- 📌 Necessary ingredient for a #HACK
- ✨ Use if appropriate
Would you join #HACK?
In order for a hackathon to take place you need people. Whether it’s 5 people or 50 people we want to invite people who are passionate about helping others discover Jesus and who are willing to help ideate and shape solutions.
Here are some things to consider as you identify and invite people to join you.
📌 Who could I invite?
These are the people often seen at a #HACK event:
- ✨ Planning Team – It can be helpful to invite 3-5 friends to form a core planning team for your #HACK event.
- 📌 Participants – These are the people who join the hackathon, often forming teams to prototype a solution to the challenges that have been identified.
- ✨ Mentor/Facilitator (s) – Invite 2-3 industry experts to be mentors or facilitators for your participants. Identify experts for the specific challenges you are looking, for example, if your challenge involves university students, consider inviting a professor or someone who is involved in campus ministry.
- ✨ Judge (s) – Invite 3 or 5 people to listen to your team presentations at the end of your #HACK weekend, assess the projects, give helpful advice on how to improve their projects and cheer on your participants.
- ✨ Speaker (s) – Consider inviting a speaker for your #HACK. A 10-15 minute talk or devotional can be inspiring and encouraging for all.
Having these key partners join your #HACK can open the door to further collaboration.
(See also: Who will be there?)
📌 How will I invite them?
People often respond to direct invitations that they identify with. For example:
Many #HACK champions have found that determining the “why” of their particular #HACK location is a big help in identifying who to invite. (See also: Why should we host #HACK?)
Verbalizing what you are hoping to see and what you are praying for can help you focus on who to invite, where to look for them, and who you might partner with.
Here are 2 examples:
- Why: “We want young people to take part in the mission”
- Focus on inviting young people. Look for them in universities or youth groups. Partner with churches or schools.
- Why: “We want to create media for unreached people groups.”
- Focus on inviting content creators, videographers, etc. Look for them online or in groups/clubs. Partner with churches, agencies or individuals (nothing spreads faster than word of mouth).
A question often heard is “Do I have to be a developer to come to a hackathon?”
No.
Even when you are working on highly technical projects, hackathons need all types of people to be a success. The best collaboration happens between people of varied expertise and experience.
Invite people into your life who don’t look or act like you. You might find they challenge your assumptions and make you grow. Mellody Hobson
As you think about how to invite people to join your #HACK event, remember the power of connections:
- Do you have a friend who is great at connecting people or who has a large network? Ask them to help.
- Seek strategic partnerships. #HACK presents an unique opportunity for collaboration. Often you can collaborate with places where you might find the people you want to invite and people or organizations who might want to address the challenges you are targeting.
(See also Plan: Invitation/Promotion)