Hacking Those Relations! - Holding an effective Online Hackathon

Hacking Those Relations! - Holding an effective Online Hackathon is a talk designed for DevRel/Asia 2020.

Transcript

1. HACKING THOSE RELATIONS! – HOLDING AN EFFECTIVE ONLINE HACKATHON Renaldi Gondosubroto – Founder and Developer Advocate
2. A BIT ABOUT MYSELF • 10x AWS and 2x Azure Certified • Personal field of interest is in penetration testing, intrusion, and other security- related best practices • On the side: Running meetups, hackathons (e.g. HackerNest’s Fishackathon 2018), doing tech talks and VR tech enthusiast Renaldi Gondosubroto Founder and Developer Advocate @ GReS Studio @Renaldig @renaldigondosubroto
3. WHY ARE WE GOING ONLINE?
4. FACTORS TO CONSIDER ENGAGEMENT PRESENTATION TIMEFRAME
5. SOME STATISTICS OF HACKATHONS
6. MAIN DIFFERENCES IN CHALLENGES BETWEEN ONLINE AND IN-PERSON HACKATHON In-Person hackathons • Themes that may already be familiar • Communications are facilitated in an easier fashion • Effective restriction of resources • Getting a venue sponsor • More associated costs (e.g. food costs, in-venue promotion costs, etc) Online Hackathons • Novel themes to prepare for • The barrier of Zoom • Ease of access to resources • Zoom (or other video conferencing services) as the venue • Lesser associated costs
7. HOW DO WE PLAN? • What problem would you like to solve? What is your theme? • Who do you want to target? • Who do we want to partner up with? • How do we establish an effective agenda for an online hackathon? • What metrics do you use to measure success?
8. SCALE – YOUR COMPANION ACRONYM FOR ONLINE HACKATHONS Creativity Adaptability Learn Energy Scalability
9. DECIDING ON A THEME • Pick a theme relevant to the issues that we currently face i. Work from home communication solutions ii. Hacking Covid-19 iii. Enhanced Medical and Emergency Response • Understand what your target audience would like • Which theme would bring value to you?
10. CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
11. ESTABLISHING CONNECTIONS WITH PARTNERS Provide exclusive features (e.g. specialized breakout rooms) Allow them to promote through your digital media Discuss continuing partnership opportunities After all, partners are at the core of hackathons
12. CREATING AN IMPACT (FOR PUBLIC HACKATHONS) • Getting partners to follow up with the end solutions created • Put the solutions out to the open source community • Provide continuing support and communications to participants
13. CREATING AN IMPACT (FOR PRIVATE HACKATHONS) • Implement end solutions into your business • Pitch it within your business by addressing how it tackles new challenges from the new normal • Plan recurring sessions to generate creativity in online discussions
14. MEASURING METRICS OF SUCCESS • How many new leads have I generated in terms of partners? Attendees? Sponsors? • How has this contributed to the issue in the global community? If it is a private hackathon, how has it contributed to the dynamics of our new way of working? • Are the values of the organization still maintained well within this hackathon? • How do the attendees and partners feel about this new way of hosting? (e.g. can be through feedback forms)
15. ESTABLISHING AN AGENDA FOR A PUBLIC HACKATHON Depending on the hackathon, don’t go overboard with holding it in a single day! Schedule seminars Consider international participants when scheduling key events (e.g. winner announcement, get-to-know sessions, seminars) Allocating team members in international locations if it is an international hackathon
16. MENTORING IN ONLINE HACKATHONS Recruiting mentors relevant to issues being solved Providing mentors with training on using chosen software Specifying mentor check-in times with teams Providing a mentor “refreshment lounge” with breakout rooms
17. MARKETING THE HACKATHON • Optimizing marketing with community partners • Listing on related platforms (e.g. hackathon.com, partners related to the issue you are trying to solve) • Assign a select few team members to continue monitoring outreach
18. ESTABLISHING EFFECTIVE RELATIONS ON D-DAY Speed friending in breakout rooms Provide seminar sessions Allocate team members to different breakout rooms
19. WRAP-UP • Hosting online hackathons can be challenging at the start, but like in-person hackathons, they have their own merits! (e.g. costs) • Choose the right topics, right partners, right target audience and right tools and you should be good to go! • Plan and experiment with multiple strategies, as nothing beats direct experience • Have fun in the process!
20. THANK YOU! Connect with me! @Renaldig @renaldigondosubroto