Every hackathon needs a budget. Quite simply, a budget will make sure you don’t run out of money!
To create one, start a spreadsheet and list out your costs. For costs that change depending on the amount of attendees (for example, t-shirts), list a per-person cost & then a total cost (which is the per-person cost multiplied by your expected attendee count).
The three most important categories to budget for are: food, swag & prizes. For food, explore the catering menus of restaurants & fast-food outlets for prices (for breakfasts, take a look at Costco or your local equivalent’s pricing). For swag, take a look at the prices on Sticker Mule & of any local print shop (sidenote: Sticker Mule often sponsors hackathons with swag). And for prizes, select the items you’d like to give out and then look at their prices on their respective retailers.
Not sure where to start? Check out Assemble’s budget or the budgets of other Hack Clubber’s hackathons: