The student hackathon organizer's conference.
MLH Hackcon is a conference for hacker community leaders on and off campus from all over the world! Here's your chance to meet our friends from GitHub and hackathon and community organizers just like you.
MLH Hackcon is the official hackathon organizers' conference. It's an opportunity to meet the community, learn from one another, and to tackle the issues that we are facing together. With two full days of workshops, talks, and discussion sessions, new organizers can learn best practices for running a hackathon, and veteran organizers will share their experiences and help guide the next generation.
MLH Hackcon features talks, workshops, discussions, and activities with Hacker community experts. You’ll learn a lot whether this is your first hackathon or you’ve been organizing hackathons since the beginning!
Here's what organizers & our previous sponsors had to say about MLH Hackcon
One of the most powerful impressions that persisted after my first Hackcon was a feeling of community. At Hackcon III, I was surrounded by organizers, whom I bonded with over a shared passion of painting a profound experience for hackathon enthusiasts. I left with a frantic desire to take what I learned to improve HackHolyoke and help build a community around hackers, which led me to becoming a part of the Hackcon IV organizing team.
Hackcon is the reason I started organising my first hackathon. The sense of community between hackathon organisers that is demonstrated at Hackcon made me feel really comfortable about organising an event, as I felt I could ask anyone about their own experiences. Additionally, the incredible lineup of speakers left me with ample knowledge to start up my first hackathon.
Hackcon gave me invaluable insights on what should and should not be happening in the process of starting up a hackathon. I also found the experience of building community to be one of the most important parts of the whole hackathon scene, and Hackcon allowed me to feel comfortable meeting and developing relationships with people. I did not feel ostracized or uncomfortable being around so many people in the industry - I felt safe being who I was, something I don't normally feel at other similar events.
Hackcon has helped catapult us into this community. Last year we had a presence at 20+ hackathons reaching over 10,000 student hackers and makers, and that’s all because of the genuine relationships and friendships we built at Hackcon.
Hackcon has, by far, given us our best return on sponsorships to date. We’ve received just over $250,000 in new business, and several referrals are still coming our way from each month from partnering with MLH.
