Want to become a host?
Want to be at the forefront of innovation in digital education?
Who
Organisations that are passionate about digital education and want to organise a local DigiEduHack event, to help develop solutions to a particular challenge and contribute to the digital education transformation.
Why
Be in the driving seat of digital education. Solve a challenge by bringing talented people together, supporting innovation and creativity and contributing to creating a more sustainable society.
What
Craft your challenge, organise your 24-hour local hackathon, recruit participants, host your event and communicate the best solution to your challenge.
How
It's easier than you think! All you need is a few dynamic teams, plus some mentors, speakers, and judges. There is plenty of support available for potential hosts at every step. Click the Register button below and join us!
Where
Whether you want to host in-person gatherings, virtual events or a mix, organise a challenge that suits your style.
When
Anytime between 6 and 13 November.
Join the digital education revolution today! Become a host
Resources
Host's website guides
Learn all about how to navigate the newly created DigiEduHack website with the following guides:
Registration process and use of Discord servers
Manage the solutions submitted by your teams and select your local winner
Blueprint roadmap
Want to know what the main milestones of DigiEduHack are? In the following standardised event guide we present them step-by-step to help you design, prepare and host a great hackathon.
Host guide
This is the complete guide for hosting a successful hackathon - no matter whether it will take place on-site, fully online, or a blend of both! Everything, from project management to participant recruitment and event details is included can be found in the document below.
Challenge examples
Not sure how to set up your challenge? This document explains how to do it.
Host Project Plan
Planning a hackathon requires some reflection, so we prepared this Project Plan template for you to map out the critical elements of your local Digital Education Hackathon, so we can identify how to best support you in hosting your hackathon.
Make sure you submit your Project Plan before 6th October, 2023.
If you experience any troubles downloading the file, please click on the following link: Host Project Plan Template
Sponsorship package
We know that finding partners or sponsors is a very important part of the organisation of your hackathon. For this, we created this package containing information about:
HOW TO SECURE FUNDING
A guide with tips and best practices for recruiting partners and sponsors in order to meet the costs associated with organising a hackathon.
HOW TO RECRUIT SPONSORS
A customisable slide deck that you can use to present the DigiEduHack opportunity to potential sponsors and partners.
If you experience any troubles downloading the files above, please click on the following link: Sponsor Recruitment Deck
Marketing Kit
We have prepared this Marketing Kit to support you in your efforts of promoting your local hackathon.
In this document you will find a sample of content calendar, examples of social media posts and even a newsletter sample, all following DigiEduHack's visual identity.
If you experience any troubles downloading the file, please click on the following link: Marketing Kit Template
IP Guidelines
Familiarise yourself with and distribute these intellectual property guidelines to your participants. They explain how we treat the information participants provide about the solution they have developed during the hackathon.
Coaching calls
If you're interested in hosting a hackathon but not sure how or want to improve your own process, attend our weekly coaching calls on Wednesdays at 15:00 CET, starting 18 August till 1 November.
In these 1-hour calls, Ultrahack, our resident hackathon experts will share the best practices and lessons condensed from their experience running over 140 hackathons and answer any questions you might have.
These will be live-streamed on our Youtube Channel.
Here's the agenda:
- 16 August - Introduction to DigiEduHack - what is the timeline, expectations and what support you will receive as a hackathon host? Download the slides here.
- 23 August - Crafting your Challenge - the first task as a host is to create a challenge for your participants to create solutions to. We share what makes a good challenge. Download the slides here.
- 30 August - Setting up your Webpage - Your own Digital Education hackathon will have a webpage under our main website https://digieduhack.com/! We’ll guide you through how to create the best webpage to promote your hackathon. Download the slides here.
- 6 September - Gathering Funding - Money is not everything, but isn’t it good to receive some financial support for your hackathon, whether it be to sponsor catering or to provide attractive monetary prizes? How to get sponsorship is the topic of this call. Download the slides here.
- 13 September - Recruiting Participants - To support you in recruiting participants, we’re sharing marketing tips and materials ready-to-use at your fingertips. Download the slides here.
- 20 September - How to Run a Challenge Webinar - a webinar is a great way to share your insights into the challenge and attract potential participants!
- 27 September - Recruiting Mentors and Jury – Strong mentors and jury will be the highlights of a successful hackathon! In this coaching call, we share how to attract mentors and jury and onboard them for a great hackathon experience.
- 3, 4 and 5 October - Planning for your Format - This week there will be three coaching calls, each of them will focus on a specific format of hackathon: blended, onsite and onsite, respectively. Choose the session corresponding to your hackathon's format!
- 11 October - Onboarding Participants, Mentors, & Jury - These coaching calls will focus on creating the best experience for your innovators, from planning the hackathon event to onboarding participants.
- 18 October - Matchmaking - Learn how to help your participants find teammates and come up with creative ideas to work on during the hackathon.
- 25 October - Evaluation and Submitting your Winner Solution - Learn to ensure a fair hackathon by understanding how the evaluation process will happen, and what to do with your winner solutions.
- 1 November - Final Q&A - D-Day is near, join this call to go through the final touches and wish each other the best DigiEduHack!
FAQ
When should my hackathon take place?
DigiEduHack 2023 will take place between 6 and 13 November in Europe and beyond; you can organise your local hackathon event anytime within this 8-days period, bearing in mind that your hackathon should be finished by the 13 November noon, before the Main Stage event takes place.
What should be the duration of my hackathon?
The duration of the hackathon should be 24h in total. You can decide if you want to do them in a row or split them in 2 times 12h.
Will there be any workshops or training sessions provided to prepare for the hackathon?
Learning opportunities will be offered to everyone in the months leading up to the Digital Education Hackathon, and will be recorded for later viewing in the learning opportunities corner of the website. There will also be weekly coaching calls, where you can meet with organisers and other local hosts, to support you in the organisation of your hackathon.
On your side, you can also contribute to preparing participants for the hacking: you can organise at your discretion info sessions on the challenge, matchmaking sessions for participants joining without a team or any other additional sessions. We will guide you in organising these sessions.
What software should I use for my webinars, matchmaking, etc., if I don't do onsite sessions only?
You can either use the Discord channel created for your hackathon to communicate with your participants or use any video conferencing tool of your preference: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.
Can participants work on existing projects, or do they have to start their solution from scratch?
Participants may work in advance of the hackathon, with the stipulation that they must make demonstrable progress on the idea during the hackathon event. Judges should bear this in mind when they are evaluating the different solutions.
What are the costs associated with hosting a hackathon?
The cost of organising a hackathon can vary depending on several factors, including the scale of the event, the duration, the location, the format of the hackathon (online, onsite or mixed) and the resources and equipment made available to participants. Broadly speaking, the main factors influencing costs are: venue, equipment and infrastructure - including digital platforms where appropriate (for example Discord, which we offer) -, catering, prizes, marketing and promotion. Many of these costs are optional, so you can tailor your hackathon to your budget and even seek partners or sponsors to help provide items, services or funding.
What is required in terms of human resources and effort?
The time required to prepare and execute a 24-hour hackathon depends on various factors such as the scale and complexity of the event, the level of planning and coordination involved, and the resources available. Generally, we recommend allocating 2 to 3 months for thorough preparation, and the organising team should typically include individuals with expertise in event management, logistics and/or marketing. Key elements that require resources include: defining the challenge and writing content for the challenge’s page on the website, setting up the team, securing funding as needed and planning the budget, logistics, recruiting mentors and jury members, recruiting participants and staffing event. We will provide coaching calls to cover these elements, as well as a project plan to help you be sure you are covering the elements needed. On top of this, there is a Discord server available, where our support staff can answer your questions; and you can always reach out to the DigiEduHack Central team at contact@digieduhack.com.