Are you getting excited yet?
The 2017 edition of our VMworld Hackathon in Las Vegas this coming Monday is sold out (we may release a handful of additional seats the day of the event).
The 15 team slots have all been claimed by now, and more than half of them are already fully staffed.
As William Lam pointed out on the latest episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast (“Episode 55: Automate all the things”, starts from minute 14:52), we’re seeing a great deal of diversity in terms of products: between all the different teams, we’ll be exploring topics not just reated to vSphere, but also storage, networking, vRealize, CNA, SaaS – a little bit of everything, which is exactly what we had hoped for (again).
If you were lucky enough to score a ticket – whether as an active participant or as a guest in the audience – please find below some important logistical information.
We ask you to please review this information carefully and prepare for the event accordingly. Due to some of the changes we’re making this year (the added pre-hackathon training sessions, the 100% increase in the number of teams), we will be operating on a relatively tight schedule. The more everyone can arrive at the event fully informed and fully prepared, the better the experience will be for everyone. Thanks in advance!
We will be adding to this blog post as more last-minute details become available, so make sure to check back for updates over the weekend to find out where things stand.
Slack
We will use Slack as our main communications tool before, during and after the event.
Active participants: your first task will be to make sure you have joined the #vmworld-hackathon channel on our Slack.
If for some reason you’re not a member of the VMware {code} program yet, you will need to sign up first in order to receive your Slack invite.
If you joined VMware {code} before but can’t locate your personal Slack invite, let us know, and we’ll be happy to re-send it.
Schedule
Here’s the agenda for the evening:
| From | To | Duration | Agenda item | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:30pm | 07:45pm | 01:75 | Pre-hackathon training sessions | |
| 07:45pm | 08:00pm | 00:15 | Break | Training attendees will have to switch rooms. |
| 08:00pm | 08:15pm | 00:15 | Welcome & instructions | We’ll get started at 8pm sharp!
As much as possible, we will share information prior to the event. Be on Slack and check this post for updates! |
| 08:15pm | 10:45pm | 02:30 | Team work | |
| 10:45pm | 11:30pm | 00:45 | Pitch presentations | Teams can expect to have around 90 seconds available to present their work and make a convincing case to the judges. |
| 11:30pm | 11:45pm | 00:15 | Announcement of winning team | |
| 11:45pm | Party |
Again, you’ll probably notice that this is rather tight and doesn’t leave a lot of room for getting yourself organized. Please help your team be the most productive it can be and make sure to come fully prepared. Thanks!
Scoring rubric
With our hackathons, we want to emphasize collaboration and learning (and, ultimately, sharing with the community). This is a team effort! Performance will be evaluated against the following five criteria:
- Creativity
- Usefulness
- Presentation/pitch
- Team collaboration
- Fun/learning
Some categories will matter more than others. The exact weighting rules will be revealed at the beginning of the event.
Judges
We have recruited a set of four very excellent people for this job: Meet the judges!
Judging process
Judges will be asked to interact with the teams throughout the evening to understand what problems are being solved and how, assess team collaboration and prepare for the final scoring later in the evening.
In other words, your teams will be evaluated throughout the evening, so it’s not just the pitch presentation that counts.
Prizes
Yes, there will be prizes for the winning team! Full details to be announced shortly (listen to the Virtually Speaking Podcast episode referenced above to skip ahead).
Environment details
Please check out this Github page to find out what you can expect in terms of the development environment.
Internet connection
We will have dedicated in-room wifi. As a courtesy to your fellow hackathon participants, we kindly ask that you please take care of any large downloads beforehand as much as possible. Please coordinate among your teammates prior to the event to minimize the need for last-minute internet usage that might negatively impact the bandwidth available for everyone. Thanks!
Hashtag
The official hashtag is #VMworldHackathon.
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Once again, thanks everyone for signing up and spreading the word. We can’t wait to see you on Monday!
