Competition on Day Three
Developer Camp is a three-day hackathon and community event, held regularly in cities all around the world. It relies on a certain pattern and schedule to create trust and foster cooperation — right up until the presentations begin. Here is how the final day ties it all together.
Schedule
0900–1000 — Continental Breakfast
1000–1400 — Side Session Presentations by Attendees
1000–1400 — Prepare for Hackathon
1200 — Hackathon Entries due
1300–1400 — Lunch
1400–1700 — Hackathon Contest
1700–1800 — Judging
1800–1900 — Award Ceremony
1800 — Doors Close
Summary
Rubbing sleep and exhaustion from their eyes, Contest participants are usually on their last legs in the early moments of Sunday. It’s important to greet them with enthusiasm and encouragement, and recognize their state of mind: terror. For this, there is coffee and healthy food, lots of water and alternatives to caffeine like tea and juice.
No presentations are planned for Sunday morning. This is a time for everyone to stay focused and finish their work. Sunday morning, sponsors are already well-known, and so anyone from a representative company should be either helping people actually use their offering, or staying out of people’s way.
Something to note: investors and non-participants are not welcome on site until Sunday afternoon. We’ve experimented with different ways to include investors and press, and the best way is to invite the entire public for our Contest time. Until then, we protect the talented contributors with a judgment-free zone on site.
Day three is primarily about the idea contest and a sense of friendly competition. As the deadline approaches, however, remarkable collaboration takes place. Although the descriptive entries are due in our database by noon, contest participants are welcome to work on their demonstrations up until the last minute.
I’ve seen people walking up to stage, compiling their app as they go. I’ve seen people rebooting machines, restarting phones, and all manner of workarounds. It’s important to practice your demonstration a few times in front of a small audience before trying it out on stage.
For this reason, we set up the presentation area early, to give participants a chance to experience the stage surface before they are challenged to present. We set up three stations from which to present: the podium, and two desk setups. This is so that one team is always able to set up before the next has finished, keeping the demonstration flow constant. This also allows us presenters to switch to the next act if one of them has a technical difficulty.
Presentations are viewed with the following priority:
- Open Source
- Teams and Ideas generated entirely on site
- Women presenters
- Young presenters
- Everyone else
This gives priority to the teams and ideas that best represent our values. If time runs out, those people who are working on ideas or code that they brought with them, or are attempting to keep to themselves may get cut. Our showcase is less about the work itself, and more about the people doing the work and how they did it.
During the demonstrations, judges (the organizers, some sponsors, and special guests) sit in the front row. Trained volunteers operate the stage, the sound, and the clock. Presenters get a maximum of three (3) minutes. As the Contest goes on, some presenters may end up with less time, in order to accommodate the time required for judges to corroborate scores.
Judges look for the following criteria:
- Team strength
- Idea strength
- Idea / category fit
- Presentation success
- Presentation skill
- Audience reaction
Often, the audience will have a visceral reaction to a demonstration. This is sometimes because of the personalities of the presenters, but sometimes because of the product / market fit of the idea. A compelling demonstration will reach into the the hearts or imaginations of the audience and make them go, “Oooh!” It’s unmistakeable.
Sometimes, the timekeeper will look to the judges if a presenter deserves more time on stage. Often, we are familiar with the presenter or the idea ahead of time, and will grant extra seconds in order to let them convey a critical piece of information or feature. The job of the timekeeper is as much to keep the flow of demonstrations going as to make sure the audience gets a punchy sequence of “ooh” moments. Always end with a bang, if possible.
The method for getting a presenter off stage has evolved over the years. We now use a very loud buzzer, which happens to come from an antique photography timer. This is the same unit used by photographers to time the exposures in their chemical baths. It is super annoying, and mercilessly cuts off the speech of the presenter.
We’ve tried visual timers, bells, and even a gong. The best results seem to come from a constant, loud buzz that keeps the demonstration from continuing. It’s harsh, but fair to everyone. Sometimes, the timekeeper will halt the buzz quickly to give the presenter a chance to fit in a few words, it’s a special skill for timing and tact.
Once the presentations are complete, it’s time for the judges to retire into the prize room. Hopefully, the prizes have been sorted out into categories ahead of time, but there is always last minute shuffling to accommodate the size and makeup of various teams that end up winning in each category.
Every year, the judges end up putting together packages and prizes for teams that don’t fit a category. There is only one winner per category, no runners up. Therefore, a great team that didn’t win a much-deserved prize could become eligible for a made-up category based on the discretion of the judges.
Take heed: the judging of 50 or more demonstrations can take over an hour. Limit the judging crew to four or less, with one person at the whiteboard, one person wrangling sponsor judges and special categories, and everyone with their notes from the contest. Leave time to go over the list carefully to make sure that no one who made the audience react goes unrewarded.
Sorting and labeling the prizes is also time-consuming. Get a solid process for bagging and tagging groups of prizes and donations — we usually use a ton of bags from the Apple Store for example. During the judging process, there should be something going on in the main hall to ensure that the crowd doesn’t get reckless. Examples include: exhibition demos, entertainment acts, exhibition games, and music.
The prize distribution and dispensation should be a group affair, featuring not only the announcement of who got what, but also why they were awarded. Leave the best and most valuable prizes for last, but do lead with an exciting, highly coveted prize.
At the end of the night, remind the audience that they are one community, one group, and that the very act of participation is reward enough. Everyone who participated is a winner at some level, and the signal for success is how a person deals with failure.
