Creating Hackathons that Work (with Jon Gottfried)

Done right, a Hackathon can be a fantastic place to be a programmer - you get time and space to build and learn, in a room full of like-minded people, with swag and prizes to sweeten the deal. It’s a great way to pick up new ideas and run with them. But done wrong it can be a waste of time. What’s the difference between a good hackathon and a bad one? What do the good ones do right, and what can we learn from that?
This week we’re talking about the Joy of Hacks with Major League Hacking Co-Founder Jon Gottfried. He’s got over 10 years of experience building a Hackathon network that provides the right environment for “structured mucking about with computers”, so we’re going to pick his brains.
If you’re ever attending a Hackathon, organising one, or looking for a way to build or contribute to your local programming community, Jon can help guide you to events that work.
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Major League Hacking: mlh.io/
Major League Hacking’s 2024 Event Calendar: mlh.io/seasons/2024/events
Games Week: events.mlh.io/events/10848
Jon on Mastodon: hachyderm.io/@jonmarkgo
Jon on LinkedIn: / jonmarkgo
Jon on Twitter: / jonmarkgo
Kris on Mastodon: mastodon.social/@krisajenkins
Kris on LinkedIn: / krisjenkins
Kris on Twitter: / krisajenkins
Bonus link - The Great American Baking Show 2023: • The Great American Bak...
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#software #podcast #programming #hackathon

[@LukasRotermund]

I have also really enjoyed our company hackathons. With almost everyone working remotely and coming from different parts of Germany, it's always a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better and write code that helps us in our day-to-day work, which we often don't have time to do. The odd good beer in the evening, pizza and a little table football tournament probably also helps 😄.

[@havokgames8297]

We won a public hackathon / startup weekend. But all we got was a certificate - I would have loved a raspberry pi!

[@DeveloperVoices]

Yeah, it was a pretty sweet prize. And like Jon said, it's not the monetary value so much as the recognition on the day. 🙂

[@kenneth_romero]

great talks as always.