours, to collaborate in a high-energy, competitive environment. In-person hackathons offer the advantage of real-time collaboration with immediate feedback, making team-building more effective by fostering stronger bonds and smoother coordination.These events also provide valuable face-to-face networking opportunities with industry professionals, mentors, and peers, while the immersive environment boosts focus, creativity, and productivity, free from the distractions of virtual settings.Hybrid hackathons – These hackathons combine in-person and online participation, offering flexibility while maintaining the benefits of face-to-face interaction. Some require only one team member at the venue, while others participate remotely, or split stages between online and in-person.This format provides increased flexibility for participants to choose how to attend and enabling wider participation from both local and global attendees.Online hackathons – Online hackathons are fully virtual events where participants collaborate remotely using digital tools and platforms to communicate, develop, and submit their projects. These hackathons offer global accessibility, allowing individuals from different locations to join without the need for travel. For organizers, this format is more cost-effective, eliminating expenses for venue, accommodation, and travel. Participants also benefit by working at their own pace, accommodating different time zones and personal commitments.Why host a Hackathon?More than 80% of Fortune 100 companies rely on hackathons to drive innovation. Tech giants like Google, Meta, and Facebook orgnize hackathons under different themes every year, which shows how hackathons can be powerful tools for incentivizing creativity and accelerating innovation.Even though companies lead the way with the most hackathons organized, universities and non-profit or government organizations also leverage hackathons to engage talent and address societal challenges with innovative solutions.Regardless of an organization’s goals or industry, hackathons are highly effective at bringing creative minds together to focus their energy on achieving a single objective within a short timeframe.If you are planning to host a hackathon, one of the first decisions to make is if it's going to take place in person or remotely.In-person hackathons create a more immersive experience with closer collaboration, but remote hackathons offer flexibility and the ability to engage participants from around the world.Transitioning from a physical space to a virtual one may bring some drawbacks, but leveraging a virtual hackathon platform such as TAIKAI will allow you to overcome these drawbacks with many added benefits.Benefits of remote hackathonsCost 💰The costs incurred by hosting a virtual hackathon are significantly less compared to a real-world hackathon. While hosting an onsite hackathon you would have to factor in the cost of renting a venue, employing staff, utilities, and much more. Online events, in comparison, require significantly less funding. Providing software licenses and building a digital infrastructure and equipment are a few things that would take up most of your expenditure when you host a virtual hackathon event.Participant Comfort 🛋Many participants have different skill sets and work better under different conditions. An online hackathon event grants each participant the ability to work in conditions where they are most efficient. For some, this might mean working in an ice-cold room. For others, this might mean blasting their favorite music. Whatever their preference, they will be able to do so without becoming a hindrance to other participants. This, in turn, leads to increased productivity and better results. This liberating experience tends to create a sense of community among like-minded enthusiasts.Diversity 👩💼🙎♂🙆🏽♂️While hosting an online hackathon event, you are not bound to a particular location, allowing individuals from different backgrounds to participate in the event. This is beneficial as it leads to more creative output. Additionally, companies would not have to invest in transportation costs for individuals who might live in a different corner of the world.Additional benefits of hackathonsThere are many more reasons and benefits for hosting a hackathon, but in short:Hackathons promote creativity and innovation.Hackathons bring people from all over the world together to solve problems.Hackathons are a great way to get new ideas for your business or organization.Hackathons are a fun way to engage your employees and promote teamwork.Hackathons are a great way to learn new skills and technologies.Planning Your HackathonIf you're thinking of hosting a virtual hackathon, here are some quick tips to help you get started:Choose a theme for your hackathon. This can be anything from product development to decentralized solutions.Draft a list of challenges that participants can choose from. These challenges should be designed to inspire creativity and innovation.Create a timeline for the hackathon and make sure everyone involved knows what's expected of them.Promote the event online and make sure it's accessible to anyone who wants to participate.Host a final judging session where participants can present their solutions to the judges.But before you can start planning your hackathon, you should answer a few questions:What are your goals for the hackathon?What kind of challenges will you be offering participants?What kind of prizes will you be offering?How will you judge the submissions?Once you have answered these questions, you can start planning the logistics of your hackathon. This includes setting a date and time, creating a registration page, and deciding on a submission format.How to set up a virtual hackathon ✅Virtual hackathon events require less preparation compared to real-world hackathons. In order to make successful hackathon events, it is essential to carry out proper preparation before a virtual event. In this section, we will discuss how to set up a virtual hackathon.Online hackathon platformsThanks to online hackathon platforms like TAIKAI, it's now easier than ever to host a virtual hackathon. These platforms make it easy to manage challenges, communicate with participants, and track submissions.If you're looking to foster innovation and creativity in your organization, a virtual hackathon is a perfect way to do it.The types of programs required for hosting an entire hackathon event are as follows:Text-based chatting: Participants in a team must communicate with each other to discuss ideas, clear doubts, or ask questions. A text-based chatting program would allow teams to stay in contact and swap ideas. Presentation: The peak of a hackathon session is when all the hackathon teams present their finished project. It is up to the organizer to decide what program will help demonstrate the final project of their participants. Centralized user interface: A centralized hub where all the event-related information is updated. The information may include rules, schedules, FAQs, or contact information. This would help participants stay up to date on the event.Timeline: Having a clear timeline will help both the organizers and attendees manage their workflow better. Usually, the process is drafted like so:Registration phaseIdeation phaseProject submission phaseResults phaseThese are the most common time frames for virtual hackathons, but you can customize them depending on your specific needs.If your organization or project has specific requirements or wants to host a one-of-a-kind event, TAIKAI's consultancy service provides you with a team of hackathon experts who will handle all technical aspects of hosting and promoting the hackathon, ensuring a great user experience for participants, organizers, and judges.From planning to calendarizing to managing sponsors to onboarding participants, and everything in between, TAIKAI’s all-in-one platform and team of experts are equipped to handle every aspect of your hackathon, ensuring a successful event from start to finish.Learn how TAIKAI’s expertise helped Starkware bring together 390 builders from around the world for a virtual hackathon. Read the case study here. Still not sure what hackathon platform to choose? We’ve conducted a careful review of the major hackathon platforms and created a benchmarking guide, so you have a quick and clear understanding of the features and benefits each one offers.JudgesFor a legitimate external hackathon, a qualified judging panel must evaluate the participant's efforts and ultimately declare the winner of the competition. It would be favorable for the virtual hackathon organizers to choose a well-known judge among the event participants. Advertising a judge who is relevant to the theme of the event would indeed generate more hype and trust.PrizesOrganizers of external hackathons offer prizes to incentivize the participants and to promote competition. The prizes come in different forms: could be cash, gift cards, tech products (laptops, smartphones, tablets, accessories, etc.), software licenses, educational prizes such as mentorships, or even a job at the company.As a rule of thumb, advertising the rewards helps garner more attention for the event and entices people to take part.How to Host an Online Hackathon ✅Now that you are informed about the tools required to organize a hackathon, we will talk about how to organize an internal hackathon or an external hackathon.Listed below are the steps to follow when you plan to host a virtual hackathon event. You can also read the external hackathon case study to understand better how CASSINI pulled an amazing experience.Define the Challenges: All hackathons are based on a particular theme. It is crucial to choose a theme that resonates with your target audience. The specific challenges could be defined prior to the event or at the start of the event. It is not necessary for the hackathon to be coding-related. Some non-coding-themed hackathon project ideas include culture change or supply chain management. Identify Key Stakeholders: It is best to identify and involve key stakeholders as early as possible. They will be the ones who will sponsor a part or the entirety of your virtual hackathon event. As a result, they will be the ones who would be most impacted by the results of a successful event. Define Audience: Choose whether you want to organize an internal hackathon or a public hackathon for your target audience. Suppose you choose to host a public virtual hackathon event. In that case, you may decide whether you want citizens of your own country or city to participate. Host the Event: You would start by debriefing the participants about the nature of the challenges and judging criteria. The participants would then form teams and work on the project. Upon completion, they would present their projects in a wrap-up session. The best hackathon teams would be rewarded with prizes. Recap the event: Once the prizes have been distributed, you can recap the event and recall memorable moments and exemplary ideas. After the event, you can further recap the event on social media pages to garner attention and provide insight into the event for those who missed out on it.Strategies to engage your community during the hackathonHosting your hackathon is the first step, however, you must also account for community engagement. After all, you want to drive innovation and get as many participants as possible. We have an in-depth article explaining the best strategies and actions to perform before, during, and after the hackathon.We know.Hosting a virtual hackathon is demanding. But what if you could do all of this in one single platform?TAIKAI is a virtual hackathon platform that provides a multitude of features such as live streaming, a messaging interface for communication between participants and a matchmaking system. Our platform also enables participants with the opportunity to publish their submissions in rich formats, build up their hackathon portfolio and share it on social media. The best participants could be rewarded with prizes and token incentives based on their performance on the platform.As for you – the host - we provide a unified, yet simple web user interface, where you can manage the entire hackathon challenge. From competition content, rules, voting system, prizes, and an event timeline, we developed our platform to be an all-in-one solution so you can focus on the hackathon itself instead of wasting energy and resources managing it.Tips for a Successful HackathonLast but not least, we want to share a few tips to help make your hackathon a success:Make sure that your hackathon is well-organized and easy to participate in. The last thing you want is for people to be struggling with the rules or the logistics of the challenge.Make sure that the challenge is interesting and motivating. It should be something that people will want to work on, not something that feels like a chore.Promote your hackathon well in advance. The more people know about it, the more likely they are to participate.Provide plenty of support to participants. They should be able to get help whenever they need it, whether it's with the challenge or with anything else related to the hackathon.Have fun! Hackathons are a great opportunity to learn, network, and have some fun too.In ConclusionCongratulations on deciding to host a hackathon! It's a great way to bring out the best in your team and foster innovation and creativity in your organization.To make sure your hackathon is a success, follow these simple steps:Choose the right platformDraft the rules and regulationsCreate an encouraging environmentGet the word outManage the submissionsChoose a winnerHosting a hackathon can be challenging on its own. That’s why at TAIKAI we developed a complete virtual hackathon platform that’s easy and quick to set up. In a few steps, you can host a hackathon, manage participants, connect with them, live stream your event, form teams, and evaluate submissions - all in one platform.It’s your turn to drive innovation and engage with your community. Talk with us today or Request a Demo, we’re always here to help :)About TAIKAIJoin TAIKAI today and become a part of our thriving community of passionate web developers. You’ll have the chance to showcase your skills, collaborate with top tech companies, and win exciting prizes. Sign up now and start hacking your way to success!Our consultancy plan is designed to provide end-to-end support for your hackathon, ensuring a seamless experience from initial concept to final execution.