Asana for Hackathons

Modified on Tue, 23 Jul at 1:46 PM

"Hackathons are about finding treasure troves that are just around the corner, if only we turned left instead of going straight. To escape local maxima and find non-local much-more-maxima. To see what happens when people build when not deterred. To allow people to expand their sense of self and learn new skills. To unleash everyone's creativity towards their own joy. To expand what Asana is to what it could be: the synthesis of all our imaginations. Experiment. No barriers. Have fun."

Asana's internal document on hackathons

We take time out out of every episode for a company-wide hackathon, and some of Asana’s most loved features have come from this practice. To support hackathons on a meta level, we’ve developed a guide for planning and executing a hackathon with Asana, specifically with student-led hackathons in mind. Large scale events involve a lot of moving parts and Asana is a great tool for staying organized and coordinating with your classmates.

Here are our recommendations for using Asana to plan a hackathon:

1. Create a home for organizing your hackathon

Get started by creating a new Workspace. This Workspace will be your ground zero for all things related to the planning and execution of your hackathon.

2. Delegate responsibility

Invite all the hackathon organizers or volunteers to join your Workspace. Once everyone is in Asana, you’ll be able to start assigning tasks to team members.

3. Simplify repetitive tasks

Import our Hackathon Logistics Template from Templana, which we compiled with the help Readyforce, ChallengePost and hackathon organizers at several universities. This template includes a range of tasks: from finding an event photographer to ordering t-shirts and marketing your event to hackers everywhere--so you won’t have to worry that you overlooked something important. Readyforce has shared their steps for stellar event marketing and creating custom resume books for event sponsors.

4. Organize your work

Use projects to bring more relevant work into Asana. Projects can include a list of company sponsors or be used to create a meeting agenda for hackathon organizers.

5. Create custom forms to manage sponsorship leads or gather information from applicants

Consider using our integration with the online form builder Wufoo or Google Forms to create custom web forms that feed into Asana. Submissions will load directly into an Asana project, and you can sort and view them in line with your other work. It's easy to stay on top of sponsorship leads, for example, if they become actionable tasks in Asana!

6. Plan on the go

Use Asana’s mobile app to stay in the loop or add ideas while you’re on the go. With Asana for iPhone and iPad, you can take your to-do list with you while you’re shopping for supplies or check the status of applicants while you're in between classes.