- Marketing to more students
- 1st year courses
- Non-STEM majors
- School clubs
- Campus ambassadors program to outreach to different schools (community colleges, high schools etc.)
- Cross promote with neighbouring hackathons
- Advertise event as beginners friendly!
- Different school’s Facebook groups
- Diverse representation on media and pictures
- Make sure hackathon website is accessible (screen-readers friendly, high contrast)
- Share testimonials on website / social media to recruit more diverse participants ( testimonials from beginners, people from underrepresented groups etc.)
- Have checkbox in application to automatically be placed in a team
- Instead of asking “What project have you built in the past” in application, instead ask “Why do you want to attend” so hackers without experience can still apply
- Ask hackers questions about diversity / inclusivity in application
- Hygiene products in restrooms
- Accessible venues (elevators, ramps, different sized rooms for different types of working styles etc.)
- Sleeping and washroom amenities for all genders
- Prayer / meditation / quiet room
- Diverse organizing team
- Consider having hackathon theme to align with hackathon’s goals
- Partner with different inclusive communities / organizations (Girls Who Code, Unloop, Spanish Club etc.)
- Have option to reimburse students before flight ticket purchase
- Team formation for participants before and during event
- Pronoun stickers / field in name badge
- Posting slides / script for participants who struggle with following content during the ceremonies / workshops etc (people with visual / hearing disabilities)
- Balanced meals for different dietary restrictions
- Break down meals so participants and mix and match for dietary restrictions (ie. rather than having already made burgers- put out buns, patties, cheese, condiments etc. separately)
- Send out post-hackathon survey to continuously make hackathon better for everyone!
- Pre-event workshops, info-sessions, speed mentoring etc.
- Diverse workshop hosts, judges, mentors, recruiters (different roles, disciplines, gender, companies etc.)
- Workshops for participants of different levels
- Holistic judging rubric, share with judges what to focus on and what we celebrate as a hackathon
- Have different tracks at hackathon (ie. beginners, intermediate) so it levels playing field for prizes
- Increase number of prize categories for different types of hacks (ie. best hardware, best software, best design, best beginner’s hack, other more lighthearted prizes that makes prizes less competitive for beginners)