The Hackathon 5 Scheduler incorporates Brightidea's proven Hackathon methodology to give administrators even greater control over their hackathon events. As with the Initiative Scheduler available for other apps, the Hackathon Scheduler allows Administrators to automate when submission, commenting, and voting start and end and includes enhancements to make it even easier to keep participants informed and engaged throughout the Hackathon event.
Table of Contents
- Overview of the Hackathon Scheduler
- Hackathon Phases
- Scheduled Feature Controls
- Phase Widget and Phase Countdown
- Customizing Phases
Overview of the Hackathon Scheduler
New Hackathons will automatically use the Hackathon Scheduler, which incorporates Phases: periods before, during, and after your Hackathon event.
Based on our proven Brightidea Hackathon methodology, Phases help Administrators organize and manage their events. They also communicate to participants where they are in the event timeline and how much time they have left before the current Phase ends and the next Phase starts.
Phases can also be synced with the Site Home Phase widget.
Hackathon Phases
The scheduler allows Administrators to configure the start and end date and times for the following Phases:
- Plan & Setup: The period during which Administrators and Moderators can configure, customize, and test their event. During this Phase, the event will be accessible to Administrators, Moderators, Analysts, and Evaluators.
- Incubate: The period during which teams can register for the event, submit Ideas for hacking, find teammates for their Ideas, or browse and join other teams. This Phase also grants event access to users included in the Hackathon's General Access list.
- Build/Hack: The Phase where the magic happens! During this period, participants will build and collaborate on their project and prepare their presentations to the event judges.
- Presentation & Judging: At this point, Hackathon teams will present their projects to the judges. Judges can evaluate in real time using Judging Action Items, and then deliberate and decide on winners.
- Recognize: The phase during which the selected winners will be announced. Within this phase, Admins can also direct their users to the Winners page, where they can highlight the winning projects and teams, summarize the event, and thank participants, organizers, and judges.
- Close Out & Review: The wrap-up period for your Hackathon event, when winning projects can be advanced into implementation and the remainder can be archived or saved for future reference.
To schedule a Phase, click on the Phase name on the left or the bar in the calendar.
The start and end date and time can be configured along with reminders, which will be sent Pipeline Admins a specified number of days before the start and end of each Phase.
- Note: All times in the scheduler will be based on the system time zone.
Scheduled Feature Controls
Along with scheduling Phases, the Hackathon Scheduler also allows seamless scheduling of key features and functionality for your event. As with Phases, Admins can configure when each feature will be enabled/disabled during their event.
Access and Registration
- Early Access: Access is granted to the only Early Access list
- Early Registration: Users can register for the event before submission is open, giving Admins an early headcount to better plan the event day-of.
- Registration: The official registration period, which can be scheduled to coincide with submission opening, allows your participants to sign up and submit in a single step.
Submission, Commenting, and Voting
- Submission: The period during which participants can submit Ideas for the Hackathon.
- Commenting: The period during which participants can comment on others' projects.
- Voting: The period when participants can vote on others' projects.
Winners Page and Winners Widget
- Winners Widget: Set the winning status in the Winners widget, and submissions with that status will automatically appear when the Winners widget period starts.
- Winners Page: Configured as part of the Recognize phase, Admins can direct visitors to the Winners page to highlight the winning submissions and summarize the event.
Communications
The Hackathon Scheduler allows Admins to schedule Email Alerts and Blog posts in advance, allowing them to contact participants at important times before, during, and after the Hackathon event.
To schedule a communication, select the Communication field in the Scheduler. A popup will then allow you to choose whether to publish a Blog post draft or send an Email Alert, immediately or later.
You can also create an ad hoc Email Alert directly from the Scheduler by selecting Create New Email Alert.
This will open the Email Alert editor, where a new Email Alert can be created and scheduled.
Phase Widget and Phase Countdown
Along with scheduling Phases and features for a Hackathon event, we've also integrated the Hackathon Scheduler with the Phase widget for the Site Home page, giving Admins a central place to control their event timeline. Phases can also be displayed in a persistent Phase Countdown, keeping participants informed and on track during every part of the event.
Phase Widget
To sync the Hackathon Scheduler with the Phase widget:
- Select Enable scheduler to control phase widget at the bottom of the Scheduler page
- When enabled, the Phases in the Scheduler will automatically display in the Phase widget on the Site Home page.
- This includes Phase name, description, and start and end dates and times
- Changes made to Phases in the Scheduler will automatically be reflected in the Phase widget
- Note: Feature controls such as Submission, Commenting, or Voting can also be configured to display in the Phase widget; by default, these are disabled from showing in the widget.
Phase Countdown
When the Scheduler is synced to the Phase widget, the Phase Countdown can also be added to your Hackathon event site, adding a persistent countdown that displays the current phase and the remaining time. This is particularly important during the Incubation, Build/Hack, and Presentation & Judging phases, when it's vital that participants know how much time is left to submit, build, or present their ideas.
To enable the Phase Countdown:
- On the Site Home page, open the Administrator panel in the bottom left
- Select Show Phase Countdown
- When enabled, in the top right in the navigation bar, the Phase Countdown will display
- This will persist across all Site pages
- Note: This will display the current Phase based on the Phases configured in the Scheduler. If multiple Phases overlap, the countdown will display the last overlapped Phase in the Scheduler. In this example, the Incubate and Build/Hack Phases overlap. Since Build/Hack is the last to end while the Phases are overlapped, the Countdown will display Build/Hack as the current Phase.
Customizing Phases
The Phases displayed in the Phase widget and Phase Countdown can be customized in the Hackathon Scheduler. When configuring a Phase, you can:
- Choose whether to display the Phase in the Phase widget and Phase Countdown
- Customize the Phase name to be displayed in the Phase widget and Phase Countdown
- Add a description to the Phase
- Note: Phase descriptions will display when hovering over the Phase in the Phase widget.
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