On this page, you will learn how to organise a mini hackathon. You only need 3 people or more who want to meet up physically for 2 or 3 days to work on something cool, and it only takes 2 hours to organise

Organise it in 2 hours #

Step 1: Get 3+ people together #

Meet with all people who want to join this mini hackathon. You can meet virtually or physically, but we recommend to do whatever can be arranged the fastest (so probably virtually).

Don't overthink it, if not everyone can join, just meet with the rest. It will be much easier to organise if you can get everyone together all at once though!

Before the meeting, ask everyone to think of work & sleep locations for the hackathon and goals that you could work towards during the hackathon.

Step 2: Appoint meeting roles (10 min) #

You will need:

• A facilitator: This person will give people the floor to speak and indicate when we move from one agenda point to the next.
• A scribe: this person is responsible for taking minutes.

Step 3: Set a date (10 min) #

First, determine within which timeframe (2-4 weeks) you want to organise the mini hackathon. Do not allow people to start sharing their day-to-day availability yet!

Second, ask everyone to open their agenda. Explain that you are looking for 2 or 3 days on which everyone is able to be physically together. If that is not possible, you can also choose to make it an online hackathon. Do not allow people to start sharing their day-to-day availability yet!

Third, go through all the dates within the selected timeframe at a high pace. Just name the dates, for example “3 October, 4 October, 5 October, etc.”. People only speak up to say “not ideal” or “not possible”, if people stay silent you assume that date works for them. The scribe writes down all dates and people's availability.

Fourth, determine if there are any dates on which everyone is available.If there are multiple options, determine people's preference (do not discuss, just vote by raising hands). If there are no available dates, go for one of the following options (do not discuss, just vote by raising hands):

• Try out a different timeframe and repeat the steps above.
• Organise the hackathon with fewer people. Remember: it's very simple to just organise another one at a later point.
• Shorten the hackathon. If people live close-by, you can decide to make it a 1-day meetup.
• Make it an online hackathon.

Step 4: Set a location (10 min) #

If it is an online hackathon, skip this step.

First, explain that you are looking for a location to host the hackathon. You will need the following:

• A place to sleep: this can be someone's apartment, a hostel, an Airbnb.
• A place to work: this can be someone's apartment, university, library or community center.
• Electricity & good internet, or someone with an unlimited data plan for a hotspot.
• Fewer total travel hours is better! This will likely reduce emissions and costs.

Second do a round to see what suggestions people have for possible locations. Do not discuss the suggestions, just collect all possibilities.

Third, determine people's preference based on the information that is available right now (do not discuss, just vote by raising hands). Do not worry if not all information, for example price or availability, is available. We will come to that later.

Step 4: Determine goals (10 min) #

First, explain that your hackathon needs clear goals;

• Do not worry if the goals seem too ambitious to be able to finish in just a few days. You will be surprised how much work you can get done once you get ‘in the zone’ together. It’s also not a problem if you cannot get everything done.
• Also make sure to stress you do not need to get into the details, you will be able to think about those during the hackathon.
• Remind people that they will all be able to work on different things during the hackathon. The goals are there to unify the group.
• Most importantly, the goal here is to get everyone excited!

Second, do a round to see what suggestions people have for possible goals. Do not discuss the suggestions, just collect all possibilities.

Third, the facilitator tries to summarise all suggestions. If there are similar ones, combine those. Identify the key options. Other people do not interrupt.

Fourth, do a round to see if anyone would like to propose amendments to the key options. Every time someone proposes an amendment, determine whether people support the change. Do not discuss the proposed changes, just vote by raising hand. If people have suggestions for different amendments, they can propose those themselves when it is their turn. In other words: everyone only speaks once.

Fifth, after amending the options, determine which option is most popular (do not discuss, just vote by raising hands).

Step 6: Take a break (5/10 min) #

Your meeting has taken about an hour now. Have a break to recharge.

It is also possible to do the second part of the meeting at a later point! We recommend to do the second part at a time during working hours, so that you can call with possible locations.

Step 7: Identify to-do's (5 min) #

Make a to-do list. Clearly state what needs to be done and who is doing it. You will try to finish all the to-do's in the next hour. Your to-do list might look something like this:

• ✅ Call possible locations to determine pricing and availability based on the suggestions made before. Select the best locations and present these to the rest before making the reservations.
• ✅ Make travel arrangements (keep in mind environmental impact and costs).
• ✅ Make a list of things to bring (sleeping bags, clothing, electronics, medicines, games)
• ✅ Decide what you want to eat during the hackathon (keep in mind food preferences & allergies)
• ✅ Decide how all costs are going to be distributed (keep in mind each participant's financial position, no need to be ashamed for contributing less, we all live in the same fucked up system)

Step 8: Do the to-do's (55 min) #

Try to finish as many of the to-do's on your list. If one of the to-do's is not possible to finish right now, start working on another one.

We highly recommend you to do these to-do's while still being together, because this will significantly reduce back-and-forth messaging. If you start working on it all individually, you risk adding days or weeks of unnecessary preparation time.

Feel free to ask for input from others. You are together in a meeting anyways, make use of that.