I've done several hackathons (DayOfMobile, iPadDevCamp) and have been involved in judging and organizing several others (SocialDevCamp, Google Android Eco Chall

I've done several hackathons (DayOfMobile, iPadDevCamp) and have been involved in judging and organizing several others (SocialDevCamp, Google Android Eco Challenge Hackathon, I can't remember) Hit the ground running If you already have a team and an idea, one thing you want to do is hit the ground running. By that I mean, your project environment should be set up, version control, templates etc. If you are wasting time downloading and installing software that the rest of the team uses, that is all wasted time. Clear division of labor and expectations Nothing is worse than working on the same thing or overlapping things in a hackathon because you just don't have time. Also, make sure you are in agreement as to what the end points will look like. If someone's working on the backend and returning data, make sure that the UI developer is expecting the right payload etc. A good discussion upfront instead of just coding right away will take care of that. As organizer stuff you want to think about: Make sure you have decent internet connectivity. Power strips. Food - pizza and redbull type stuff Comfy furniture - I don't particularly like sitting at a desk hacking for 12+hours. I might want to sit on a couch or a beanie bag. Maybe music. I think getting people to cover the hackathon while it's going on is also a good idea. Usually hackathons only get the spotlight when the developers emerge from the cocoon to present. I think its great when you have people from the event taking their flip cam and going around talking to hackers asking what they are doing and just to see the process. As a judge I'm always more impressed when things work. I've seen entries where it's mostly a mockup or screenshots with no working tech. I've also seen working tech with no UI. Obviously the more you can show, the better.