👩‍💻Onboard for In-Person Hackathons

Hackathons are a great way to bring together people from different backgrounds to work on innovative projects.

Hackathons are a great way to bring together people from different backgrounds to work on innovative projects. However, it can be difficult to keep participants engaged, especially during in-person hackathons. This is where Onboard can help.

Onboard is a tool that allows you to create quests for participants to complete. Quests can be anything from attending workshops to submitting projects to helping other participants. When participants complete quests, they earn points. This can help to motivate participants to be active and engaged in the hackathon.

Here are some ideas for quests that you can create using Onboard for an in-person hackathon:

Improve hackathon structure & organisation

• Submit a project for a specific challenge statement

• Attempt a special challenge

• Attend talks or workshops on a specific topic

• View hackathon learning resources

• Give a presentation about your project

• Obtain feedback on hackathon

Encourage interaction between participants

• Help another participant fix a bug in their project

• Give feedback on another participant's project

• Help another participant learn a new skill

• Network with a mentor or sponsor

• Volunteer your time to help other participants

Create social buzz & encourage content creation

• Write a blog article about your experience at the hackathon

• Tweet about the hackathon

• Share a photo of your team at the hackathon on social media

• Be a positive and supportive member of the hackathon community

Other fun stuff

• Attempt fun trivia (related to sponsors, hackathon or general knowledge!)

• Find a bug in the hackathon website

• Suggest an improvement to the hackathon website

• Give a successful demo/pitch

You can also get creative and create quests that are specific to your hackathon and its participants. For example, if you are hosting a hackathon for students, you could create quests like "Find a mentor" or "Get an internship offer." Or, if you are hosting a hackathon for a specific industry, you could create quests like "Solve a real-world problem for our sponsor" or "Develop a new product or service for our company.”

Here are some tips for using Onboard to leverage engagement during an in-person hackathon:

• Start by creating a variety of quests that appeal to different interests and skill levels. This will help to ensure that there are quests for everyone to participate in.

• Promote the quests to participants at the beginning of the hackathon and encourage them to participate. You can do this through announcements, email, and social media.

• Make sure that the quests are easy to complete and that participants understand the requirements. You don't want participants to get frustrated and give up.

• Offer rewards for participants who complete quests. This could be anything from prizes to gift cards, or simply recognition on the leaderboard.

The most important thing is to create quests that are relevant to your hackathon and that will encourage participants to be active and engaged.

By rewarding participants for completing quests, you can create a more fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved.