This is an open source template for organizing your own Blockathon.
We wanted to provide a single README file with as much support material as possible. This will help you understand what is required so you can start planning your very own awesome Blockathon!
Before the Event
- What is a Blockathon
- Organising Team
- Theme
- Title
- Format
- Date and Time
- Venue
- Budgetting
- Sponsorship
- Pitch Format
- Speakers / Judges / Mentors
- Prizes
- Merchandise / Swag
Marketing
During the Event
- Organising Team
- Morning Preparation
- Arrival
- Introduction + Keynote Speaker
- Team Formation + Brainstorm activities
- Food
- HACK !!!!!!
- Social Media
- Code Freeze + Pitch Collection Period
- Pitch
- End of the Pitches
- Winner announcement + Thank everyone + Celebrate
After the Event
- Packing up
- Get some sleep
- Follow up with your winners, judges, mentors and sponsors
- Feedback form
- Thank you + Keeping in touch with the attendees
- Follow up content
Blockathon = Blockchain + Hackathon.
Blockchain encompassing the technology driving the new age of trust and decentralisation and hackathon being an event in which anyone from any field can come together and work on a project in a given timeframe. By combining the two, you get an event where people come together and work on meaningful projects for the Blockchain.
Whether you are a Hacker (programmers), Hipster (Growth/User Interface/User Experience), Hustler (Business XX) + Academic, anyone is welcome to participate. Blockathons have been founded on the principles to further develop the Blockchain community, coming together with like-minded individuals and learning from one another.
Blockathons typically last between a day to a week in length, depending on the event. The ideas that people work on can either be pre-planned or formed on the day of the event. Depending on the Blockathon, there may be a specific focus which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, the subject and the demographic group of the programmers. In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created. Today, this term is not related to "hacking", it is just a programming marathon.
Your organising team is the most important foundation for running a successful blockathon. You will all be working together for XXX. There are several key roles that we have identified:
- Logistics - This person will handle the venue organisation, catering for food/drinks and ensure the event runs smoothly
- Finances - The person will liase with the respective stakeholders to finance the event.
- Marketing/Social Media - This person will be in charge of marketing the event to the necessary audience through the most appropriate channels (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram etc.) - If your organization has its own Twitter or other social media accounts, you may want to consider giving this person temporary access so they can manage the social media tools for the event.
- Other - Someone responsible for design of promotional material+ development for website if necessary
These roles can be delegated or a sole person can handle all the activities.
The best themes are the ones that are most relevant to your audience and consideration of their expertise in the topic/industry. With the current state of Blockchain technology, there are so many problems that can be solved by leveraging it's protocols and infastructure so finding a theme should be no problem.
Example themes include: Art, Civic, Data, Education, Games, Green Energy, Health, Journalism, Language, Mobile, Movies, Music, Photos, Politics, Robotics, Science, Sports and Water
This theme will tie into what they will be solving and if there are specific APIs / plguisn that will be used ...
Your hackathon attendees will appreciate you putting a lot of thought into your theme 🙂
Below are a list of past Blockathons:
- MCIC Blockathon
- Akropolis.io Mini-Blockathon
- Add more to the list...🔴🔴
Give your event a catchy name that represents your theme and will stick in the minds of developers/participants.
Provide a detailed, but concise description of your event. Generally 250-750 characters is sufficient to explain the theme and outcome of the blockathon.
The formats for hackathons depend on the organisers. Usually they revolve around two formats:
- Hack Day - 12 to 24 hour timeframe
- Hack Weekend - 24 to 72 hour timeframe
Hack Day Example ( 24 Hours)
| Time | Agenda |
|---|---|
| 900-930AM | Set up of venue |
| 930-1030AM | Breakfast + Registration + Welcome |
| 1030-1100AM | Introduction + Team Building Exercise |
| 1100-1130AM | Keynote Talk + Presentation of problem |
| 1130-1200PM | Team Formation Exercise |
| 1200-1230PM | Lunch |
| 1230-430PM | Hack! |
| 430-500PM | Code Freeze + Chillout |
| 500-545PM | Pitches |
| 545-600PM | Judges Discussion for winners |
| 600-615PM | Presentation + Prizes |
| 615-700PM+ | Afterparty drinks |
Hack Weekend Example (48 Hours)
| Time | Agenda |
|---|---|
| 900-930AM | Set up of venue |
| 930-1030AM | Breakfast + Registration + Welcome |
| 1030-1100AM | Introduction + Team Building Exercise |
| 1100-1130AM | Keynote Talk + Presentation of problem |
| 1130-1200PM | Team Formation Exercise |
| 1200-1230PM | Lunch |
| 1230-800PM | Hack!!! + Mentoring + Any guest speakers + Dinner! |
| Time | Agenda |
|---|---|
| 900-930AM | Set up of venue |
| 930-1030AM | Breakfast + Welcome |
| 1030-1100AM | Review of the first 24 hours |
| 1100-1230AM | Hack! + Mentoring + Any guest speakers + Dinner! |
| 1230-100PM | Lunch |
| 100-430PM | Hack!!! |
| 430-500PM | Code Freeze + Chillout |
| 500-545PM | Pitches |
| 545-600PM | Judges Discussion for winners |
| 600-615PM | Presentation + Prizes |
| 615-700PM+ | Afterparty drinks + food |
This is a sample agenda and represents just a few approaches to formatting a hackathon. The best way to find out what works is attend other events, and find the characteristics you like best.
The date can have significant influence on how well it is attended and how much impact it has. Community blockathons are typically held on weekends when people are not working. So it is necessary to choose a date to allow yourself to promote and have the attendees clear their schedule. Also best to avoid any public weekends / holidays as people will be away on vacation during that time. Also make sure that the event does not clash with any other events within the Blockchain community and that it is promoted well in advance.
For time, clear the schedule of your event to participants in advance. If you choose a 9am start time, expect 20% to show up at 10am. Having an itinerary published at event signup will help make sure you can get started earlier. Schedule reception type activities at the beginning of the day to allow for some late arrivals.
The venue is also crucial to the atmosphere of the event. Most blockathons are held in a co-working space or an Innovation Hub area which is easy to get to. The place should also represents the theme of the Blockchain culture of innovation and creating something new for the world!
- Food area + bins
- Bathrooms
- Accessbility
- Internet
- Size of venue
- Area to hack
- Security
- OHS
- Wifi
- Power sockets + safety
- Audio + visual
- Microphone
- Projectors
- Enough utensils
Blockathons come in all sizes from as small as 5-10 people to 200 people. Bigger isn't always better, but conducting larger events without proper experience and resources can be a major disaster. Keep size in line with your over goal for throwing a blockathon.
Asking for pre-registration will give you and your team an indication of the number of attendees for the event and how much catering you will have to provide. Using services such as Eventbite or Google Form can help you with this process.
Understanding your budget is crucial to the running of the event. Most of the budget will be for the food and drinks catering as it is important to keep your attendees full and let them focus on hacking. Spending an entire day or weekend together, solving problems and sharing breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night snacks has a way of bringing people together.
Make the food at your hackathon a healthy, fulfilling experience for attendees. Sample Budgets (Priced in AUD) as below:
12 Hour Blockathon Day For 12 Hour Blockathon Day
- One Lunch + One Dinner and Drinks + Snacks
- Approx cost: $300 - 1000
24 Hour Blockathon Day
- One Breakfast + One Lunch + One Dinner and drinks + Snacks
- Approx cost: $500 - $2000
48 Hour Blockathon Day
-
Two Breakfasts + Two Lunches + Two Dinners and drinks + Snacks
-
Approx cost: $1000 - 10000+
-
Breakfast ideas: Waffles, Pancakes, Cereal, Toast
-
Lunch ideas: Sandwiches, Buritos, Falalel wraps, sushi,
-
Dinner ideas: Pizza, Pick a favourite restaurant nearby and do an Uber Eats order
-
Snacks: Chips, Dips, Lollies, Tea, Coffee
For alcohol budgetting, it is usally best to estimate $10 per person.
Unless you have a budget for Hackathons, you will want to find a sponsor for your event to cover your costs. Costs include those for a venue (if you are unable to find a free option), and food. Your sponsor may be able to provide you with a venue for your event.
In addition to providing a good working space for your attendees, it’s a good idea to provide plenty of food. Not only will your attendees appreciate the gesture, but you want them to be able to focus on their projects without the distraction of leaving to get food and drinks. For a one-day event starting in the morning, be prepared to provide coffee and pastries in the morning, a nutritious lunch with beverages, and snacks, water and cold beverages through the day.
When you talk to prospective sponsors about your event, they may have never heard of Blockathons. They will want to know what to expect, so be prepared to explain a bit about Hackathons as well as about your cause. Think about how they can benefit from your Hackathon so you can explain to them. Benefits may include:
- Being associated with their brand name
- Being able to meet and talk with the Blockathon attendees
- Having attention paid to their particular business area
- Exposure for their open data efforts
- Having prototype apps created using their API/data
Be sure to let them know that you’d like to thank them publicly for their support, both on your Hackathon web page and via your social media. Sometimes event sponsors are happy to help out but are not comfortable with the more public forms of gratitude such as Twitter and Facebook, so be sure you have their permission to mention them in social media. You want to show thanks in a way that works for them.
Part of the benefit of using sponsors is of course covering the costs. Another benefit is to increase the exposure for your cause, or associate your cause and organization with other organizations. Remember the reputation of your cause and organization will be affected by the host and sponsor you associate with, and vice versa, so choose organizations that are well respected and easy to work with. Be respectful, gracious and professional in your interaction with them.
The format of the pitches varies, but typically they follow this example format:
- 5 minutes pitch time
- Strict time guidelines are to be addressed by measuring with the Phone timer etc.
- First warning bells / sign at 4 minutes and second warning ball and cutoff at 5 minutes.
- Judging time will be between 3-5 minutes as well
- Judges should have the judging criteria sheet + pen + extra paper to write notes
[Here is a sample registration Google Form we created](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16hM6Tmd3EBDclWubygj711fHMgoKWMx9GiW8Mz_rTX8/edit?usp=drive_web
Speakers, judges and mentors are in important piece of hackathons. Often times they are representing sponsors, but you should consider workshops and other talks that are more informative and help hackathon participants succeed.
Have a structured approach to structuring your speaker line-up. Provide a framework for speakers to pariticpate in, providing title and abstracts for their talk within a set format and time line you dictate.
Make sure your speaker line-up is logical and fits well with the theme and schedule of your hackathon.
For Judges and Mentors, these are people who are well respected in the Blockchain community and can offer valuable feedback to the blockathon participants who are pitching. Judges should range from 3 to 5 individuals. Mentors are any number of individuals who are available to help out during the hacking and answer any expertise questions the attendees may have on the day.
Example: Blockathon Judges / Speakers
Not every hack day needs prizes so make sure it's not all about the money/toys. Some people go to hack days to learn, or to play. However if you do choose to award them prizes,make sure it is divisible to encourage teamwork. Commonly in blockathons, it is some cryptocurrencies.
An example prize that we found was really cool was giving away Trezor / Ledger Nanos or prizing some ETH.
Remember, the hackathon is not about the winner or prizes. It's about the learning, experience and community :)
You may also want to consider getting special tshirts, stickers and other merchandie for your team + attendees if it is within budget. They will serve as a really nice memory for everyone!
Now that you have planned all the pre-requisites of the Blockathon, now it's time to start marketing the event. The aim of marketing the event is to get as many people to come 'hack' and be a part of the Blockchain community. However, if there are particular groups you would like to have attend (developers or industry experts), you will want to think about where best to reach out to them to be sure they know about the event.
A landing page allows you to visually board and design all the necessary information for your Blockathon. It will list all the details you have organised before the event.
This can be done by creating a github README.md file or a website / landing page. Websites and landing pages can easily be made through services such as Wordpress, Wix, SquareSpace, Unbounce or you can code it yourself 💻
Below is a preview of our landing page:
[MCIC Blockathon](https://mcichack.com/blockathon/)
A formal registration process for the hackathon should setup to handle attendees from start to finish. The most commonly tools are Facebook Events, Eventbrite Google Forms. Some required field would be:
- First Name
- Last Name
- How did you find out about the event?
- Any Dietary requirements?
- Add any other questions / fields that are required for your Blockathon
A registration process will give you the necessary tools to manage your attendees and understand the scope of your event--as well as give your participants the feeling of organization around the whole process.
The bitfwd 'stack' that has worked well for us has been:
- Creating a Facebook event with the description - This is for awareness
- Creating an Eventbrite ticket or Google Form link for registration and detail collection
- Send an information pack 1 week before the event to all the registrants
For any other 'stacks', feel free to add below for the community :)
- Insert stack
- Insert stack
- Insert stack 🔴🔴
When you require your attendees to register, make it clear what information is required for signing up and what the deadline for the registration is. If there’s a maximum number of attendees the venue can handle, communicate how the selection process works and when/how people will be notified if they’ve been granted attendance or not.
If there’s a waiting list for the event, make sure to explain how it works.
The most important part is getting as many participants coming to your event! So distribution and utilising the various social media and messaging platforms will help you promote your event to the right audience.
Telegram Within the Blockchain community, Telegram is a very common communication channel...
Add info about information pack that goes out a week before
🔴🔴 (Need to finish)
On the day you will need to assign a few roles to make things run smoothly. It would also be ideal for other people/volunteers to help out with the event to help with the setting up on the venue and ssisiting the attendees for anything they need.
- Logistics - This person will handle the venue organisation, catering for food/drinks and ensure the event runs smoothly
- MC - The person will help host the introduction of the event and the end of Blockathon pitches
- Marketing/Social Media - This person will be in charge of tweeting / posting live updates of the event. If your organization has its own Twitter or other social media accounts, you may want to consider giving this person temporary access so they can manage the social media tools for the event.
- Other - People to help up with the distribution of food and setting up the venue.
This is highly dependant on the venue but there are certain task that need to be done before all the attendees arrive:
- Chair / Space Setup - How would you like to set up the room and the 'hacking' tables.
- Breakfast (if provided) - Have the plates, utensils, cups and drinks prepared
- Powerpoints / plugs - Each 'hacking' table should have at least one power plug for participants to charge their laptops. Make sure the plugs are not a hazard to people's pathway
- Snacks for the hackathon tables - Lollies, chips, nuts etc. for the partipants to snack on during the hack
- Paper, stickies, permanent markers, whiteboards - For the teams to brainstorm on
- Wifi + Telegram Group link- Would be best to print the details onto a piece of paper and leave on all the tables
- List of expected attendees - To tick off during arrival
Your event particants will start coming in at the designated start time. Greet them in a friendly manner and make them feel welcome. Start chatting to them and get them to register the required details.
A name tag also helps remembering names so having a Sharpie/permanent marker with some stick on name tags work great :)
Also be mindful that the participants will most likely not be arriving exactly on the start time so allow for some leway time before the first agenda item commences.
Once a majority of the attendees have arrived, it's time to open the opening address with your MC and your keynote speaker. During this time, you would have the MC:
- Thank all the attendees for coming to 'hack' at the blockathon
- Thank the sponsors for making this event possible
- Have the keynote speaker/MC talk about the problem that needs to be solved for the blockathon
- Discuss the criteria for the outcomes/pitches (How long the pitch is, when is code freeze)
- Address any other safety requirements and agenda items (Bathroom, after hours access etc.)
- An overview of the day/days
After the initial introduction and the attendees are settled in nicely, it is nice to start team building and getting to know one another. From a lot of the hackathons/blockathons that we have seen, just putting people into groups is not the best solution.
Individuals should form teams in the most natural ways (within the required time allocation) and then start forming about Blockchain ideas and solutions.
A combination of exercises we have done include:
Meet 10 people in 10 minutes
- Turn to the person next to you, introduce yourself and talk about a specific topic (I.e. How did you get started with Blockchain)
- After 1 minute, the bell rings and you talk to someone else new
- This rotation is done 10 times and the participants would have met 10 new people.
Present ideas in 1 minute
- Whoever wants to present an idea is allocated 1 minute to talk to everyone in the audience
- Everyone is given a chance to talk
- At the end of all the pitches, everyone who presented stands at the front and in an orderly fashion, participants are free to talk to
Brainstorming
- Have an idea around Blockchain / Non Blockchain related
- Get people to form groups of 4 -5, depending on the number of attendees. Give them 5-10 minutes to form a pitch around the idea (Blockchain + Energy)
- Revise how this process works...
🔴🔴 (Robin to add pull request/ more info)
Teams are usually formed over a certain time period, but it's also great to allow them to do it over a social setting such as lunch.
A meal is what brings people together and allows them to discuss really cool ideas, so:
- Make sure that the food and drinks arrives 10 minutes before your set time of allocation.
- Organise enough plates, cutlery, napkins and cups
- Organise the layout of the food and drinks so that attendees can walk around and talk to one another. (I.e. in the foyer or outside)
🔴 Add pictures from our Blockathon
Once teams are sorted, Blockathon hacking can commence! 🎉
The teams will sit around their designated tables and start bringing their ideas to life.
As aforementioned in the Morning Preparation section, hopefully the teams have enough powerpoints, snacks and brainstorming tools to work together.
The mentors for the Blockathon can go around during the day to help support the teams with any business or technical questions they may have.
As per your agenda, let the participants know whenever there is a guest talk, lunch afternoon tea, dinner, lunch.
The organising team should go around fromt iem to time to check if the blockathon participants need any assistance/anything that answer any questions.
Creating content during these blockathons are also important to .... Live stream (optional) 🔴🔴
All good things must come to an end, including the hacking. 😌
This is why the code freeze (as per sample agenda) is important and provides the strict deadline as to when the coding / pitches are finalised. The collection of pitches can then commence while the teams chillout and relax a bit.
There are a few ways to collect the slides:
- Send the Google Slides via the Telegram group
- Put on slides on USB
- Share to a common Google Drive + provide them with the URL
If some of the teams are doing a demo, make sure that you ask them and see what requirements are needed for their AV inputs.
- AV requirements
- Video projector
- (Apple Mac) Mini DisplayPort, VGA, DVI, and HDMI
- Live stream (optional)
After all the teams have pitched and provided with their judging feedback, the MC will thank all the teams for the awesome projects they have hacked at the Blockathon. Then allow the judges to convene to another room to discuss who will be the winners as per criteria.
Allow the rest of the audience and participants to start mingling, have some food and drinks.
After the judges are back, the MC will gather everyone around again/get them to sit down.
The judges will then announce the winners with explanation as to why they won.
Many thanks are in order for being able to run a successful event. So after the winners have been announced, make sure the MC thanks all the sponsors, judges mentors and the organising team for making the event possible.
It is also nice to have a small gift (wine,chocolates etc.) to give to the mentors and judges for taking time out of their day to give back to the community.
Then the MC will conclude the Blockathon event and invite everyone to stay for some more awesome food and drinks. 🎉🎉🎉
After the event has concluded and the Blockathon attendees head home, it's time to pack up the venue. All the dishes, chairs and rubbish are to be placed in their rightful place. Mopping up the floors (if necessary) and putting everything back to its original
Self explanatory and well earned! 😴
The next day, it would be advisable to do a quick thank you email to each individual judge, mentor and sponsor for their time.
Also if there are any followups needed for the winners, it would be a great opportunity to do so / send them their prize (I.e. ETH etc.)
While the Blockathon is still fresh in their minds, receiving feedback from your participants is also a great way to assess with the team what they did well and what they could improve on for the next Blockathon.
This can be sent through a Google Form / Typeform via Telegram or email.
A general thank you email blast or across the Telegram group is also a great gesture to thanking the Blockathon participants for coming along to the venue. Maintaining contact with all the teams is a great idea to see if they further develop their ideas.
For the marketing side, there is opportunity for you to showcase how awesome your Blockathon was as well as create follow up content (Interviews/Videos/Linkedin post / Medium post).
This could be asking your attendees to create a followup video or writing a Medium article about their experience.