An observation from joining, judging, and running several dozen hackathons: these events are the lifeblood of team and skill development.
A well-run hackathon:
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introduces people to new ideas they don’t see in their day to day work experience, whether coming from a new domain, a way to perform a new or interesting technical approach, or just an environment to see how something might be changed.
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has a solid goal. Sometimes it can be competitive (like with prizes), others it is targeted on getting a clear and present objective to be achieved (non-profit missions are quite popular here).
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Serves as a natural networking forcing function. You get to show people you are passionate, your skillset, and how you work in a team! This is really helpful for folks, like myself, that are fairly introverted when it comes to small talk or general mingling.
It’s been a pleasure to help with so many recent hackathons — our innovative future is bright indeed!