I've been a participant and an organizer for SW and it's great to hear you're excited enough to prepare for it. Let me try to answer your direct questions firs

I've been a participant and an organizer for SW and it's great to hear you're excited enough to prepare for it. Let me try to answer your direct questions first: Sticking together should be optional unless you've planned to work on something as a group beforehand and are simply using this event as a time to actually build it. I would highly encourage you to keep an open mind, listen to all the projects/people out there, and pitch your own project (each one of you has at least 1 idea I am sure). As far as practice/standardize, it hinges on the first question. Are you trying to build something specific you have pre-planned? Then, yes. If not, don't. Random tips: Have fun. This shouldn't be a (bad) stressful event. You're getting a chance to create something you want to work on. Be inviting towards others and ready to learn. It can be really awkward, especially for the people who go alone, when many people are in groups. Everyone has their ideas, at least hear people out. Everyone can teach you something if you let them. As a programmer, I love working with other talented programmers, I've learned a lot from these kind of events and being stuck in a room with smarter people than myself for 48 hours. It's a great opportunity to learn new languages, tools, processes, and more. Odds are your project is dead on sunday night. Talk with your group beforehand about expectations, code, and what happens afterwards. Sometimes, people want to continue, sometimes people don't. Agree beforehand, it reduces disagreements later.