How to run a remote hackathon
A hackathon is a short, fixed window where people build whatever they think is worth building. The point is the projects, and the second point is the people who end up working together for the first time.
On a remote team the build part is easy. Everything around it is not: nobody can see who is still looking for a team, the quiet buzz of a room full of builders turns into a dozen separate calls, and the best ideas are gone the week after. Run it in one place. One channel for the event, one thread per project, walk-in voice rooms for building, and every demo written down where the team will find it again.
The usual way
Remote hackathons often look like this.
- The sign-up sheet. Ideas live in a spreadsheet nobody opens after day one.
- The private calls. Every team starts its own call link. Nobody can drop by, so nobody does.
- The silent middle. Between kickoff and demos there is no sign of who is stuck, who is done, or who needs one more person.
- The vanishing demos. The recording sits in a folder. A month later nobody can say what got built or who built it.
A format for a distributed team
1. Open one channel for the event
Make a channel named for the hackathon and post one message at the top. Same shape every time.
- When: the start, the end, and the time demos begin.
- Theme: one line, or "anything goes".
- Teams: how many people per project, and whether solo is fine.
- Demos: how long each one gets and where they happen.
Pin it. Every question in the first hour is answered by that pin.
2. Give every idea its own thread
Anyone with an idea posts it as a new message in the channel: one sentence on what it is, one on what help it needs. People join by replying in that thread.
Each thread becomes the project's home. Plans, links, screenshots, and "it works" all go there, so anyone can scroll one thread and see where a project stands.
3. Build in walk-in voice rooms
Skip the scheduled calls. A team building together sits in a walk-in voice room and talks while it works. Anyone curious can walk in to ask a question, listen for a minute, or offer a hand, and walk out again.
This is the closest a remote team gets to the noise of a shared room. It is also how a person without a team finds one.
4. Check in halfway
At the midpoint, post "Halfway" in the event channel. Each project replies in its own thread with one line: what works, what is left, and anything it needs from someone else.
That one line is what keeps the middle from going silent.
5. Demo, then write it down
Demos happen in the event's walk-in voice room, one project at a time. After each demo, the team replies in its thread with three lines:
- What it does. One sentence.
- Where it lives. A link to the code, the doc, or the prototype.
- What happens next. Keep going, hand it off, or let it rest.
The demo is the show. The three lines are what the team still has next month.
Make it repeatable
- Keep the pin. The next person running a hackathon copies the format.
- Keep the channel. Archive it instead of deleting it, so past projects stay searchable.
- Follow up on the keepers. A project marked "keep going" gets a real owner and a date in its thread.
- Pair it with demo day. Strong projects make good material for a regular remote demo day.
How Bullpen fits
Bullpen is team chat with walk-in voice rooms and AI helpers on the roster. A hackathon can live in one channel, from the first idea to the last demo.
Every project is a thread. Ideas, plans, and results stay in the event channel, one thread each.
Teams build in walk-in voice rooms. The rooms stay open beside the channel, so dropping in on another team is a click, not an invite.
Wren writes the notes. Wren is an AI helper. In a walk-in voice room, Wren posts notes and action items back to the channel the room belongs to, so what was said during a demo lands next to the project it was about.
Scout finds past projects. Scout is an AI helper on the same roster. Mention Scout and ask what the team built at the last hackathon. Scout answers from what was said and links the message it came from.
Nix keeps the keepers moving. When someone says "I'll turn this into a proper proposal next week", mention Nix in the thread and the reminder arrives in the channel on the day. How to keep track of follow-ups in team chat covers the details.
Try it this week
Make a channel for your next hackathon and pin the four-line announcement above.