I think people like the idea of a hackathon because it sounds innovative. For the same reason- organizations are in favor. Planning a successful hackathon, however, is not that simple, and things get even more complicated when you turn virtual.
Hackathons involve long hours of brainstorming, thinking, and working in some unordinary way to achieve unordinary results. However, the long hours and the unstructured process we are used to in such events are risky because people can get tired, and after all the work, we can end with poor results.
So we add spices and semi-structure.
Spices may include gamification, eating together, and an environment of a happening.
In our first global Knowledge Management Global Network HacKMthon to take place on October 12th (yes- it is almost here)- we have included it all in our plans:
A semi-structured 8 hours journey based on a design thinking model;
mixed physical and virtual environments;
pizza at the same time worldwide;
Fun decoration;
radical KM activities spread out to foster creativity and fun;
brain games as takeaways;
and much more.
Again- the new KM is (also) about mixing opposites, so we invested a lot of these opposite components in our plan.
At the end of the day, we hope to accomplish new understandings and the beginning of solutions and, at the same time, have people go home with a WOW feeling.
Everything is ready; waiting to start, hoping to succeed.
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