Next Level Events With Veertly - How to organize online hackathons

ABOUT THE SHOW

Next Level Events With Veertly brings the latest insights from the online event industry for those who want to level up with their virtual or hybrid events. We interview experts worldwide and share their vision on how to create better and more engaging virtual or hybrid events. 

ABOUT THE EPISODE

In this episode, we discuss the importance of hackathons and their role in innovation. In order to gain more insight into this topic, we invited Hans Baechle, a communication specialist at gluoNNet. Hans gives us an insight into the works of gluoNNet, their role in facilitating online hackathons and how do online hackathons differ from physical ones. If you have ever wanted to learn more about this topic, listen to the episode below and learn how hackathons are organized and what is the secret ingredient to hosting a successful hackathon. 

Follow the Veertly Show on Apple Podcast |  Spotify | Deezer | YouTube

ABOUT THE GUEST

Hans Baechle is a communications officer at gluoNNet and a recent graduate in the field of science, media, and communication. His passion is hackathons and he enjoys organizing, facilitating, and attending them. He is currently pursuing a Masters's Degree at the University of Maastricht, where he will continue to expand on his bachelor thesis connected to online hackathons.

Connect with Hans on LinkedIn here  |  Visit gluoNNet's website here 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE 

“Hackathons are not just about hacking. The goal of a hackathon is to foster innovations, teamwork, learning, and networking” 

We want to have innovations and foster innovations, with a hackathon, but this is not the only aim of a hackathon. It can also, foster teamwork, foster learning amongst the participants, foster networking allowing people to get to know each other.

It depends on who is the host of the hackathon and what they want to accomplish with it. So our university focuses rather on the networking and learning aspects. A company might focus on the actual outcome or a working prototype and teamwork to make sure that people can work together, more flawlessly.

“Advantages of online hackathons are the accessibility, scalability, and flexibility. You can join from anywhere and all you need is a computer” 

Speaking of the online events and hackathons in particular, it has clear advantages on accessibility. Because people can join in from everywhere in the world, and all they need is a computer, a working internet connection and a virtual event app.

Online event platforms give a lot of people access and the opportunity to participate. So they don't have to travel to a venue. Let's say if a hackathon is taking place in Geneva. Participants don't have to travel to Geneva. Some people even can't afford it or they don't have holidays or days off to do that.

"Hackathons are a great way to bring people from your company together. Everyone brings in their own view of the problem, which gives it a unique solution-finding. This is a big advantage of a hackathon"

Companies should organize hackathons and workshops to tackle pain points and specific problems you need to solve. And a hackathon helps. For example, a like button on Facebook is a product of a hackathon.

Another big advantage of a hackathon is the opportunity to bring together people, from different domains to work on a problem.