As the leading initiative in MENA for learning programming languages in Arabic, the One Million Arab Coders initiative – a Dubai Future Foundation project – needed to use their vast network of coders to act in a very short time frame and come up with tech-based solutions for the Arab world to lessen the challenges caused by COVID-19.
Planning a hackathon has its own specifics, from coming up with the concept, through managing applications, to selecting winners. Keeping a checklist is the simple yet most effective way to close all the gaps in organizing such an event.
One of the reasons why applicants churn from certain programs is the ambiguity related to the application process. Never hearing back from a program can be disappointing, especially if the applicant spent a long time filling in their application form.
Organizing an awards program can be a lot of work, many tasks to manage at the same time, and several stakeholders to communicate with, we feel you! However, if your aim is to increase the quantity and quality of applications received, you will need to add some more tasks to the list!
If you ever managed any kind of a call for applications, you probably know that it goes far beyond building forms and receiving applications. There are a lot more to do than the core tasks of building the program landing page, assigning judges to submissions, communicating with applicants, etc.
The multi-round funnel allows you to break down the applications and judging process into phases, each with a set of requirements based on the progress of participants in the applications funnel.
After the hackathon launch, things get a little intense; you are supposed to handle several tasks such as manage applications, communicate with judges and mentors, moderate the hackathon community, all in parallel.
As a hackathon organizer, you need to orchestrate the entire event,