Logistics for hosting a hackathon site

Thoughts about hackathon organization based on 4 1/2 nextGEMS hackathons.

Participant numbers

  • nextGEMS numbers:
    • Berlin, Oct 2021: 78 (17 online)
    • Vienna, Jul 2022: 106
    • Madrid, May 2023: 134
    • Hamburg, Mar 2024: 137
    • Wageningen, Oct 2024: 71 registrations (as of Jul 2024)
  • for the global hackathon, we expect 50–150 participants per location

Agenda

this is the general schedule, from the Madrid hackathon onwards, which should allow most participants to travel on Monday and Friday

  • Monday afternoon to Friday morning
  • Monday afternoon: welcome, theme updates, general information
  • Friday afternoon: work group roundup, general discussion of future steps for the project
  • Tuesday to Thursday: group work
  • some general discussions or keynote talks sprinkled through the week
  • This is something you should decide on, how you would like to structure the week

Here is a very general draft agenda. Might be helpful for potential venues.

Venue

Type of venue

nextGEMS has experienced hackathons in different types of venues: conference hotel, coworking space, university/institute building. All worked well and all have their pros and cons.

conference hotel
+ everything (meetings, accommodation, catering) at one location
+ great sense of community as everyone is in one location
+ a lot of organization is taken care of by the venue (rooms, technical equipment, catering)
- usually more pricey
- might be boked already

coworking space
+ designed for these types of meetings with a lot of options for work in small groups
+ venue organization and possibly catering can be taken care of by the venue
- costs for the venue

university/research institutes
+ usually free of charge or only a small fee
+ can be easier to integrate “local” participants (as there is something happening just outside their offices)
- considerably more work for local organizers (e.g. for catering, rooms, technical equipment)
- availability usually depending on lecture periods

Rooms

  • one big(ger) lecture hall that fits all participants on Monday afternoon, Friday morning, and potential keynotes
  • a couple of smaller rooms for the groups to work in
    • ideally not more than 25 people in one room
    • this depends on the envisioned structure of the meetings; people on the same or similar topics should not be separated in different rooms
    • tables and chairs should be movable (that was a little bit tricky in Madrid)
  • or we could try out only one big room with everyone. could be noisy, could be good for collaboration
  • extra room(s) for video recordings (depending on the plans)
  • ideally a smaller room (up to 5 people) for side meetings, people attending a video conference, etc.
  • an area for coffee breaks, lunch (depends on the catering situation)
  • ideally flexible seating options outside the meeting rooms, so that people can move around a bit to work one-on-one or individually (could be just chairs on the corridor, in the cafeteria, some sofas somewhere, …)
  • a place where the simulation support team and the project management team can be during the week (doesn’t need to be a dedicated room, could also be in another room)
  • question: how late can the rooms be accessed in the evenings?

Infrastructure

this can usually be booked/organized later. Also, we can check and see what different IT department could provide if something is not available at the venue from the start.

  • video streaming for opening and closing sessions (?), keynotes(?)
  • stable wifi connection in all rooms; the traffic isn’t too much, since the data is processed at the computing centers, but the connections should be stable
  • enough power outlets in the group rooms

Catering

this can be adjusted depending on our budget

  • usually two coffee breaks per full day
  • and lunch
  • in Berlin and Vienna, dinners were included, only one dinner was included in Madrid, Hamburg and Wageningen
  • possibly an ice breaker event on the first evening
  • some snacks (fruits, etc.) and beverages to be accessible also outside of coffee breaks were very well received

Budget

  • nextGEMS has a budget of 7500 EUR per hackathon for the organization
  • 15 000 EUR for travel stipends for early career researchers (master/phd students) from outside the nextGEMS project
  • 150 EUR registration fee per person in Madrid, Hamburg, Wageningen. Those were mainly spent to cover for catering (coffee breaks, lunches, one dinner)