Nobody publishes this, so first-time organizers guess and then panic three weeks out.
We've run five events end to end. Rough shape of where the money goes for ~100 people over two days:
Food is the monster. It's usually the single largest line and it scales linearly with headcount, so it's the number that decides whether you can afford the event at all
Venue is either free or ruinous, with almost nothing in between. Universities and coworking spaces will often give it up for a logo.
Prizes matter less than organizers think. We've seen 23 teams compete hard for prizes that cost under a few hundred dollars total. People come for the weekend, not the payout.
Software is the line most people don't budget for and then pay for in weekends of manual work instead.
If you've run one: what did you underestimate? I'm curious whether food dominates everyone's budget the way it does ours.
White-label app to run hackathons, game jams, demo days and IT competitions end-to-end: registration, teambuilding, judging, certificates and analytics. Built for small organizing teams on tight budgets — one flat price per event, no per-participant fees.
