Organizing a Data-Centric Hackathon

Around this time last year, one of my co-organizers of the Vancouver chapter of RLadies brought forward the idea of hosting a data-centric hackathon. Many members of our group had participated in hackathons, but we didn’t have much experience in organizing an event of this scale. In addition, we knew we wanted our event to be a little different from other hackathons in that it would highlight data science projects and cater to participants of all skill levels. Little did we know, we’d be pivoting the event for online participation during a pandemic. In this post, I share a few lessons learned from organizing the Vancouver Datajam.

What’s a Datajam?

The Vancouver Datajam is a virtual one-day, hackathon-like event where participants can develop their coding skills and meet other members of the community. The event was organized by members of several gender inclusive Vancouver-based data-oriented coding groups including RLadies, PyLadies, Women in Data Science, Women TechMakers and SFU Scientific Programming Group. The Datajam was designed to benefit first-time hackers, data scientists, and gender minorities in tech. The event consists of an evening of optional workshops, followed by a day long hack where hackers exercise what they’ve learned in teams. Our projects range from data analysis and visualization to machine learning and app development. Our aim is to foster a beginner-friendly environment and to increase the visibility of femme-identified individuals, WoC and gender minorities in the fields of data science and technology.

Projects with Purpose

Coming up with a meaningful project is one of the most time-intensive parts of a hackathon. For the Datajam, the organizers chose to develop project prompts with accompanying data beforehand, that were then passed off to team leads to draft a project workflow. Partnering with the Ocean Wise Plastics Lab, the theme for the 2020 Datajam was “hack for a plastic waste free future.” Each of our projects touched on this theme, utilizing data such as shoreline cleanup records or citizen science plastic litter data. We were fortunate to have subject matter experts in the areas of marine ecology and microplastics research to support many of our teams. In developing these project prompts, I found that working with local experts in the field, made the process much easier. In turn, team leads and their participants were excited to work on real projects with stakeholders interested in their results. Additionally, we found that a sustainable theme like marine plastics brought a more diverse groups of hackers who were interested in the environmental issue and were not necessarily computer or data scientists.

As any data scientist would tell you, knowing the subject matter is just as important as knowing the data and technical methods. For this reason, we set up a marine plastics help desk, which teams used throughout the hackathon to better understand their data and the end user of their products.

Eliminate Participation Barriers

From my own experience, I know that participating in a hackathon can be intimidating for new coders. Long hours, worrying about not being a strong enough coder, and not having connections to form a team all contribute to this concern. We wanted to make it clear that the Datajam was open to everyone, especially those coming from marginalized backgrounds and gender minorities. For marketing, we utilized our existing networks through local gender inclusive Meetup groups that had already established welcoming communities in our area. Next, we helped build confidence through communicating with individuals who were interested, but unsure of the event, or unsure of what role they should tackle within a team. We encouraged first-time hackers to take on mentorship and team lead roles, and worked with team leadership to make sure they were paired with a team at the skill level they were comfortable leading. Another common barrier for signing up for this kind of event is a lack of existing connections to form a team. To take the burden of team formation off of participants and to encourage making new connections, our organizers formed teams based on participant experience, skills, preferred language, and interest areas.

Get Social, Virtually

With our original event planned for late March 2020, our organizing team was faced with the difficult decision to postpone the Datajam until the fall. As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly worsened, we realized that we were going to need to host the event virtually. Our focus shifted from perfecting the venue and catering to ensuring participants would be able to make meaningful connections virtually. A week before the event, we held an informal virtual networking evening, with five discussion rooms set up around different topics related to data science. Moderators helped guide the discussions, but the event was largely participant led. We found that meeting rooms of around 6-10 individuals made the best environment for good virtual conversation. On the day of the hackathon, teams used chat, regular, and ad-hoc meetings to coordinate and collaborate. Finally, we found Slack to be an excellent tool for socializing leading up to and during the event. Including channels like Introductions, Job Postings, and Jokes all facilitated virtual connections.

Wrap Up

Organizing the Datajam has been an incredibly challenging, but immensely rewarding experience! My top recommendations to someone interested in hosting an event like this would be to plan early, be prepared for all of the details that come with event planning, and make sure you have a reliable team by your side. Throughout this experience, our organizing team found time and time again that having a mixture of backgrounds and expertise on our committee made all the difference for our event. I hope to see the Datajam take place again in Vancouver next year, and would love to see our event inspire similar data focused hackathons.