Organizations looking for new ways to raise brand awareness and recruit top talent can strengthen their strategies by sponsoring hackathons: these events provide a plethora of benefits.Sometimes, there are hackathons and web3 events that are created by others. But this shouldn’t be a problem. On the contrary, it’s a golden opportunity. When you sponsor an event like this, not only is your brand visible, but depending on the deal, sponsors have the option of selecting some of the challenges.<h3><img src="https://taikai.azureedge.net/BS9t-jQPCm2j_ojeM2fZ7vZGtDyLT6YWR0AuFPTBskA/rs:fit:800:0:0/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdvb2dsZWFwaXMuY29tL3RhaWthaS1zdG9yYWdlL2ltYWdlcy82MWQzMjUzMC0xMzM3LTExZWQtODMzMC1hMTc4NDRkNmI1OTBTb2NpYWwgTWVkaWE9VHdpdHRlcndoeSB5b3Ugc2hvdWxkIHNwb25zb3IgYSBoYWNrYXRob24ucG5n" style="width:875px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" />Table of contents</h3><pre>What to consider before becoming a sponsor
The benefits of sponsoring a hackathon
How to become a hackathon sponsor 
What do you have to offer?
Final Thoughts</pre><h3>What to consider before becoming a sponsor</h3>First and foremost, think of hackathon sponsorship as an investment. As a result, it is critical to look for the right ones that are more capable of producing the desired results.At this point, you should think about as a hackathon sponsor:<ul><li>What are the main KPIs you expect from the event; </li><li>Consider whether the event will assist you in finding new employees or freelancers for projects, particularly if you are looking for web3 developers; </li><li>As a hackathon sponsor, you should consider what kind of marketing and brand awareness promotion your company will receive (for example, press releases and paid media). </li></ul><h3>The benefits of sponsoring a hackathon</h3>Besides raising awareness, sponsors support hackathons for a variety of reasons, including receiving feedback on their products, such as APIs and development tools, and recruiting interns, freelancers, and full-time employees.However, there are additional advantages of hackathon sponsorships.Amplifying networking is one of the most important reasons. After all, organizations are always looking for ways to gain access to specific communities. It's even more important when it comes to providing web3 services because it's a niche where highly qualified professionals are still scarce. Additionally, hackathon sponsors may promote some of the challenges, which are ideal for generating, validating, and prototyping ideas.It is also possible to use these to challenge participants to program and update an existing feature that your organization already provides, or to find bugs – as the Caduceus did at TAIKAI on their <a href="https://taikai.network/en/caduceus/hackathons/caduceusbb" target="_blank">Bug Bounty Challenge</a>.Another benefit is lead generation. It's possible that potential customers (B2B or B2C) are also participating in the hackathon, and this could be an opportunity to test your services.Last, but not least, organizations recognize that hackathons are excellent for recruiting brand ambassadors because these types of events are good for listening, building relationships, and growing a brand advocate community.<blockquote>👉 Learn more about the <a href="https://taikai.network/en/blog/importance-brand-ambassadors" target="_blank">value of brand ambassadors for your business</a></blockquote>Aside from that, there are other sponsor benefits and actions to take: <ul><li>Organizations can increase credibility and brand recognition by participating in successful events, which is a great way to drive positive PR.</li><li>Plan post-event interactions by inviting participants to your next market moves, such as post-event meetups and conversations.</li><li>Being in sync with market trends and new ideas that emerge as a result of the new talent that attends these types of events.</li></ul><h3>How to become a hackathon sponsor</h3>As we can see, there is a lot to earn from sponsoring hackathons. However, you must concentrate on the appropriate events.As a result, they must be consistent with your brand, expectations, and KPIs.A good starting point is to contact brands and organizations that have previously participated in hackathons or have a hackathon tradition. By doing so, they will be more willing to collaborate with you to create new hackathons.Another suggestion is to contact business partners who have similar goals, such as finding web3 developers. As a result, you can begin planning an event together and setting a joint budget for the challenge.<h4> </h4><h4>What do you have to offer?</h4>When looking for hackathons to sponsor, you should be prepared to make the most of the event. Nowadays, companies don’t just look for sponsors to bring in extra dollars, but for other benefits they can add. Let’s take a look: <h4>Offer mentorship</h4>Because it is a great place to find some of the world's best talent, good hackathon sponsors send their top professionals to engage in the event. They can serve as mentors, for example, to help participants interact and get to know one another better.When you are a hackathon sponsor, this is a good strategy because developers and talents remember people who helped them finish their tasks. In other words, when software and web3 developers are looking for work, mentors from your company can bring your brand to the forefront of their minds.Aside from that, your employees can serve as judges or even as headhunters. <h4>Give out tokens</h4>As you may be aware, cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular. So, when sponsoring a hackathon, rewarding participants with tokens is a good option.At TAIKAI, most of our hackathon partners award the best projects with <a href="https://taikai.network/en/blog/kai-token-community-token" target="_blank">KAI Tokens</a>, our own cryptocurrency.  We employ this strategy because we've discovered that providing an additional incentive can assist companies in hiring recent graduates and college students. And a sizable percentage of <a href="https://taikai.network/en/blog/blockchain-developer-vs-software-developer" target="_blank">software and blockchain developers</a> are interested in such compensation. <h4>Provide educational materials and resources</h4>At TAIKAI, for example, we sponsor and support hackathons by providing the most comprehensive platform for companies hosting online and private hackathons.We built an all-in-one hackathon platform that allows for managing participants, formation of virtual teams, detailing the competition content, rules and prizes, an event timeline, project submissions, live streaming and evaluation voting stages.All of this is done through a clean and friendly UI and we make sure our software and features are updated frequently.Besides the platform itself, we offer educational materials and resources that help participants and companies alike to navigate, find ideas and learn more about these challenges.As a sponsor, you can implement this strategy and provide all the materials and support the participants could take advantage of. Assuming the content is great, you’ll brand your company as highly knowledgeable and authoritative in the niche. <h3>Final thoughts</h3>Finding talent, increasing brand awareness, generating, valuing, and prototyping ideas are just a few of the advantages of being a hackathon sponsor.Hackathons and events foster networking and keep businesses current with market trends. However, as a hackathon sponsor, you can do more:Bring your in-house talents to be mentors and judges, set your own challenges, reward participants, and always aim to provide the best tools and resources. <h4>Planning on hosting a web3 event?</h4>We are now sponsoring #web3 community events. We’re offering the <a href="https://taikai.network/en/blog/how-to-host-a-virtual-hackathon" target="_blank">tools and platform</a> so you can create the best possible experience for your challenge. Reach out to us <a href="https://taikai.network/en/organizations" target="_blank">here</a> and mention #TaikaiSponsor in the form!

Hackathon sponsorships provide massive benefits. Here's how you can become a hackathon sponsor and make the most of these events.

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