Event Planning and Registration

At HackOut.Ninja, we really believe in using best practices.

Planning a hackathon and setting up registration workflows are simplified and customizable with HackOut.Ninja’s tools. As hackathon organizers, we understand how many moving pieces can be involved in knowing what tasks should be done first and how to ensure that your hackathon is ready for scale. As consultants, we also know that every company and organization is unique and each group has its own motivations for creating a hackathon. Sometimes it’s to test new technologies and products. Perhaps the motivation is to gain deeper insight into a target market, and sometimes it’s just to have a good bonding experience with a wonderful learning environment!

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HackOut.Ninja has a set of modular tools for the components of a hackathon that are common and leaves room for scale and customization for everything else. So, whether you have a 10-person, in-person, hackathon that lasts 30 minutes or a 52-week million-dollar virtual hack, we’ve got the tools for you- and they are convenient!

Whether you are new to the world of hackathons or a veteran, you’ll be ready to get your hack situated in less than 10 minutes. Below, you will find a description of some of the main planning and registration features we provide for you.

The FullDash (The Ultimate Hackathon Planning Tool)

The FullDash is the page where all your planning tools exist. Every aspect of planning from managing attendees to adding APIs is indicated by an icon. Clicking on the icon reveals all of the options you have for your hackathon. Considering that there are a lot of pieces to a successful hackathon, the FullDash is a way to organize and condense everything into its own specific component.



Setting Up a Registration Page (Flexibility at Its Finest!)

Every event needs a page where people can learn more about it and register. When it comes to hackathons, attendees further divide into teams, and therefore finding the right registration tools can prove a less than fruitful adventure. Most hackathon organizers eventually settle by using a mixture of tools. Our tool set includes a place for you to set up all the information for your hackathon and customize it to include your colors, logos, images, etc. As for your registrants, you can set your registration experience- whether it’s one-click, application-based, or via Eventbrite. To get started on this look for this icon: .

Aspects of event setup that we cover include:



  • Event Colors, Name, Location, Registration Start & End, Event Start & End, Background Images, Attendee Limits, Social Media Links, Contact Information.
  • Registration Experience- Eventbrite, One-click, Accept Terms and Conditions, Password Protected, Private vs Searchable
  • Setting the Event Agenda- and you can specify whether it’s a deadline item for teams or a general attendee item such as “Lunch Time”
  • Listing Event Sponsors- You can list all of your sponsors and include a link to their websites, descriptions, and logos
  • Event Code of Conduct or Rules- You can add your own rules and/or code of conduct to the site
  • Event Survey and Application Questions – If you want to require registrants to complete an application, you can also create your application questions that can always be edited.
  • Event Tags- if you want your event to be searchable, you can add tags to help describe your event. Options include:
  • Event Challenges- Look for the icon that looks like this: . There, you can add any of the challenges you want your attendees to “hack on”. Note: Challenges are specially crafted topics or ideas by which a team can focus on throughout the duration of your hackathon. Also, challenges are not a required aspect of the hackathon.
  • Managing Attendees and Permissions- Look for this icon: . Usually there are about 11 roles (check out this infographic) present at a hackathon, and they all have specific roles designated throughout a hackathon. You can specify their permissions on a role-basis. You can send invitations for specific roles or upload an excel list of pre-registered attendees (this allows them to bypass our registration workflows altogether). This is also where you can accept, block or view/update attendee information.
  • Managing Teams- All teams have their own dashboards (Learn more about Team Dashboards and Showcasing Team Ideas) allowing them to work from anywhere and constantly stay connected to what’s happening at the event. You can create teams and pre-assign people to the teams or let them organically group into teams (via the live dash. Learn more about the Live dash)


    • Also, just in case you created your own site, we have a button that you can copy and paste into your website so that visitors can still make their way to the registration page.

    "HackOut covers everything you need to plan a successful event.
    They account for event planning from beginning - sponsorship, budgeting, and all the way until after- managing ideas and teams. "


    Budgeting Tool (Best Practices in Spending)

    There are some costs that are simply associated with a hackathon. Food, Prizes, Free Stuff, Logistics, Marketing, etc. Sometimes, it’s hard to determine whether you are in a “good” range and what you should inspect in terms of how much everything really costs. Well, if you can answer three questions, we can auto-generate a budget for you! What are those questions?

    1. How many people are you hosting?
    2. How long is the hackathon?
    3. Are you reimbursing people for travel?

    Our algorithm uses industry best practices for each of the main cost areas in preparing a hackathon and determines what you should expect to pay for each section. (check out our infographic with similar information). A screenshot is below of a common hackathon arrangement.



    Note: Some organization can use these numbers to determine an anticipated tax write-off amount in the case that something is donated (venue, food and/or drink, free stuff).

    Look for this icon to see the ROI of your hackathon: .

    Knowing What to Do Next (Our Best Practices Calendar)

    So, you have the tools to get started, and you have the cost approximations, but perhaps you want to know what you should be doing each day. We have compiled and analyzed what some of the industry standards are- when should you begin marketing, when should you secure a venue, seek sponsorship, etc. As soon as you create an event, we autogenerate the suggested hack planning calendar. You can open each item to see what all is entailed. You can add your own tasks, shifts, and deadlines on this calendar as well. (we have a hackathon planning checklist and general planning timeline here).

    To setup and view your calendar, look for the icon that look like this: .

    Our task management allows you to assign owners, set a category, working period, and due date. Everything is in an easy-to-read calendar.







    Creating an Event

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    Planning a Budget

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    Planning a Hackathon

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    Event Landing Page

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    Planning Tools

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    Event Registration

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