Make hackathons inclusive and beginner-friendly
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2025 3:24 am
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Successful hackathons welcome participants of all backgrounds. Trey emphasizes that including team members with diverse skill sets improves the overall quality of the hackathon because participants can offer a more well-rounded perspective in their submitted projects.
"You need both technical and non-technical talent to be able to really make the hackathon effective and make it something that leadership's like, 'You know what? We absolutely must do this.' To do that, we need people from all backgrounds," said Trey.
"Between the hackers, the participants, the iceland telegram screening judges, and the voting, we had 11,000 people participate in our hackathon," said Janet Carmody, Motorola Solutions.
"It was key to find a way to have everybody participate at our company. That included two days if you wanted to hack, two hours if you wanted to be a volunteer judge, or 20 minutes if you wanted to vote for audience favorite. We made sure that everybody had a chance to be a part of it, regardless of what their job or skillset was," said Janet.
Janet also shared how the hackathon prize structure can help demonstrate that the event is open to participants across the organization.
“Of course, we were going for best in tech, but there were a lot of opportunities for people to win in smaller capacities because we had a bunch of smaller awards that were also available for most out-of-the-box thinking or the most creative,” she said.
Related: Watch our webinar with Motorola Solutions, Toyota North America, and JLL Technologies to learn about leveling up your all-hands hackathons.
Download now
Successful hackathons welcome participants of all backgrounds. Trey emphasizes that including team members with diverse skill sets improves the overall quality of the hackathon because participants can offer a more well-rounded perspective in their submitted projects.
"You need both technical and non-technical talent to be able to really make the hackathon effective and make it something that leadership's like, 'You know what? We absolutely must do this.' To do that, we need people from all backgrounds," said Trey.
"Between the hackers, the participants, the iceland telegram screening judges, and the voting, we had 11,000 people participate in our hackathon," said Janet Carmody, Motorola Solutions.
"It was key to find a way to have everybody participate at our company. That included two days if you wanted to hack, two hours if you wanted to be a volunteer judge, or 20 minutes if you wanted to vote for audience favorite. We made sure that everybody had a chance to be a part of it, regardless of what their job or skillset was," said Janet.
Janet also shared how the hackathon prize structure can help demonstrate that the event is open to participants across the organization.
“Of course, we were going for best in tech, but there were a lot of opportunities for people to win in smaller capacities because we had a bunch of smaller awards that were also available for most out-of-the-box thinking or the most creative,” she said.
Related: Watch our webinar with Motorola Solutions, Toyota North America, and JLL Technologies to learn about leveling up your all-hands hackathons.