Here are a few of my learnings from working with Internet of Things developers at hardware hackathons around the country.

1. Evangelizing Your “Thing”
At Hardware Hackathons
by Rex St. John (@rexstjohn)

2. Rex St. John (@rexstjohn)
Internet of Things Evangelist, Intel

3. I take Intel IoT tech to hackathons and help
developers build hardware projects

4. Why do “things” need
evangelizing?

5. Developers engage like this
(taken at MoDevHack)

6. No one reads at a hackathon
Face-to-Face matters more than ever

7. Evangelists engage developers
We are your ambassadors in the developer community

8. Why do hackathons
matter?

9. Hackathons are now a college sport
(and students are in charge)

10. “1,500 hackathons planned in 2014”
–Vivek Ravisankar (@rvivek)

11. *a non-complete list of sponsors for HackGT, in it’s first year!
Competition for developer attention is
intense

12. Attendence Total Prize Value
MHacks ~1,300 ~$31,000
PennApps X ~1,300 ~$30,000
CalHacks ~1,200 ???
HackGT ~700 ~$60,000+
HackRU ~700 ~$10,000+
DubHacks ~500 (capped) ~$10,000+
HackTX ~500 ???
Attendance is taking off
(a few events we attended this year)

13. Hardware + wearables stand out
Be the first device students learn to hack on

14. Developers cross-pollinate + talk
Students may attend dozens of events before graduating (travel reimbursements)

15. Knowlege transfer

16. Intel® Edison College Roadshow
We took Edison to more than 30 events in the last 6 months

17. Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Developer Success Is The Only Metric
Lesson #1: Developer Success Is The
Only Thing That Matters
Not impressions, conversions, devices distributed etc

18. Lesson #2: “Hackathon ready” is a higher
standard of ready
If your product is “hackathon ready,” then it is ready.

19. Lesson #3: Hackathons are not a
branding exercise
Looks like marketing, smells like marketing, sounds like marketing…not marketing

20. “We traveled 2,000 miles to be here and spent 72 hours for nothing because of you”
Lesson #4: Your device can ruin a team’s
entire event

21. DX
Developer Experience

22. Introducing HDX
Hardware Developer Experience
HDX is synonymous with strong performance at hackathons

23. How do you achieve
HDX?

24. Work backwards from “hackathon
conditions” to your product

25. 8-36 hours to get build a wearable
project with your hardware

26. Power on, Wi-Fi, BLE in less than 10
minutes

27. Expect HTML based login screens, isolation mode to be turned on
Your “thing” must handle bad Wi-Fi
gracefully, be useful regardless

28. BLE is the “hackathon protocol”
BLE goes where Wi-Fi won’t, strongly consider iOS and Android SDKs

29. Start developers 30-50% of the
way to their goal
Sample code and prefabs for common use cases

30. Finished Projects = Happy
Developers
This is the only marketing you need to worry about

31. Tactics and Strategies

32. Ration hardware (conditional loans)
Hardware is for teams who are building, not stuffing in backpacks

33. Set up a supply table
Expect people to show up with nothing

34. Document, share relentlessly
Don’t let your success disappear down the “memory hole”

35. Tell stories about your product
Be prepared to inspire developers with ideas

36. Final thought

37. Developer Success = Your Success
Developer success is the only metric

38. More Reading
• So Many Platforms, So Few Developers
• http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/06/so-many-
platforms-so-few-developers/
• Corporate America, Your Future Engineers Aren’t
Attending Career Fairs Anymore
• http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/11/corporate-
america-your-future-engineers-arent-attending-
career-fairs-anymore/
• Venture money flows into hardware startups
• http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240
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