It’s a hackathon – but not as you know it

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I’ve been involved in hackathons for nearly 10 years. From SAS events like SAS Curiosity Cup and SAS Hackathon, where SAS provides the technology space for teams to bring real world business problems and data to investigate with AI and advanced analytics, to events like Melbourne Business School Conference for Business Analytics Datathon, where again SAS provided the technology space and event partners bought the data and challenge. Amazing events that provide teams the opportunity to use cutting edge technology and AI capability and solve very real problems. So you can guess my surprise when a twist of a traditional idea was recently presented to me.

Starting from a different place

I’ve spoken about the SAS / Torrens University partnership before. So it’s no surprise that’s its with Torrens University, where this story begins.

The team at Torrens wanted to run a hackathon. So we sat down and began talking about what it takes.

• You need to start with a challenge
• There has to be data
• Teams need a technology platform to test their challenge hypothesis

But you also need:

• A promotional program to market the hackathon
• Event terms and conditions
• Participant rules & judging criteria
• Enablement and learning pathways
• Rules relating to how you use the hackathon data

It’s a lot and the list goes on. Which means there’s a lot of work that has to be undertaken even before you get to the event. Which is where starting from a different place came from.

What if we created a hackathon event that started with teams being responsible for designing and building everything you need to:

• Market and promote the event
• Solve the real world challenge

So that’s what we decided. That this hackathon event would begin with teams being responsible for the entire event. From inception to execution.

Making it real

It’s a first and we’ve only just begun. So watch this space for more updates. But what I can say so far is, SAS and Torrens University formed an Advisory Group. The group is made up of experts who have run and managed hackathons before. Experts who have run and managed business projects. Domain leads who get technology, data and AI. And mentors and coaches who can guide the teams as they begin their journey.

The idea to think big, start small is being implemented. Starting with the concept – design and build a pilot, use test and learn to validate the event design and execution. And allow for growth and expansion as ideas are proven to work. Enable the teams access to the Advisory Group. Establish a communication cadence. Allow for lessons learnt and guidelines to be shared and share best practices. And to advise the teams to see themselves as consultants and this academic program like a real world business project. Which is why each team is tasked with:

1. A Project Description
   1. Marketing Strategy & Program for a Torrens University Hackathon
   2. Design a Torrens University Hackathon
2. Project Deliverables & Outcomes such as
   1. Promotion & Event Plan
   2. Marketing Collateral (minimum 3 pieces)
   3. Event Page and Registration Page Design (wireframe + user walkflow)
   4. A Requirements Document (BRD with User Stories, OKRs etc)
   5. Data Sets & Repositories  - List & Sources
3. Success metrics
   1. The marketing strategy and plan is such that a Team can implement it. So that the Hackathon is promoted and registrations achieved.
   2. Implementation design. So that the Hackathon can technically run with participants that may have mixed IT, social and business backgrounds with some data analytical experience
4. Timeframes
   1. Actions and outcomes

What Next?

As I said at the beginning of this article this is a very different approach to creating a hackathon event, as the ownership of every step of the way now sits with the student teams. Lets see how we go!