After years of participating in hackathons, you’ve decided to enter the fray and organize your very first one. Congratulations! For 24- or 48-hours, developers, designers, product managers, and entrepreneurs will come together to develop new skills and build valuable professional and personal relationships in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. We’ve seen former participants get career opportunities after these events. 

So now that you’ve gotten to the “I want to start my own Hackathon” moment, now comes the fun part: putting it all together. Here are a few steps to consider as you prepare to see your dream of creating your hackathon come to life.  

1. Plan your date and location
   Before you do anything, you’ll need to pick a date and location that work for your target audience. Choose a venue with good infrastructure (enough space to accommodate participants, plenty of power outlets, good lighting, breakout or quiet areas, etc.). If you decide to have a Hackathon that’s virtual or hybrid, make sure you’ve chosen a platform and format so your audience knows what to expect.
   
   Once your date and location are locked in, you should start spreading the word about your hackathon to potential participants. Share the date on your social media channels, create social media accounts for the name of your hackathon, and make sure your event is registered on event pages for local schools and developer organizations like Major League Hacking. The sooner you start building out promotion, the sooner your hackathon will gain momentum.

2. Preparation
   Now that you’ve secured your date and venue, it’s time to move into preparation mode. This may include logistics, registration, promotion, and ensuring the foundational infrastructure is stable. Make sure things like Wi-Fi/back-end tech are ready to go (because any lags or outages can kill momentum).
   
   As I said in step one, set up registration and RSVP tracking so you know how many participants to expect, what skills they’re offering, and what they’ll need to bring to the hackathon itself.
   An additional tip: to avoid any mishaps during the event, it’s best to create a run-of-show and have a contingency plan (for tech failures, schedule delays, etc.)

3. Event execution
   When the day (or weekend) of your hackathon arrives, execution is everything. Your final preparations should include setting up the space, testing the Wi-Fi / AV, briefing your team on check-in, and judging. Having a timeline from 1 week before, 1 day before, and game-day checklists will be vital. You’ve rehearsed this so many times; this list will serve as that guide. 
   
   Kick-off: Start off by welcoming participants. They’re heading into an unfamiliar place for 24 or 48 hours, so warming them up will smooth over any worries they might have. Then, you should explain the goals and rules, introduce mentors/judges, and start forming teams. During the hackathon, ensure mentors are available, teams are aware of key milestones, and that you monitor progress and morale (food breaks, short updates, and encouragement are all important to everyone).
   
   Then, when time is up, it’s on to demos, judging, and announcing the winner. Judges should have a clear criterion for the categories they’re judging (innovation, business value, technical implementation, or presentation), and the closing ceremony is an opportunity to celebrate results.
   
   Throughout the hackathon, make sure you have some recording of the entire event, including the pitch demos. Consider live-share on social media like Instagram and X if relevant (or allowed to). If so, ensure that participants sign a waiver when they RSVP to the hackathon, and capture the energy of the event. 

4. Post-event
   Now that the hackathon is officially done, the work isn’t over. The post-event phase is important for sustaining momentum. Right off the bat, send thank-you notes to all the participants, mentors, sponsors, volunteers, and judges for the time they invested in the event. Include a link to a survey for feedback: what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d like next time. This builds rapport and goodwill for future events. While doing this, review the content from the event (blog post, recap email, photos/videos of the projects and winners) and start posting on your hackathon’s social media channels. This will keep the event freshly top-of-mind for not only those who took part in the event, but those who wished they could have been there.
   
   If some project ideas have potential beyond the hackathon, consider next steps (e.g., further development, incubation, or showcasing). That turns a hackathon from just a weekend into a pipeline for innovation.

5. Reflect and iterate
   This final step is applicable for any hackathon: reflect on what you’ve learned, review your metrics (number of participants, projects completed, feedback ratings, media/social reach), and identify areas for improvement for next time. Documenting what worked and didn’t is a positive reflection that will help you scale up or refine your next hackathon.

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Major League Hacking (MLH) is excited to announce a new initiative to expand access to blockchain education and hands-on learning for next-gen developers worldwide, with a focus on Solana, the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystem.

We’re creating new ways for students and next-gen developers to learn, build, and explore the future of decentralized technology. As of December 2025, Solana will debut at MLH hackathons across the world, offering participants hands-on opportunities to experiment with blockchain development. Through workshops, technical challenges, and mentorship, developers will be able to gain practical experience building on Solana in a supportive environment designed for learning-by-doing.

Learning by Doing, Supported by Solana Technology

At MLH, our mission has always been to help developers learn by doing. This initiative builds directly on that philosophy by giving students access to the tools, resources, and guidance they need to turn ideas into real, deployable projects.

Solana’s debut at MLH hackathons represents more than a new track. It’s an invitation for student developers to join an active, global ecosystem. By bringing Solana technology directly into hackathon environments, we’re helping hackers take their first steps into blockchain development with the tools and mentorship to succeed.

Building Beyond the Hackathon: The Solana Micro-Grant Program

One of the most exciting parts of this initiative is the launch of the Solana Micro-Grant Program, coming later this year.

Through this initiative, MLH and Solana will award up to 75 developer micro-grants through December 2026, helping promising projects continue long after the hackathon weekend ends. These grants will support a wide range of projects, from developer tooling and educational templates to early-stage startups and public-good infrastructure that strengthen the Solana ecosystem.

In addition to funding, grant recipients will receive mentorship and community exposure, helping them grow their projects and connect with other builders in the Solana network. It’s another way MLH helps ensure that great ideas don’t just start at hackathons; they keep growing.

Expanding Hands-On Blockchain Education

The initiative will also extend to our Fellowship Program, where students will have opportunities to contribute directly to Solana-related open-source projects in place of a traditional internship. This means students won’t just learn how blockchain works. They’ll build real-world software that powers it.

Additional educational support, including workshops, developer challenges, and learning content, will help participants understand key concepts in Solana program development, payments, and AI.

A Global Opportunity for Builders

While the initial rollout focuses on North America, the initiative will soon expand globally through initiatives like 100 Days of Solana, an open developer learning challenge that invites hackers from around the world to explore blockchain development together.

This aligns with MLH’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion in tech. Our community already spans over one million student developers across 98 countries, and with Solana’s involvement, even more hackers will have access to cutting-edge tools, mentorship, and funding opportunities.

What This Means for the MLH Community

This initiative represents a natural evolution of MLH’s mission: to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world experience. By integrating Solana’s technology and developer ecosystem into MLH programs, we’re helping next-gen developers gain future-ready skills and the confidence to apply them in meaningful ways.

Get Involved

Want to start building on Solana at your next hackathon? Check out upcoming MLH events at mlh.io/events, and keep an eye out for the launch of the Solana Micro-Grant Program later this year.

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We are thrilled to announce a new partnership between Major League Hacking (MLH) and Google Cloud. Over 3 years, we will be integrating Google Cloud’s latest Gemini models across our network of more than 4,000 community chapters with the goal of fostering a new generation of engineers who see AI as an integral part of their creative toolbox. We know competition is intensifying between AI platforms and that developer mindshare matters more than ever. Our own data shows Google Cloud’s Gemini models are experiencing the fastest growth in actual usage among next-gen developers, suggesting hands-on experience drives adoption more effectively than brand awareness alone.

How Major League Hacking & Google Cloud’s Gemini Will Work Together

We’re excited to start integrating Google’s Gemini models into MLH’s network of engineers, where 1 in 3 Computer Science grads each year are members of the MLH Community. It’s a central tenet of MLH that we understand real learning rarely takes place in a classroom–it takes place on the ground, in real situations where you learn to code and build, and create new things with the latest tools. Having these models at your fingertips will make MLH community members more equipped to build for the future.

While there is a three-phase plan in place to reach as many of our members as we can, the adoption of these AI models will take time to fully deploy. In Phase One, we will feature the models at 250+ MLH hackathons through dedicated prizes, workshops, and developer resources. Phase Two will amplify this initial utilization of the models with conferences and custom coding challenges so that more engineers are able to work directly with the models in real time. In Phase Three, Google’s Gemini models will be embedded into daily programming activities through local chapter meetups and hack nights.

It is our hope that we will be able to move through the phases of this plan in a way that gets Google’s Gemini models into the hands of engineers swiftly so that our communities can grow even as the technology becomes more and more advanced.

AI Model Exposure Builds Engineers of the Future

MLH is dedicated to creating educational opportunities for software creators and engineers at all levels of the learning experience. We know AI is already transforming software development, and early exposure to AI platforms during university years increasingly determines which tools developers will adopt throughout their careers.

We also know that diversity in engineering sectors matters. Exposing MLH’s diverse tech education community to these tools early is vital to ensuring the pipeline to professional software development remains as diverse as software users are. With nearly 50% of the MLH community identifying as non-male and two-thirds as people of color – significantly more diverse than traditional Computer Science programs – we are uniquely positioned to have an outsized effect on driving diversity in the industry. And our members span 93 countries, giving this partnership and Google’s Gemini models global reach among emerging developers.

MLH communities are passionate and driven to excellence. We can’t wait to see what our local chapters use Google Gemini models to build in the coming months and years. If you’re looking for a local instance of Major League Hacking, explore our upcoming hackathons and join us!

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