Cristiano Betta has organized over 50 hack days and PayPal ran 11 hack days last year. He argues that hackathons need to move past just being about pizza, beer and building apps, and instead focus on communication, treating hackers as partners not recruits, celebrating effort, and creating happy developers who will evangelize through their work. Hackathons should track outcomes and measure impact to make events matter more.

2. Making your hackathon matter
Cristiano Betta, @cbetta

3. More than 50 hack days

5. Organised more than 15 hack days

6. PayPal ran 11 hack days last year

7. Axes!

8. I’ve had enough of pizza

9. And (non german) beer

10. A manifesto to stop the mediocracy
hackdaymanifesto.com

11. Communication is king

12. An API is a business card

13. A hacker is not a recruit

14. A hack is not an app

15. Your office is a better sponsorship

16. Celebrate the effort

17. Run your own or sponsor?

18. Why at PayPal?

19. Don’t push it

20. Add some class

21. We best learn in silence

22. A happy developer is the best evangelist

23. Track and measure

24. BattleHack.org
Cristiano Betta, @cbetta