July 1st, 2024 - June 30th, 2025
Last updated on: May 21, 2024
Hey, there –
We’re excited to hear that you’re interested in organizing a hackathon, and even more excited to hear you’re interested in being a part of the 2025 Hackathon Season with MLH.
For more than ten years, our team has had the privilege of giving back to the hacker community by partnering with passionate hackathon organizers and community leaders (just like you!) to put on world-class events. Today, 1 in every 3 computer science student graduates has attended an MLH Member Event hackathon, and, as a result, the hacker community has grown to be more than 1,000,000 members. The work you are doing to host a hackathon presents students with opportunities to learn, build, and share amazing creations. Today, you’re taking the first step toward changing the lives of countless hackers!
As an MLH Member Event Hackathon, you and your team can access MLH’s full support and resources. You’ll have a dedicated Hackathon Community Manager right at your side as you plan the event and an MLH Coach in person during the weekend to ensure your hackathon is a huge success. Our tools, templates, and other resources will make organizing a breeze for you and your full team.
This document contains everything you need to know to partner with MLH: common questions, a walkthrough of our benefits, and what we expect from you and your team. If you have questions at any step along the way, please email your personal Hackathon Community Manager at [email protected]. Thank you for everything you are doing and for being part of the hacker community. We can’t wait to see the positive impact your event will have on your hackers’ lives and your local tech community.
Happy hacking,
Swift
CEO & Co-Founder
Major League Hacking (MLH)
This section contains an overview of what MLH Member Events are and common questions about them.
An MLH Member Event is a student-focused hackathon that Major League Hacking has verified as a high-quality event by evaluating the event’s progress in key areas like sponsorship, marketing, hacker experience, and logistics. These events receive MLH’s full suite of resources and tools to ensure attendees have an amazing hacking experience. All Member Events have a trained hackathon facilitator from MLH (called a Coach) on-site throughout the event to help hackers, organizers, and partners be as successful as they can be.
Throughout your planning process, a Hackathon Community Manager (HCM) from MLH will support you and help answer questions, discuss challenges, and brainstorm new ideas. They will also assist you with any after-event assistance needed. You can reach your Hackathon Community Manager at [email protected].
During your event, an MLHer (called a Coach) will be on-site to help you and your team with whatever you need. MLHers are event organizers themselves and receive extensive training to become an asset to your team.
We encourage events to start their applications as soon as possible because we have limited Member Event slots available. We typically recommend starting your application 3-4 months before your event is scheduled to occur. Remember, you do not need to have everything ready to start your application. The sooner you apply, the higher your chances of becoming a Member Event Hackathon. Before you apply, make sure to review this document in full. If you have any questions, our team is here to help. Please email us at [email protected].
| Event Date | Ideal Application | Roster Finalized |
| August 2024 | April 2024 or sooner | Start of July 2024 |
| September 2024 | May 2024 or sooner | Start of August 2024 |
| October 2024 | June 2024 or sooner | Start of September 2024 |
| November 2024 | July 2024 or sooner | Start of October 2024 |
| December 2024 | August 2024 or sooner | Start of November 2024 |
| January 2025 | September 2024 or sooner | Start of December 2024 |
| February 2025 | October 2024 or sooner | Start of January 2025 |
| March 2025 | November 2024 or sooner | Start of February 2025 |
| April 2025 | December 2024 or sooner | Start of March 2025 |
| May 2025 | January 2025 or sooner | Start of April 2025 |
| June 2025 | February 2025 or sooner | Start of May 2025 |
You’ll start with a simple initial application (that you can probably fill out right now!). After completing your initial application, you’ll have access to our full Member Event Application that you can get started on before your initial meeting with us. The application is broken down into sections on major topics (like sponsorship and marketing) that you’ll complete before MLH fully reviews your Member Event Application. When you’re ready, you’ll ‘submit’ your application to our team for review. While we don’t need all the requested documents submitted before your initial meeting with us, looking at what you need to submit ahead of time can help you formulate questions to ask during the call.
After you submit your application, our team will review your responses to ensure we understand your event and can support it logistically - see our Minimum Requirements Section for more information. If your event has met our minimum requirements and your application has been moved forward, we’ll request an initial meeting and additional documents from your team so we can complete a document review.
After reviewing and confirming your documents, you’ll have a Member Event Interview with one of our Hackathon Community Managers. You and your team earn MLH Member Event Status by completing all of these steps and hitting the quality marks we look for in events. After your interview, our team will review your details and also verify we still have the capacity in the month of your event. We will then let you know the results of your application.
We are not planning to support hybrid or digital hackathons during our 2025 Hackathon Season. We encourage events considering a digital or hybrid format to just host a physical hackathon instead (if possible). However, we are still asking digital and hybrid events to complete the MLH Member Event Application. This helps us gauge organizer interest in these events. Additionally, when evaluating applications, we look for events that have consistently applied to work with us, so putting in an application (even for a digital or hybrid event) helps us prioritize your hackathon in the future.
Ultimately, we have limited resources and are focusing on hackathons that we believe have the most impact on hackers (in-person hackathons). In our Hacker Census each year, we’ve consistently seen that hackers struggle to engage with hybrid events on the same level as a fully in-person hackathon. You can still reach out for general hackathon advice and use our public resources, such as our MLH Organizer Guide, but we cannot provide Membership to your event.
Particularly in APAC and India, we’ve seen hackathons implement shortlists, early feedback rounds, and elimination rounds during the weekend. This results in hackers being eliminated or sent home before the event officially concludes. We believe all hackers should be welcome to stay and hack at the event through the end of the event and closing ceremony.
If you need to limit the number of hackers who can attend the event in person because of venue restrictions, we recommend having any shortlisting take place online before the event instead of during the event.
We require judging to be completed during your event. Some hackathons have postponed judging to complete it digitally via video submissions. This means winning teams aren’t announced until the week following your event. This leaves your event feeling unfinished, avoids live demos, and increases your team’s costs for shipping prizes. MLH Member Events must complete judging and awards on the event's last day (usually Sunday, but occasionally Saturday for Friday-Saturday events).
Your hackers need fuel! We need to see a plan of meals that your event will provide and a breakdown of costs in the budget. If your event overlaps with standard meal times, then you need to plan to provide an adequate meal for those times, plus snacks for overnight and in-between meals. Specifically:
- If check-in starts before 10 AM, lunch is required.
- If check-in starts before 4 PM, dinner is required.
- If hackers stayed the night prior, breakfast is required.
- If the event ends after 12 PM, lunch is required.
- If the event ends after 4 PM, dinner is required.
If you need help budgeting, please contact your Hackathon Community Manager for assistance.
By partnering with MLH, you get access to all the following benefits and any additional benefits we roll out throughout the year.
Dedicated Support & Mentorship. Our team of Hackathon Community Managers (HCMs) supports hundreds of Member Events every year. We've helped organizers like you handle all sorts of problems and questions. As a Member Event, you’ll be paired with an HCM who can answer any questions or talk through ideas/challenges via emails and calls. This includes help with figuring out how you want to run judging at your event, organize your run of show, and any other topics you wish to discuss.
Discord Organizer Hub. Meet and collaborate with other Member Event hackathon organizers in the MLH Organizer Hub. You’ll have a private channel for your entire team with your Hackathon Community Manager, but you’ll also be able to connect with and collaborate with other passionate organizers in public spaces.
Peer Groups. We know how much work goes into putting on a world-class hackathon and how intimidating that can be! Through the MLH Organizer Hub, we’ll optionally connect you with organizers planning events on a similar timeline to form Peer Groups. You can use these groups to learn and discuss topics like fundraising, marketing, and leadership.
Hackathon Organizer Guide. All organizers have full access to MLH’s Hackathon Organizer Guide at guide.mlh.io. The guide is packed with information for you and your team to leverage as you plan your event.
Templates and Tutorials. As part of the Hackathon Organizer Guide, we’ve created a library of templates and tutorials for all organizers to use while planning and hosting their events. While you don’t need to use our templates, we’ve seen organizers consistently struggle with major topics like budgeting and judging when they try to reinvent the wheel. We’ve created simple templates to help you and your team. You can view all of our templates here (https://guide.mlh.io/organizer-resources/template-links).
Hackcon Talks. Each year we host a conference for hackathon organizers where our community shares their knowledge and experiences with one another. We have a library of past talks from organizers that you and your team can use to learn best practices. You can view some of our favorite talks here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPDgudJ_VDUeQHDMl_9RfkOYf2JU5cwwl).
Documents Feedback. To help ensure your hackathon is as successful as possible, we’ll review core documents and deliverables your team needs to put on a great event. As part of your Member Event Application, you’ll receive a review and feedback on your website, venue, budget, sponsorship packet, sponsorship list, and marketing plan.
Event Marketing Promotion. While the best source of hackers for your event is likely your local community and nearby colleges, universities, and schools, Major League Hacking will promote your event to thousands of hackers through various platforms.
- Season Schedule Listing. We’ll list your event on the official MLH season schedule at http://mlh.io/events. Hundreds of thousands of hackers and sponsors visit this page every single year and use it to discover the events they want to participate in.
- MLH Community Discord Promotion. We’ll post in an announcements channel on the MLH Community Discord (with 55,000+ members) to promote your hackathon.
Preferred Vendors & Discounts. Organizing a great hackathon can be expensive. To help you save time and money, we have vetted and partnered with amazing vendors that offer exclusive discounts and priority access to Member Events.
- StandOut Stickers (https://www.standoutstickers.com/) - We wanted to ensure our organizers continued to have access to high-quality stickers this season. Our friends at StandOut Stickers have your back.
- Continental US. 10% discount plus free shipping on your order.
- UK, EU, APAC, Alaska, and Hawaii. 15% off the entire order. Shipping costs will vary.
- Want an even better deal? You’ll receive $125 in credit just for displaying the StandOut Stickers logo on your website linked to hackp.ac/mlh-standoutstickers-hackathons.
- Brand Makers (https://www.brandmakers.com/) - If you’re looking to produce anything from tee shirts to mugs, Brand Makers can help. They are MLH’s preferred vendor for all of our own swag. MLH works with Brand Makers for our Season Tees, MLH Hackcon Jackets, and more.
Monetary Grants. In addition to connecting you with vendors who can reduce the cost of your hackathon, we also have exclusive monetary grants you can apply for as an MLH Member Event. We’ve partnered with various organizations to provide grants to hackathons to help cover the necessary costs of a hackathon. You can apply for any and all of these grants.
- GitHub Education Grant (https://news.mlh.io/mlh-github-education-grants-supporting-diverse-hacker-communities-03-30-2022). GitHub Education is continuing to offer grants up to $1,000 USD (or the purchasing power equivalent in your country or region) to select hackathons. All Member Events are encouraged to apply as part of their application process. GitHub Education is primarily awarding these grants to new events or events that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. If you are awarded a GitHub Education Grant for your hackathon, you will need to complete and submit a post-event report.
- TechTogether Partnership and Grant. TechTogether supports underrepresented genders in tech. This monetary grant is for events catered to marginalized genders. If you are awarded this grant, we will work with you to combine the existing TechTogether brand with your event, and do additional marketing to the existing TechTogether audience to support your event.
Handoff Call with HCM. About three weeks before your event, your Hackathon Community Manager will spend time with you going over final logistics and action items to ensure you and your team are well prepared for your event.
Pre-Event Call with Staff. Every Member Event gets a dedicated MLHer (called a Coach) to work with on the weekend of their event. You’ll get an invitation for a 30-minute chat with them the week of your event. They will discuss any remaining logistics such as mini-event timing, confirming start and end times, and exchanging contact information so you can easily reach each other over the weekend.
OrganizerHQ (OHQ). OHQ is a free registration platform you can use for your event. It has our required registration questions built-in, and you can add additional questions that your team needs. It has a dashboard to track registrations so you can see how your marketing efforts are progressing, and can be used to reject applicants as needed. It can also easily be exported to a CSV, so you can aggregate and sort your registration information according to your needs.
MyMLH Support. Member Events who utilize MyMLH will receive priority support for setup and troubleshooting from our engineering team. MyMLH is an OAuth API that makes registering for hackathons a breeze for hackers by storing their information in a centralized MLH Database, which allows them to share it easily with multiple events.
Day-of Support. A Coach from MLH will join you and your team to support you during the hackathon in person as an extension of your organizing team. They can help you with anything you need, like making sure the event runs on time, mentoring hackers, coordinating and judging alongside the event’s organizers, or even practicing the opening ceremony with you. They also have extensive experience resolving conflicts with hackers, sponsors, or even organizing teams.
Software For Hackers. As an MLH Member Event, we offer software to every hacker registering for your event. Every hacker who registers for a Member Event gets access to discounts and freebies from our partners through the MLH Software Lab. This includes services like web hosting credit for free domain names and more. Even if your venue has capacity restrictions (meaning all registered attendees cannot come), we can still help them jump-start learning with new software and help them find other future events to attend.
Hardware for Hackers. MLH partners with several companies to bring hardware to a limited number of our North American Member Event Hackathons. Because of shipping costs, we cannot guarantee this benefit to each of our Member Event Hackathons. If you receive a hardware lab, you’ll be asked to provide a volunteer to help distribute items and a table specifically for hardware. Events that do receive hardware from MLH and our partners will receive one of the following kits.
- Digi-Key Hardware Lab: A kit containing microcontrollers, components, smart devices, and other seasonal items, like Raspberry Pis and Arduinos.
- MSI Hardware Lab: A kit containing laptops, monitors, and items such as headphones, keyboards, and mice.
Event Photography. We know how important capturing what’s happening at your event can be. Photos will help you and your team build on your successes from year to year. MLHers will be on-site at your hackathon and will take photos of key event moments. These photos can be shared with your team as requested. Additionally, we hire a limited number of professional photographers throughout the year to capture photos. For this to occur, you must agree to our Content Agreement below.
Week-Of Emails. Repeated impressions and reminders are among the most effective ways to ensure your registrants become attendees. Leading up to your hackathon, MLH will email each of your registered hackers, providing them with free domains, cloud hosting credits, and other software benefits. In this email, we also include basic logistics information from your application so hackers know how to get involved.
Mini-Events. Your MLH representative will run at least one mini-event during your hackathon (remember to reserve 1 hour before 9 PM local time) to provide a fun break from hacking. Some of our partners work with us to run custom mini-events at hackathons (like showing hackers how to access and set up GitHub Copilot). When we have a partner mini-event, we’ll run that mini-event at your hackathon. If we run a partner mini-event, you can also choose to have your MLH representative run an additional mini-event from our non-partnered selection.
Season and Partner Swag. Your event will receive assorted swag, like MLH Season tees, season stickers, customized event-specific “I Demoed” stickers, Winner Pins, MLH stickers, and MLH partner swag. Many of our partners send along additional swag that we’ll distribute at the MLH table, like pens, carabiners, tees, and mugs. Swag availability will vary depending on supply and location.
Judging Support. We know that judging is one of the most stressful periods during a hackathon. We offer judging templates, resources, and tutorials for all Member Events to utilize. In addition, our MLH representative can assist you with running demos and judging during your event in a fair, standardized way. You are still expected to recruit and coordinate judges' arrival before the event.
Incidents Management. MLH Member Events are safe and welcoming spaces. To do this, we require all attendees, sponsors, and organizers to adhere to the MLH Code of Conduct (http://mlh.io/code-of-conduct). If someone violates the Code of Conduct, your MLHer will work with our full-time Incidents Team to address the situation with you and anyone involved. Our team has extensive training and experience handling these situations, so you don’t have to.
Cheating Resolution. While we see far fewer attempts to cheat at in-person hackathons, our team is still ready and able to help you address any concerns following our Cheating Response Procedure (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/master/cheating-response.md). Your on-site MLHer can review projects live or escalate them to our full-time team for more thorough analysis. The registration data you provide to our team will be scanned for any hackers with prior confirmed cheating incidents or Code of Conduct violations.
Prizes. All Member Events are provided with special prizes to hand out to hackers. For your event’s overall winners, we provide MLH Winner Pins. We also provide select MLH partner category prizes (http://hack.mlh.io/prizes). MLH will confirm the final prize list with your event during your handoff call before your hackathon. Your team must add our prize list to your submission platform, but we partner with Devpost to make this easier. As a result, by becoming a Member Event, your hackathon page may automatically include MLH branding and prizes. Devpost may additionally grant us direct access.
MLH Emergency Budget. We understand that things you didn't plan for may happen, which creates unexpected costs. To help plan for these instances, your event has the benefit of tapping into the MLH Emergency Budget. This is an up to $1000 (or the currency equivalent in your country or region) fund that can be used for anything your event may need. To qualify for these funds, you must have exhausted your emergency budget and considered other changes to your budget to account for this cost. You’ll also need to work with your MLHer on-site to verify the need.
Post Event Survey. Anyone who registers for your Member Event will receive a post-event survey about their experience. We’ll share this data with you, as requested, to show you how you compare to other Member Events and identify areas for improvement for your next event.
Scoring. Hackers participating in Member Events earn points for their university, college, or school in the MLH Season Rankings. At the end of every season, hackers can see how their schools performed against other schools and be in the running to win a trophy to take back to their hacker club.
Continued Support. Just because your event is over doesn’t mean your HCM isn’t available to help wrap things up. You still have access to our team, and we are happy to help you with whatever you need to wrap up your event successfully.
MLH was built by passionate community members. To ensure that Member Events are as high quality as the hackathons we fell in love with, organizers must meet the following requirements:
We encourage every event to apply for Membership regardless of if you meet these requirements or not. We look at an event’s application history when evaluating if we can work with them. You should apply every year.
Event Dates. Your hackathon must take place during the current or upcoming academic year, from August 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 2025. MLH is unable to support hackathons the weekend of our annual organizer conference, MLH Hackcon (August 23-25, 2024).
Free to Attend. Member Events do not have entry fees, which makes them open and accessible to all participants, regardless of their financial situations.
Primarily Students. At least 80% of your hackathon’s attendees must be students at the time of the hackathon or have left school within the current academic year. Student attendees can be enrolled at any level of study at a traditional (middle school, high school, university, etc.), nontraditional (coding bootcamp, home school, online, etc.) institution, or graduated in the past year.
Registration Targets & Goals. We encourage all of our events to be as large as possible without negatively impacting the hacker experience. We do not have a minimum number of attendees required for Membership, but we do prefer to support events with more than 200 hackers that can have more impact. Additionally, we require events to set a registration target. If you are not trending toward your target, your Membership may be revoked and given to a different organization.
Hackathon Locations. We are only able to currently support Member Events and their organizers that are based in the following regions:
- North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.
- Europe: United Kingdom, the European Union, and select other European countries.
- Asia-Pacific: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and select countries in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Australasia.
- Countries outside of the above service area will require approval. This shouldn’t stop you from applying, but if you want to be sure email us at [email protected].
Duration. Member Events are 24 to 48 hours long and occur over a weekend (usually Friday to Sunday or Saturday to Sunday). Judging and prizes must be awarded at the end of your hackathon on Sunday. If you plan on awarding prizes post-event, speak with your Hackathon Community Manager.
Language. We can only work with events with an English-language website and make announcements during the event in English. If you live in a country where English is not the native language, we encourage you to make announcements and provide information in both languages. We will do our best to assign a team member who is fluent in both English and the other language/s your event is making announcements in.
No Elimination Rounds We’ve decided not to work with hackathons that leverage early elimination rounds which require hackers to leave the venue before the event ends. All hackers must be allowed to hack for the same duration of time.
We expect you to read and agree to each of the following. By signing below, you agree that you have read, reviewed, and understood each of these sub-agreements.
Member Event Guidelines (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/member-event-guidelines.md) - You’re reading this document! It outlines the things that we need you to do before, during, and after your hackathon and the things we’re doing for you as well.
Community Values (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/community-values.md) - This document presents a set of principles shared by every Member Event that serve as examples of excellence to your attendees and sponsors, as well as other hackathons and communities. All Member Events are expected to uphold these Community Values.
Public Health & Safety Policy. With large campus gatherings like a hackathon, we want all attendees, organizers, and sponsors to remain safe. We recommend that all events have a clear Public Health and Safety Policy covering unexpected disasters (like COVID-19) that may impact the event. Additionally, you must adhere to guidelines set by local authorities. MLH reserves the right to change our Health & Safety requirements for Member Events.
Code of Conduct (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/code-of-conduct.md) - This document contains the guidelines for the expected behavior of all attendees (including volunteers, mentors, sponsors, organizers, judges, etc.) at MLH Member Events. Having a single code of conduct that is used by every hackathon helps us ensure that MLH events are consistently safe and inclusive spaces for everyone and that expectations for behavior and incident response remain consistent for people who attend multiple MLH events. As an organizer of a Member Event, you are expected to adopt, make publicly available, and enforce the MLH Code of Conduct. If an incident is reported, organizers must immediately involve the onsite MLHers or MLH Incidents Team who will work with you to follow our official incident response procedure.
Brand License. We need your permission to promote and list your event on our website, Discord, and other locations. By signing this agreement, you grant MLH an indefinite license to use your event name, branding, and materials to market your event and the season of Member Events. Additionally, we grant Member Events a non-exclusive license to use the MLH name and brand in conjunction with the event. MLH reserves the right to terminate the organizer's license at any time at our absolute discretion.
Content Agreement. We love posting photos and videos of Member Events on our website and social media, but we can’t do that without your permission. By signing this agreement, you grant MLH permission to record and publish photos and videos of the event and the right to produce commercial video content (this does not include TV news or sponsor/event recaps).
Regardless of your region, you will post a clear notice of photo/recording for participants on your website or at your venue. If you’re in a region that requires additional notification or consent, you will ensure those regulations are followed and MLH is given appropriate rights through those regulations.
Property Care Agreement. Member Events recognize that other Member Events will use any MLH property they borrow (hardware, signage, mini-event supplies, etc.). If any supplies are lost, damaged, or late, other events will be unable to utilize them. You agree to see that, to the best of your ability, all MLH property is cared for and returned on time by your hackers, organizers, sponsors, and volunteers.
MLH Branding Agreement. On your hackathon’s website, you must display the MLH Season Trust Badge in the header and the MLH logo under your partners section. Hackers and sponsors see the presence of these logos and know that you have achieved the level of quality guaranteed by being a Member Event. You can find these assets on our official Brand Guidelines (https://mlh.io/brand-guidelines).
Attendee Registration Platform. An event’s registration portal is one of the first points of contact for your hackers. Consistency is key for your new and returning hackers’ experience. Because of this, we require all MLH Member Events to have a registration platform with the following features:
- Hacker Communication. As hackers register for your event, it’s important to communicate any updates or changes to the event via email. The chosen registration platform must allow the event organizers to contact all hackers that are registered through their platform or via export to other platforms.
- Control Hacker Data. All hackers should expect their data to be protected and only accessed by those given permission. The platform must enable organizers to request and receive this permission on their own and/or partners' behalf.
- Add Customizable Opt-In Questions. We require all hackers who attend a Member Event to agree to the MLH Code of Conduct and Event Logistics Information. The platform must allow organizers to add questions that enable organizers to collect opt-in information.
MLH Checkboxes. In order to administer many of our benefits, your hackers must agree to two required checkboxes on your registration form. Additionally, you must include a third checkbox to allow hackers to opt-in to marketing from MLH.
- Add our two required agreements to your registration form:
- [REQUIRED] MLH Code of Conduct: "I have read and agree to the MLH Code of Conduct." (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/code-of-conduct.md)
- [REQUIRED] Event Logistics Information: “I authorize you to share my application/registration information with Major League Hacking for event administration, ranking, and MLH administration in-line with the MLH Privacy Policy. I further agree to the terms of both the MLH Contest Terms and Conditions (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/contest-terms.md) and the MLH Privacy Policy (https://github.com/MLH/mlh-policies/blob/main/privacy-policy.md).”
- Add an optional (for hackers) checkbox for the following to your registration form:
- [OPTIONAL] Communication from MLH: ”I authorize MLH to send me occasional emails about relevant events, career opportunities, and community announcements."
- Are registrations for your hackathon already open?
- If registrations are already open for your hackathon and you’re planning to work with MLH, you may want to add the following disclaimer to your registration and ensure your registration form meets our requirements.
- “We have applied to be a Major League Hacking (MLH) Member Event. The following checkboxes are only applicable if our application is accepted. If we do not become an MLH Member Event, your information will not be shared."
Registration Form. We require Member Events to use a minimum set of basic fields and the checkboxes above. This ensures that you, your team, and MLH know who is attending and that attendees know what they are agreeing to. We have both a required and a recommended set of questions. We do not collect, utilize, or share any personal information without an attendee opt-in.
We’ve outlined these questions in detail in our MLH Organizer Guide at https://guide.mlh.io/general-information/managing-registrations/registration-timelines. Please review this resource to see the exact format of each question and why we need your hackathon’s data in this way.
- Required Registration Questions. We require organizers to gather a basic set of information (first name, last name, age, email, school name, phone number, country, and current level of study).
- Optional Demographic Questions. We encourage organizers to ask about additional demographic information in a standardized format. Standardizing your responses using these options allows you to compare your hackathon data to MLH’s Season Census that we conduct each year.
Registration Data. You will regularly submit all registration data to your Member Event Application leading up to your event. Your Hackathon Community Manager will regularly review your marketing and registration progress with you and your team. If your team repeatedly cannot provide registration data, your Membership may be revoked. We further require the finalized list on the Wednesday before your event to look for any repeat violators of the Code of Conduct and send out pre-event emails to your registrants.
Website. Hackers, sponsors, and MLH will need a way to find your event and learn more about it. We require that you have a website with the following information: start and end dates, registration forms, general FAQ, and contact information.
Event Details. To send our staff and resources to your hackathon, we need you to submit the following information before your hackathon (using our application form): start and end times, venue address and information, package shipping address, point of contact information, and more. You will automatically submit this information by completing your Member Event Application in full!
Check-Ins With Your HCM. Your Hackathon Community Manager should be an extension of your organizing team, a resource for both you and your teammates to leverage in tricky situations. We expect you to stay in touch with your HCM about your event’s progress and meet with them periodically as needed to discuss the event. They want to help you stay on track with your goals and see where they can be helpful.
Venue. We ask that you either show proof of venue registration or substantial progress toward booking a venue with an estimate of when the venue will be finalized.
Overnight Accommodations. We require Member Events to leave their venues open overnight or provide alternate overnight accommodations for any off-campus attendees. Many hackers may travel long distances to attend hackathons and will need a place to rest.
Meals. We require your event to provide meals for the duration of the event. See the FAQ at the beginning of this document for specific meals required based on your schedule.
Hacker Check-Ins. Your event must have a process for checking in hackers on the day of the event. Collecting check-in information from all hackers will allow organizers to predict mini-event participation, workshop attendance, and project submissions more accurately and utilize this information for the following iteration of your hackathon.
Check-In Swag. Allow your MLH representative to distribute MLH swag and promotional items at the attendee check-in area. Distributing these at check-in creates a great first impression and ensures that everyone gets some.
MLH Table. Reserve a rectangular table (approx 4x6 feet) for your MLH representative to engage with attendees and distribute swag/credits (stickers, website domains, hosting credit, tee shirts, etc.).
- MLH Hardware Lab Table. If you are assigned a hardware lab, you will need to provide an additional table for it.
Opening Ceremony. Reserve 5 minutes for your MLHer to speak (with slides) during the opening ceremony and share any resources available for your hackers to use during the hackathon.
Closing Ceremony. Reserve 5 minutes during your closing ceremony for your MLH representative to make a few remarks on behalf of MLH and award prizes to the teams that won any MLH partner category prizes. As the overall winners of the event are announced, your MLH representative will help you distribute MLH Winner Pins to each team and take photos of each winning team.
Signage. Display MLH Season and informational signage in key areas during the event. Much like displaying the Trust Badge on your website, having MLH signage on-site during the event signals your commitment to hosting a high-quality event and makes your attendees feel like they are part of a larger movement. Everything our staff needs will be shipped before your event.
Chat Service. This allows hackers to communicate with each other, sponsors, organizers, and MLH. We recommend Discord or Slack. Chat services are a great way to stay connected over a large venue, but MLH does not require them for in-person hackathons.
Project Submission Platform. Your hackers must submit their final projects somewhere to be judged and for prize data collection. MLH brings prizes to all of our Member Events on behalf of the sponsors that support us. The project submission platform used during any hackathon must be able to add custom prizes and allow hackers to opt-in to submit any prize category.
- Submission Platform Field Requirements. Any platform is acceptable as long as your platform has the required fields listed in the MLH Hackathon Organizer Guide (https://guide.mlh.io/general-information/judging-and-submissions/set-up-your-hackathon-portal).
Post-Event Call. After the event, attend a call with your assigned MLH Hackathon Community Manager. We’ll use this time to run a short retrospective on working together, provide feedback, and start planning for future events!
Event Data. On the last day of your hackathon, submit all event data to your Member Event Application. We use this data to calculate season rankings and send attendees a post-event survey to collect their feedback. Specifically, you need to include Check-In and Project Submission Data.
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Check-In Data. Submit all check-in data to MLH after check-in concludes. This should be the same data as registration, with an additional column to mark whether they attended. If a hacker is a late registration/walk-in attendee, you should still be collecting their full information. We recommend sending your check-in data during downtime on Saturday night so that you do not have this as a to-do item after your event ends!
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Project Submission Data. Project submissions must include the project’s title, the team members (including their names, emails, & school name), the URL to their project page or code, the project description, any prize categories that the project applied for and/or won, any technologies the project was built with, and any other relevant metadata you’re able to provide.
Major League Hacking reserves the right to revise, make exceptions to, or otherwise amend these policies in whole or in part. If you have any questions regarding these policies, please email us at [email protected].