How to promote a hackathon and get sign-ups.

Start from the submissions you want and work backwards to sign-ups: that number tells you how much promotion you need. The submissions you want are the ones your jury can actually read.

For the share of sign-ups who submit, use the one from your previous edition or, for a first edition, an assumption you then measure. Attendance at an in-person event works the same way: use the share of sign-ups who showed up last time, and accept more sign-ups than you have seats.

Calculator to copy. Fill in the last column. The examples use assumed shares, not data: replace them with yours.

Count everything in the same unit: if teams submit, count both submissions and sign-ups in teams. Don't apply share E to line C: share B already starts from all sign-ups, present or not.

The ones where your audience already is: universities and networks carry the message to people you would not reach alone. In practice:

Three rules for the message:

• What people build first, the prize second. Say what participants will build and learn. Keep the sign-up form short.
• One hashtag and small outlets. Niche outlets work better than big media: university newsletters and local trade sites.
• With employees, time. Colleagues worry about falling behind on their day job: leadership must say those hours count.

Avoid holidays, exam periods and big industry events.

• Exams: check the university calendar. In Italy exam sessions usually fall in January-February, June-July and September.
• Summer: in Italy many companies and universities close in August. No promotion, no deadlines.
• Holidays: Christmas to Epiphany, Easter and national holidays; in Italy also 25 April, 1 May, 2 June, 1 November and 8 December.
• Employees: spring or early fall, away from holidays and product releases.

For Italian students, the weeks from mid-October to the end of November and from mid-March to mid-May, minus Easter and long weekends, are usually the freest.

With something in return. Offer hesitant partners a jury seat, their logo or a prize category.

This is an example: copy the table and swap in your own timing and names.

Write the minimum number of sign-ups and the decision date 6 weeks ahead, on the first line of the plan. Close sign-ups 2 weeks before the event, because teams need time to form and materials need to go out. One week is enough only if teams are already formed. For a public online hackathon, also plan a registration-only period before submissions open. Everything else is in the hackathon checklist.

An FAQ page, published before invitations go out. People signing up have specific worries: a missing email, for example, reads as a rejection.

• Public challenge. Visible to the MARA student community, which is growing with partner universities, on top of your own channels.
• Private link. You send it to the people you want to involve: email, internal newsletter, intranet. Anyone with the link can join, so don't post it where everyone can see it.
• Reserved for a university. Students sign in with their university email. If you publish for a partner university, the university gives you a code: you use it to publish the challenge for its students.

People take part alone or in teams, as the rules you write set out. Your people evaluate and decide: MARA does not select or rank anyone. To choose a tool, read the comparison of platform, agency and DIY. Participants never pay and there is no per-participant fee. Back to the home page.