So the Hackweekend is almost here, the organizers figured that it would be useful to throw together a survival guide of sorts so you know what to expect

What to pack

Your machine but also remember that it’s the small things that make it work. Power cables, mice, your favourite pair of headphones and if you really need it perhaps an additional monitor.

Comfy wear cause you are going to be in it for a little more than 24 hours and we all know there is nothing worse than being stuck in something stuffy. Slippers, shorts and a tees are perfectly acceptable. It gets cold later at night so you might want to pack a sweater or a travel blanket.

Toiletries come in handy for overnight hacking. Leave the soap and shampoo at home and consider packing a tooth brush and some tooth paste. Maybe a facial cleanser and a small towel at most but we think packing light in this department is the order of the day as there won’t be shower spaces provided anyway.

Medication for those of you that have preexisting medical conditions. If there is something that the organizers need to look out for please give us a heads up.

Connection tools should be packed too as you will be meeting a lot of new people, name cards will come in handy, you could alternatively sign up for http://radd.me the contact sharing application and save some trees
What to prepare for

The pitch

Be clear about what you want to hack, the more clear you are the easier it is for people to join your team and move on to make amazing things. Consider framing your “pitch” to the following format :

1. What is the problem i seek to solve
2. My idea on how to solve it
3. What existing talents/ assets I have that would help me do it

Each person is given precisely 60 seconds to pitch an idea at the beginning of hackweekend, no slides just get up on stage and make your case. If you already have a team – you get to go first. Come speak to the organizers if you need to run through your pitch and get comfortable with it.

Then people pick teams they would like to join and hacking starts.

Your Hack

If you spend time looking for the assets that are required to build such as an existing code base that you can fork or creative commons images for that you can use. If you have the time you can already start mocking up your ideas. If you aren’t using your regular machines it is advisable that you prep your development environment loading up your favorite text editors and FTP clients and such.

Some great resources
10 Completely Free Wireframing and Mockup Tools http://bit.ly/vT53kC
Images : http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Starting on the right foot

Make sure to be clear with the rest of the group what are your intentions for the weekend.

1. I am here to build something to moneytize and make millions of monies from , this means after the weekend you are going to want to be involved in this project actively (career change kinda active) and have a stake in this project.
2. I am here to have a little bit of fun and build something cool, as long as I am credited as having helped build it I will be happy, not too interested in getting involved after the weekend. May help if i have the time but if you guys want to go ahead with it you have my blessing/ approval.
3. I am here to build something that is to be made open source and it is my intent that all my work is made freely available to the community based on (Insert appropriate licencing here)

What to expect

Trough out the 24 hours that you are at the hackathon, the following will be provided for

1. Food and drink, with lots of snacks. There might even be beer
2. Internet connectivity (best effort basis). Bringing a backup wont be a bad thing
3. Lots of power sockets
4. A chance to meet and work with lots of amazing people

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