Let’s take a look at the costs involved in organizing a 24-hour hackathon:
- Venue: Should be free of cost if you’re organizing the hackathon as university organizers. Rents for commercial spaces vary as per the city.
- WiFi: Usually comes along with the venue. If not, you’ll need to buy or rent the entire WiFi setup consisting of access points, routers, switches, etc.
- Food: For a hackathon that will start around midday, expect to provide for 5 meals. Average costs in India would be Lunch/Dinner (Rs.150), Breakfast (Rs.70), and High Tea/Midnight Snacks(Rs.50) for a total expense of Rs. 470 per hacker
- Mattresses: A complete set consisting of a mattress, bedsheet, and pillow will cost about Rs.100 to rent in most cities. Aim to get enough to cover for half of the attending hackers.
- Schwag: T-Shirts can be printed for about Rs.250-Rs.300 per piece (we can introduce you to our vendors who can provide high-quality T-shirts at discounted rates) and stickers will cost Rs.20 a piece from Indian vendors such as InkMonk
- Production: These costs include standees, banners, projector rentals for presentation, tables, and chairs if required, etc.
- Travel Reimbursement: If your budget permits you can make it easier for outstation hackers to attend your hackathon by providing reimbursement equivalent to return rail fare from their location location. We suggest offering the average of sleeper and AC fare.
- Prizes: You can either keep cash prizes for the top few hacks or order for cool gadgets and merchandise hackers would love to own. A good time to get these at discounted rates is during the shopping festivals on popular e-commerce platforms.
- Miscellaneous: This will cover everything not included above, like stationery/art supplies for the organizing team and other minor expenses.