Why (Good) Management Matters
Good management doesn't guarantee a successful hackathon, but neglecting it almost guarantees failure. If organizers go silent - no communication, no support, no ongoing promotion - participants lose confidence and momentum. Energy drains from the event, submissions drop off, and sponsors notice.
The live phase is where your preparation of the hackathon gets tested. Unexpected issues will arise, and how you respond defines your hackathon's reputation. Good management also protects your team from burnout. With clear processes in place, you can handle challenges calmly and still have energy for the finish line.
1. Keep Promotion Active Throughout
Marketing shouldn't stop once registration opens. Sustained promotion maintains momentum, attracts late-deciding participants, and builds visibility for your sponsors.
Leverage every channel available: newsletters, social media, and developer communities where your audience gathers. Collaborate with sponsors and partners by providing ready-to-use graphics and copy, and ask them to share through their own channels. A single mention from a well-known sponsor can sometimes outperform a week of your own posting.
Also remember to schedule your pushes strategically. A reminder before registration closes is significant, which catches people who intended to sign up but forgot. Announcing new judges or prizes or organizing new online/offline side events mid-hackathon can also reinvigorate interest.
2. Communicate with Hackers Promptly
Hackers always have questions, and responsive communication is one of the most impactful things you can do. Participants who wait hours for answers lose momentum and may abandon their projects - or worse, never start at all.
Set up dedicated support channels and make them easy to find. Aim to acknowledge questions daily, even if a full answer takes longer. When multiple people ask the same thing, update your FAQ or send an announcement to address it for everyone.
Platforms like DoraHacks provide built-in communication features that help organizers broadcast announcements and keep participants informed without juggling multiple tools. You can chat with hackers via private message, send group messages to specific segments of participants, and use the AI-powered Q&A tool to handle repeated questions automatically. Time saved, energy saved.
If your hackathon spans multiple time zones, consider designating team members to monitor channels during different periods so questions don't pile up overnight.
3. Provide Developer Resources
The resources you provide can make the difference between a completed project and an abandoned one. Share relevant documentation, tutorials, and starter templates. If sponsors offer tools or APIs, ensure their documentation is accessible and participants know how to get support.
Example of developer resources provided in a hackathon
Consider organizing office hours where participants can get help from mentors. Create a space for peer support — a dedicated channel for technical questions often reduces the load on your team while building community.
Monitor for common blockers and address them publicly with workarounds before they derail multiple teams.
4. Monitor Submissions and Stay Patient
Don't wait until the deadline to review what participants are building, but also don't panic if submissions are slow at first. The peak of submissions typically comes in the final week. Hackers need time to build, write documentation, create demos, and polish their work. Many are also balancing other commitments and, like everyone else, tend to procrastinate.
Traffic to a hackathon usually goes like this graph shows.
Keep doing what an organizer should do: promote, communicate, support. Check early submissions to see whether participants understand the requirements. If you notice widespread confusion, clarify your guidelines publicly while there's still time for teams to adjust.
DoraHacks' organizer dashboard lets organizers track submission progress in real time, making it easy to monitor trends without constantly refreshing spreadsheets or chasing updates manually, and more importantly, its AI reviewers can evaluate the submissions you received immediately (including its Github repo and its description) and give in-depth feedback, which saves your time identifying the real good hackers.
AI reviews in a real hackathon on DoraHacks (Available for Premium Organizers)
5. Manage Time and Keep Everyone Aligned
Establish a schedule for your team that covers critical hours without exhausting anyone. Rotate responsibilities and build in breaks, especially for multi-day events.
When timeline changes become necessary, communicate them quickly and clearly. Participants plan around your announced deadlines, and last-minute changes without notice create frustration. Do keep them updated.
Keep your team aligned through brief, regular syncs. Prepare for crunch periods — the final hours before submission deadlines typically see the highest activity. Reserve enough energy to handle these well.
An example of Reminders to hackers
Using a centralized platform like DoraHacks helps keep your team on the same page by consolidating submissions, participant communication, and event settings in one place, reducing coordination overhead and freeing up time for higher-value work.
6. Maintain Energy and Engagement
Long hackathons can possibly lose momentum in the middle. Share progress updates and celebrate milestones to remind participants they're part of something bigger. Consider hosting mid-event activities like AMAs, workshops, or casual social sessions.
Encourage participants to share work-in-progress on social media. Watch for signs of drop-off and send encouraging messages when needed, but balance engagement with respect for participants' focus time. Communicate early if you find high-quality projects joining early, because they could be an important builder in your community, especially if you’re building a new ecosystem or technology.
About DoraHacks
DoraHacks is the leading global hackathon community and open source developer incentive platform. DoraHacks provides toolkits for anyone to organize hackathons and fund early-stage ecosystem startups.
DoraHacks creates a global hacker movement in Web3, AI, Quantum Computing and Space Tech. So far, more than 30,000 startup teams from the DoraHacks community have received over $300M in funding, and a large number of open source communities, companies and tech ecosystems are actively using DoraHacks together with its BUIDL AI capabilities for organizing hackathons and funding open source initiatives.
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