Running a curated 20-person AI hackathon in Madrid, what actually makes these work?
We're running a one-day AI hackathon in Madrid on Saturday Sept 12. Deliberately small: 20 curated spots, engineers and founders, individual format, something working by the end of the day. Then food and beers while people demo.
The plan is to repeat it every month or so, so I care more about getting the format right than about this one edition.
Two things I keep going back and forth on:
Individual vs teams. Individual means everyone ships something and nobody hides. Teams mean more ambitious projects but a worse experience for whoever gets the bad group. I've landed on individual for a one-day format, but I'm not sure.
Curated vs open signup. We're curating because 20 good people in a room beats 200 random ones. The obvious cost is that you end up with your existing network instead of new blood.
Prizes. What is a goooood prize?
If you've run or attended one of these: what made the difference? And what killed it?
(If you're in Madrid and want in, the sign-up is an email to tomas@reversa.ai — happy to keep it in the comments if that's more appropriate here.)
Replies
A few thoughts - why did you decide on a Saturday instead of after work? When we've hosted events, we find that when people are already in the city/in a work mindset, the after-work timing makes a big difference.
Aside from that, when people show up, you'll want the check-in process to be as streamlined as possible. If your event is on Luma, you can scan attendees' unique QR codes once they arrive. Otherwise, if everyone arrives all at once, things get a bit hectic.
AV matters a lot! You'll need to test the venue before the event to make sure that everyone in the room is able to hear the host/speaker well enough. WiFi is obviously a big one here as well; not everywhere has WiFi strong enough to handle more than a couple of people doing intensive tasks at a time.
To answer your questions directly,
Teams or individual: Teams are nice because they get people to break the ice quite easily. People can also bounce ideas off of one another.
Signup: I'd start with curated signup first and then expand to a broader audience. Anything free + food + drink attracts pretty much anyone, so if you're trying to keep it small and valuable, better to gate it.
Prizes: Good prizes are not just credits to use some app, but credits + money is always appreciated. Or another really nice gift (we do premium-grade water bottles with our logo, and people always love these!)