Take aways from DR's 1st hack-a-thon

 Digital Reasoning's 1st hack-a-thon was a true success.  It was a memorable experience to sit along side some of the best developers in the world, working on a project that could one day be a productized feature DR offers.  The return on investment our company received far exceeded anyone's expectations.  A few higher level tips for anyone planning there own event would include: 

 

-  Let the developers do what they do best, but make sure they have the tools to stay focused.  It is easy to get distracted on the little things within the event.  If a general outline and obvious details were not prepared for in advance, confusion and distractions are always there to fill the void.  Examples would include:  Why isn't lunch here yet?, How is voting going to work?, Can you vote for your own team?  Who is running the ceremony for presentations? Does everyone have audio? What time do the presentations start? etc... The more you plan and streamline the mechanics of the event, the more time you are providing to the developers to have fun.

-   A week (or longer), before the event starts provide an hour meeting for the developers to propose ideas.  This will create a lot of offline discussions thereby fostering creativity.  It will also help developers be ready to start work on a specific idea at the beginning of the event versus spending the first 3-6 hours trying to get a team all on the same page for a concept. 

-  Over communicate the guidelines of the hack-a-thon.  Once you have a general framework for the event, provide multiple opportunities for everyone to read and then reference the information.  Make sure everyone knows where they can reference material at the beginning of the event.  Furthermore, if any of the email blasts or announcements sent out afterward contradict, the confusion created is difficult to overcome in a short time period.

-  Stay out of the way of software development.  Providing the opportunity for developers to self organize is a valuable tool.  Quick interruptions and general announcements may help the organizers of the event, however it is disruptive to the workflow of the developer.  This only reinforces my first point, make sure the event details are planned out prior to the event.

I hope this generates some discussion for your event.  Best of luck and keep us posted!