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Organising a Hackathon

2025-12-06
5 min read

lifehack

I'm the Project Director for NUS Computing's annual hackathon - Lifehack in 2023. It was an eye-opening experience and taught me many things - people management, managing personal expectations, understanding my own limits and interests. Writing this in retrospect to reflect upon my experience and what I could have done better in hindsight.

Why did I take on this role?

I was in Year 1 then, and one semester had passed, but I didn’t really feel connected to NUS student life despite staying on campus (Residential College 4). Hence, I took on this role in December 2022, hoping to gain more exposure and meet new people through the process of planning this hackathon. I’ve also participated in a couple of hackathons (PSA Code Sprint, iNTUition at NTU) and want to learn more about the internal workings of hackathons - especially how winners are judged (haha).

How to plan a hackathon

  1. Gather Core Team

The team was already decided for me beforehand so all there's to do is to decide on individual member's roles via each person's skillsets.

  1. Gather Extended Team

We had 3 people within the core team and decided to split into 3 main roles (Concept & Publicity, Logistics, Programmes). The extended team is gathered through word of mouth and via NUS Computing's Club internal members.

  1. Concurrently: Decide on the fundamental details

A few things to decide: 1. Hackathon's theme 2. Date and duration 3. Venue (cost especially) 4. Estimated logistics 5. Estimated sponsorship needed

  • We've decided on a vague theme along the lines of 'build anything tech for good' to play it safe
  • A 3 days' long hackathon with a final judgement day to balance between a proper working prototype and participant's attention span
  • Venue is pre-decided to be RC4
  • Logistics and fun-fare is decided mostly by the amount of sponsorship money we can get (which I will deep dive into under challenges)
  • Sponsorship is out of the team's control; NUS Computing Club is the one deciding but the team handles the sponsors' logos on our merchandise
  1. PLAN
  • Design logo, merchandise (shirt, lanyard) - most difficult part of the sponsor's section (haha)
  • Purchase logistics - power plugs, coffee cart, lunch catering etc.
  • Plan programmes - events, games, discord
  • Hackathon - rules, judging procedures, student judges, industry judges

Challenges

Everything seems so clear in retrospect. The challenges are clear to begin with:

  • The team's inexperience in planning hackathons, especially in gauging participants' interest and setting the right environment for MAXIMUM HACKING.
  • Setting up a small team to liase with sponsors. I became the person in charge of handling sponsors too and it quickly became really cumbersome especially with logo sizes and placement.
  • Not Checking the logistics given to us: During the opening address, the stage caved in when one of the sponsor decided to jump light-heartedly on the middle of the stage. What we did not know is that the mechanism wasn't locked and the stage just caved, with the speaker in the middle of it. Thankfully no one is hurt but it's indeed a public embarrassment for the organising team despite it not being our fault. So going forward, CHECK ALL EQUIPMENT.

Personal Challenges:

  • Balancing 30 MCs alongside internship hunting and the start of my internship during the same period as the hackathon (plus Orbital) was overwhelming. At the time, I didn’t fully realize how challenging it would be to juggle so many commitments simultaneously. I faced numerous health issues throughout that period and wish I had taken better care of my physical well-being. Since then, I’ve gained a better understanding of my limits and have learned to manage my workload more effectively.

Conclusion

In hindsight, I believe that this hackathon needed more direction and vibes. Personally, I should have been more proactive in team-bonding activities and cohesion with the members in Computing Club.

The best hackathon I've been are all about vibes and the right support - participants want their hacks and projects to mean something and to feel good when putting the work in.

I do hope to whoever's reading this to consider these things in mind when planning a hackathon! It's all about the VIBES