Part 2: Guiding the Hackathon in Full Swing – Coaching, Momentum, and Focus
Keeping Energy High, Teams Focused, and Projects Moving—Your Playbook for Guiding an AI Hackathon to Success
In Part 1 of this series, I covered how to set the stage for a successful AI-focused hackathon, from defining challenges and integrating business/customer discovery goals into the format. Now that the event is live, as the facilitator and innovation lead, my role shifts to ensuring the hackathon runs smoothly and that teams remain productive and impact-focused. In this post, I’ll share how I facilitate and coach teams during the hackathon, maintain energy levels, support both technical and business progress, and keep momentum high through to the final pitches. I’ll also compare approaches for hackathons of different lengths (one-day sprints vs. multi-day vs. month-long “tournament” hacks) to highlight what execution looks like in each format.
Facilitating the Event: Setting the Tone and Pace
Once the hackathon begins, strong facilitation is crucial. I start by reiterating the challenge and objectives so everyone is clear on the problem we’re here to solve. A common pitfall is an unclear challenge that causes teams to drift or stall, so I ensure the scope is realistic for the time available. With objectives set, I establish communication channels that will run throughout the event. For example, we utilize a dedicated Slack, Discord, or Teams channel with separate channels for announcements, mentor Q&A, and general chat, enabling participants to quickly obtain help and stay informed.
I serve as the MC and timekeeper, announcing key milestones, deadlines, and reminders. Regular time checks (“4 hours left in the hack!”) help teams manage their work and not get caught off guard by a looming deadline. As we near the finish, I remind teams to allocate time to prepare their final demos/pitches, not just code until the last second. Often, I’ll schedule a brief “last call” workshop or drop-in session where teams can practice their pitch in front of mentors or organizers, getting feedback on delivery and ensuring they’ve assigned who will speak.
Throughout the hackathon, I roam the room (or jump between virtual breakout rooms) to take the pulse of each team. The goal is not to micromanage, but to be available – answering logistical questions, resolving any technical resource issues, and gauging morale. If I notice a team going in an unproductive direction or stuck on a decision, I might gently nudge them to refocus on their core problem or simplify their scope. My facilitation philosophy is to keep things fast-paced but structured: providing just enough process to prevent chaos without dampening the creative energy. In practice, that means having a visible schedule, clear rules, and accessible support, while still giving teams autonomy to work in their own style.
Checklist: Key Facilitator Tasks During the Hack (for myself and co-organizers):
Keep communication flowing: Post frequent updates in the event chat (schedule reminders, tips, encouragement) and encourage teams to share mini-updates or challenges.
Maintain a conducive space: Ensure teams have what they need – power, Wi-Fi, snacks, whiteboards – and quickly troubleshoot any venue or technology issues.
Enforce timing gently: Give advance warnings for checkpoints (e.g. “Mentor round in 10 minutes”) and final submissions, so no one is surprised by deadlines.
Foster a positive atmosphere: Stay upbeat and visible. If the room (or video call) is too quiet, play some light music or initiate a quick stretch break to keep energy up.
Be the problem-solver: If any conflicts or roadblocks arise, address them immediately – whether it’s a team dynamic issue, a broken dataset link, or confusion about rules. My job is to clear obstacles so teams can focus on hacking.
By actively facilitating in this way, I help teams stay organized and motivated from the first hour to the final presentations. Next, let’s talk about the role of mentors and coaches in more depth, since they are my allies in keeping momentum and providing guidance on the ground.
Coaching and Mentorship: Hands-On Support for Teams
During the hackathon, mentors or coaches are invaluable for accelerating team progress and ensuring quality outcomes. In fact, one of the biggest reasons hackathons falter is poor mentorship – teams left without guidance or given bad advice that derails them. To avoid that, I recruit experienced mentors (both technical experts and business/domain experts) and brief them on how to effectively coach our teams. Whether we assign one “vertical” mentor per team or use a pool of mentors “horizontal” across teams, we make sure every team has ample access to coaching.
I emphasize a mentor approach that is supportive, not controlling. As a mentor myself in past events, I’ve learned that our job is to empower teams to find their own solutions, not to hand them a solution on a platter. Below is a checklist I share with mentors at the start of the hackathon:
Check in regularly, but don’t hover. Aim to touch base with your team at least twice a day (or more for a short hack) to monitor progress and morale. Participants feel supported when mentors show interest, but be careful not to micromanage or constantly interrupt their flow.
Keep teams goal-oriented. Early on, clarify what the team aims to deliver by the end – a working prototype, a slide deck, or a demo? Ensure they know the end goal and format (e.g. “Will you need slides for the final pitch?”). If they start drifting or chasing nice-to-have features, gently steer them back toward the core requirements and deadline.
Facilitate collaboration and roles. Especially in newly formed teams, mentors can help members define their roles and tasks. Make sure everyone has a contribution and that critical roles (like who will present the pitch) are assigned early. This prevents last-minute scrambles.
Ask questions instead of giving answers. Great mentors guide by asking probing questions: “How do you imagine the user will interact with this feature?” or “What assumptions have you made about the customer?” By asking rather than telling, you prompt the team to think critically and come up with their own answers. Avoid the temptation to solve the problem for them – you’re a coach, not the project lead.
Encourage, don’t judge. Maintain a positive, encouraging tone at all times. Even if a team’s idea seems off-track or unrealistic, don’t dismiss it outright. As one hackathon mentor guide puts it: never tell them “this idea is bad,” or you’ll shut down their creativity. Instead, highlight what’s working and ask how they arrived at their concept, guiding them to refine it. Be a cheerleader for progress – celebrate small wins and efforts. A few words of praise (“You made a ton of progress since this morning – great job”) can boost a tired team’s confidence.
Be available and present. Let your team know how to reach you at any time (in-person or via chat). If an issue arises at 2 AM in an overnight hack, ideally a mentor or organizer is on-call. We’ve learned not to leave teams mentor-less even during “off hours” – one company found that pausing mentorship overnight left participants stranded on problems. So we schedule mentors in shifts. At the same time, if a team is deep in concentration and doing fine, give them space. Use judgment to know when to step in and when to step back.
As the event organizer, I also rotate among teams in a coaching capacity. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes from a mentor can help a team get unstuck on a technical challenge or rethink a flawed approach, for example, showing them how another organization solved a similar issue. Other times, coaching is about maintaining momentum: if I see a team losing steam after a prototype fails, I’ll encourage them to regroup, maybe pivot their idea slightly, and remind them why their project mattered in the first place. The combination of technical guidance, business coaching, and emotional encouragement from mentors is often the difference between teams floundering or reaching the finish line strong. In short, good mentorship fuels momentum – it keeps teams focused, confident, and moving forward.
Maintaining Energy and Engagement Throughout the Hack
Hackathons are intensive by nature, and fatigue can become a real enemy, especially in multi-day marathons. Part of my job is managing the energy of the room and keeping enthusiasm up from start to finish. This starts with the basics: providing food, rest, and fun, and continues with fostering a supportive community spirit.
First, we attend to the physical needs. I ensure there are healthy food options, snacks, and plenty of water and coffee readily available. It’s tempting to just order pizzas and energy drinks, but a sugar-caffeine diet can lead to crashes. We offer fruits, protein bars, and other brain-fuel snacks alongside the pizza. For overnight hackathons, I designate a quiet corner or room with some bean bags for participants to take power naps – it’s unrealistic (and unhealthy) to expect everyone to code 48 hours straight. Encouraging teams to sleep in shifts if needed and to take short breaks actually improves overall output. As much as hackathon culture jokes that “sleep is for the weak,” I remind everyone that fresh minds solve problems faster.
To keep the mental energy high, I sprinkle in moments of gamification and camaraderie. For example, mid-event we might run a silly contest or mini-game: I’ve done a late-night “meme contest” where teams post a funny photo of their hackathon experience (one popular theme: “How sleeping is for the weak” 😂) and give a small prize for the best one. We also encourage teams to share updates or breakthroughs on the event chat – when one team posts a screenshot of a milestone, others often get a motivational boost. Little interventions like trivia quizzes, stretch breaks with music, or a quick “show-and-tell” of interim progress can re-energize participants during lulls. One pro tip: plan for the post-lunch dip on longer days – scheduling a brief, interactive session (like a mentor Q&A panel or an icebreaker activity) in the early afternoon can combat the natural energy slump.
Maintaining focus is just as important as maintaining energy. With AI hackathons, teams can get sucked down technical rabbit holes or spend hours tweaking a model that isn’t core to the demo. I coach teams to prioritize the must-have features or validations first. Sometimes we set interim deadlines (e.g. “By 5 PM, have a basic demo running – no matter how rough”) to create a sense of urgency and prevent procrastination on polish that can come later. This helps avoid the scenario of teams coding all night only to realize on demo day that their product isn’t functional. By enforcing a rough internal schedule (ideation → prototyping → refining → presentation prep), we keep everyone on track.
Another aspect of sustaining momentum is fostering a collaborative, not cutthroat, atmosphere. Even if prizes are at stake, I emphasize that we’re here to learn and build, not just to win. We encourage cross-pollination between teams – if one team has a surplus of pizza, or a cool API tip, sharing with others builds goodwill. A culture of openness makes the event more enjoyable for everyone and lessens stress. Hackathons thrive on high energy and low fear: participants should feel safe to take risks and fail fast without judgment. As the leader, I model this by celebrating experiments (even those that don’t fully succeed) and keeping the tone positive. If tensions rise or someone gets overly competitive, I’ll intervene to refocus on the bigger picture of innovation and teamwork.
In summary, momentum is not just about speed – it’s about sustaining positive energy and clear focus. Through smart scheduling (with breaks and fun included), attentive observation of team well-being, and a culture of mutual support, we maintain an environment that enables people to do their best creative work throughout the hackathon event.
Balancing Technical Progress with Business Focus
One unique aspect of our hackathons is the integration of business model iteration and customer discovery alongside technical development. It’s easy for hackathon teams to concentrate only on coding the solution and neglect the question of who it’s for and how it will succeed as a product. I make it a priority during the event to support both the technical and business tracks of each project.
On the technical side, support means ensuring teams have the tools and resources required to build AI solutions under time pressure. Before the hackathon, we assembled resources like cloud credits, datasets, and APIs that teams might need, based on their project pitches. During the event, I keep technical mentors (AI engineers, data scientists) on standby to help with gnarly issues – whether it’s a bug in a Python script, an API authentication problem, or a question about a machine learning model. We set up an “Ask a Mentor” channel (or a physical table) where participants can quickly get unstuck on coding problems. This prevents teams from losing hours on a technical dead-end that an expert could resolve in minutes. It’s also important to encourage pragmatism in technical choices: I remind teams that done is better than perfect in a hackathon. For instance, if a custom model isn’t converging, maybe use a pre-trained model or even a rule-based approach as a placeholder to demonstrate the concept. Technical ambition has to be balanced with the time constraints.
Meanwhile, on the business progress side, we embed processes to keep teams thinking about viability, users, and value, not just cool tech. Early in the hack, I often ask each team to articulate their business hypothesis: Who is the user? What problem are we solving for them? How might this solution make money or sustain itself? As the event runs, I prompt teams to iterate on their business model just as they iterate on code. For example, after building a prototype, they should revisit their assumptions: “Now that you’ve demoed the AI, does it change how you might charge for this service or who your real customer is?” I’ve seen hackathon teams completely pivot their target market mid-event due to mentor feedback, and that’s a good thing, because they discovered a more promising application.
We also encourage some level of customer discovery even within the hackathon’s short timeframe. In a 3-5 day hackathon (or anything longer), I push teams to get real-world feedback: literally step out of the building (or jump on social media) to talk to a few potential users about their idea. In startup weekend-style events, teams often say the most time-consuming but crucial task is interviewing people, getting outside the building to validate the problem and solution. Even if you can only talk to three people, those conversations can break echo-chamber assumptions. For AI hacks, a quick user survey or feedback from domain experts can reveal if the AI output is actually useful to the intended user. We sometimes bring in a panel of “proxy customers” (e.g. other employees or partners from the target industry) on Day 2 to hear each team’s concept and ask tough questions. This simulates customer discovery and forces teams to iterate on their business model with evidence, rather than relying on gut feelings.
To support this business mentoring, I include startup coaches or product managers among the mentors. They run rapid sessions on using tools like the Lean Canvas or Value Proposition Canvas to map out the team’s assumptions about customers, revenue, and costs. It doesn’t have to be elaborate – a 30-minute mini-workshop or one-page canvas exercise can bring clarity. The key is that by the final pitch, teams have not only a tech demo, but also a story of the business value and market validation. In fact, our judging criteria explicitly reward things like customer validation, business model, and go-to-market plan, not just technical prowess. This sets the expectation that a winning hackathon project needs a viable path to real impact. Teams will often include slides on their business model and evidence of interest (e.g. “We spoke with 5 potential users, and 4 said they would use this product”) in their final presentations – exactly the outcome we want.
By actively coaching teams on these aspects during the hackathon, we avoid the common fate of hackathon projects that “die on Monday.” Instead, we produce prototypes backed by at least an initial business case and some validation, which makes it far more likely that the ideas can move forward after the event (more on that in Part 3). The balance of tech and business focus also keeps the event grounded: it’s not innovation for innovation’s sake, but tied to real-world impact.
Adapting to Different Hackathon Durations
Not all hackathons are created equal – a one-day blitz is very different from a week-long sprint or a months-long innovation program. I’ve run hacks across the spectrum, and the execution strategies during the event must adjust to the length and format to maintain momentum. Here’s a quick comparison of how I approach single-day vs. multi-day vs. extended hackathons:
As you can see, the execution playbook flexes with the hackathon’s length. In a one-day sprint, it’s all about tight focus and rapid output; in a weekend or week-long hack, you balance speed with some depth (allowing learning and iteration); and in a month-plus tournament, you essentially run a mini-accelerator, with a heavy emphasis on ongoing engagement, education, and iterative development. No matter the length, the core principles remain: facilitate strongly, coach the teams, keep the energy up, and never lose sight of the hackathon’s purpose.
Keeping It Impact-Focused and Fun
During the hackathon, it’s easy for teams to get tunnel vision on building cool tech. My role is to continually pull them back to the central question: “How is this project delivering real impact?” By integrating business model thinking and customer feedback loops into the event, we ensure that even in the frenetic rush of hacking, teams are building solutions that matter – solutions that have a path to implementation, not just a path to a demo. I often tell participants: “Think of this hackathon as more than a coding sprint – it’s a crash course in validating a mini startup.” This mindset keeps them focused on outcomes (a prototype and a plan for it) rather than just features.
At the same time, hackathons should be fun and inspiring. During the event, I try to create a vibe where creativity thrives and people feel safe to innovate boldly. As a facilitator, you set the tone. I speak with enthusiasm, celebrate every bit of progress I see, and even share my own learning moments. (It’s not unusual for me to say, “I just learned about a new AI library from Team X – how cool is that?” to spotlight team achievements and boost morale.) By being genuine, supportive, and passionate, an innovation leader can turn a hackathon from a pressure-cooker competition into a high-energy collaborative adventure.
As we wrap up Part 2, remember that running a successful hackathon in real-time is about orchestration – orchestrating people, time, and resources in a way that maximizes creativity and minimizes friction. We facilitate, coach, cheerlead, and adjust on the fly to keep the momentum going. In Part 3, I’ll discuss what happens after the hackathon: how to capture the outcomes, maintain post-hack momentum, and channel those promising projects and newly energized participants toward lasting impact in the workplace or community. But for now, if you’re in the middle of a hackathon, roll up your sleeves, stay flexible, and keep the focus on learning and impact. You’ll be amazed at what your teams can accomplish under your guidance. Happy hacking!
Sources:
Maciej Ryś, MIT Sloan Management Review – “Avoid These Five Pitfalls at Your Next Hackathon” (on the importance of clear challenges and proper mentoring).
Eventornado Blog – “The Role of Mentors at a Hackathon” (mentoring best practices and tips).
HackMD.io – “Choosing Your Hackathon’s Length” by Peak Shift (pros/cons of different hackathon durations and formats).
Stephanie Leahy, LinkedIn – “Why Everyone should participate in a Startup Weekend or Hackathon” (on integrating business planning and customer validation in hacks).
Hackathon.com Tips – “Keeping Health in Mind at Hackathons” (advice on managing stress, breaks, and final pitch prep).
World of Work – “How To Run A Hackathon” (guidance on hackathon coaches and maintaining momentum).
Eventornado Blog – “5 Tips to Keep Your Hackathon Participants Engaged” (ideas for engagement and gamification during the event).
Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter – Organizing and Running Successful Hackathons (Craft Docs hackathon example, emphasizing preparation of resources like APIs/datasets).