Written by Ying Ge I 2 min read
If you're curious about what we do and how we can transform your hackathon experience, you're in the right place.
Hackathons have become a powerful platform for innovation, collaboration, and problem-solving. At Onova, we have a decade of experience running global hackathons of all shapes and sizes across diverse industries, from in-person with McDonald's for quick service restaurant and customer experience (28 hours, 600+ participants) and BMO for financial services (30 hours, 250+ participants), to virtual to large-scale hybrid events with HSBC for global banking (4 weeks, 150+ participants) and Capgemini Generative AI applications cross-industry (2 weeks, 1000+ participants).
Skip the story and dive right into the features?
The Challenge of Integrating Multiple Third-Party Services
The status quo for traditional hackathons and innovation events is to integrate multiple third-party providers - each of which reside over a specific domain. Whether it’s for virtual events, team communication, or event information - users typically had to navigate to 3+ apps to get all of the information they needed, which is deterringly frustrating and confusing.
This needed to be better. Designing the best product UI that leaves users saying "wow, it's so user-friendly" has always been our goal from the very start.
We explored dozens of options, yet never found a singular platform that boasted a modern user interface while seamlessly connecting all the elements and components of a hackathon, all while bridging the gap between physical and virtual participants - so we decided to build our own at our internal cottage trip.
Understanding the Different Users
As a product team comprised of serial hackathon organizers and multi-time hackathon winners, we intimately understand the challenges faced by hackers, mentors, judges, and organizers. Earth was designed with a user-centric approach: prioritizing usability, collaboration, and greater innovation.
Hackers want consolidated information, mentors aim to give their best support, judges seek clear judging instructions, and organizers desire a single tool that can do it all.
Spoiler alert: we have built the best hackathon management tool in the industry!
Features: Streamlining Hackathons Like Never Before
Let's dive into the exciting features that set Earth apart from other platforms:
1. Team Formation: Our platform offers a team formation flow, where hackers can browse and create teams even before the event begins, fostering collaboration and synergy right from the start.
2. Project Submission: Our customizable submission process seamlessly integrates with our judging and project gallery features making it easier than ever to showcase innovation.
3. Judging: Inspired by our own pain points, we have developed a comprehensive judging flow that eliminates the need for cumbersome spreadsheets. With the ability to create panels, score projects based on specific criteria using sliders, and easily provide comments on the projects, Earth takes the judging experience to a whole new level.
4. Event Home: This section serves as the central hub for your hackathon. Here, you'll find the schedule, live events, booths, and recordings, all accessible from a single location. Additionally, we have included a helpful toolkit section with all the quick links that organizers can share with participants, ensuring a seamless and engaging event.
5. Admin Dashboard: No organizer's dream workspace is complete without insights, data, and customization options. Our admin dashboard provides a wealth of useful metrics on the overview page, while also granting access to raw data for custom analysis.
Conclusion
These are just a few of our favorite features, and we can't wait to share more with you. Don't just take our word for it, hear from our clients who have successfully used Earth at their global GenAI Hackathon, which attracted over 1000+ hackers.
We're constantly working on exciting new features that aim to make the organizer's experience even smoother, and iterating based on our clients’ feedback. Stay tuned for future updates!
Interested in learning more? Book a 20-minute demo with our team.
