Local Hack Day is a global hackathon uniting thousands of students. Participants across 100+ distributed campuses are able to connect with their local communities and other hackers around the world through digital workshops & mini-events, social media, and a global livestream.
Bring the magic of Local Hack Day to your community by volunteering to organize it!
Curious about organizing Local Hack Day? Browse some of the most common questions we receive below!
Anybody who wants to bring together their local community of hackers anywhere in the world is welcome to organize an MLH Local Hack Day. Regardless of your experience, Major League Hacking is excited to work with you to celebrate your local community! If you're interested in organizing an event in your city, we would love to hear from you - just sign up and we will reach out with more information.
Not a problem! Anyone can organize a MLH Local Hack Day regardless of your past experience working with MLH. You don’t even need to be a student or have any experience organizing hackathons, or events for that matter!
The requirements to organize an MLH Local Hack Day are:
Organizing an MLH Local Hack Day is really simple. The MLH team will be there to support you every step of the way. You'll be responsible for the following:
Once your application to organize a Local Hack day is approved, you will receive access to a dedicated landing page for your event on the Local Hack Day website where hackers can learn more and register. Leading up to the event, you'll be responsible for getting the word out to hackers in your community so they can attend. To do that, we recommend using the following strategies:
Attending a Local Hack Day is like attending a lightweight version of an overnight hackathon. During the event, hackers will do the following:
Local Hack Day is a global event that spans 7 continents and more cities and countries than we can keep count of. On December 1st, 2018, community leaders around the world will simultaneously organize 12-hour hackathons to bring together hackers and celebrate learning, building, and sharing. Since there is no minimum size for a Local Hack Day, you can select a venue that makes sense for your community's needs. Some Local Hack Days will take place in a local coffee shop, some in a reserved room, and some will even take over entire buildings. Just make sure that you can have people in the space from 9am to 9pm local time on December 1st, 2018 and that attendees will have access to the Internet, power outlets, and a place to sit.
Some other "nice to haves" for your venue are:
Major League Hacking will support and work with you every step of the way to make sure your event is a success! Organizers will have their Local Hack Day event featured on the Local Hack Day website for hackers to view, access to one-on-one mentorship and guidance, and day-of goodies for hackers.
Some forms of support MLH provides include:
While most overnight hackathons have sponsors, food, and custom swag, Local Hack Days don’t need those things to be successful. Many Local Hack Day organizers have never planned an event before, so by design Local Hack Day is meant to be easy to put on. If you sign up before the shipping deadline in your region, you’ll receive a box of swag and goodies to give to attendees from MLH and our global Local Hack Day sponsors. We also recommend that hackers bring their own lunch and snacks or order their own food to the venue during the event.
If you want to go above and beyond, you are welcome to secure sponsors for your Local Hack Day and/or order food & custom swag. Any local sponsorship you raise is yours to keep and spend on making your Local Hack Day awesome.
You can sign up to host a Local Hack Day until November 29th at 6pm ET / 10pm UTC. However, if you would like to receive a box of physical goodies from MLH and our sponsors in the mail, you'll need to register and complete your organizer portal forms by the following deadlines:
No! Whether you have a room full of hackers or just a couple of friends, we want people to have fun with their local hacker community, while celebrating with other communities around the world. The average Local Hack Day is about 25 people, but they can be as large as several hundred and as small as just three friends.
We want to make sure that MLH Local Hack Day events create a safe and welcoming environment for attendees and organizers. For this reason the MLH Code of Conduct should be followed throughout the duration of each event.
Don't worry! We're here to support you every step of the way through your organizing journey. Just drop us an email at [email protected] and we'll get back to you within 2 - 3 business days.
