Final Mandatory Practice Logistics

Final Mandatory Practice Logistics
1) HackerLeague

First things first, if you have not registered for HackerLeague, please do so immediately.

2) Practice Demoing in Hall of Flags

Everyone is required to a practice run through in the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall (where the initial kickoff event was—here’s a map). You will all practice demoing in the same order as the real thing.

[ Here is the SignUp Form ] (this is mandatory)
Please include what schools your team is comprised of

And 2 cell phone numbers of 2 members in the group (so that we can call you to come over to Houston Hall)
Treat this demo like the real deal—you will only have 75 seconds. And yes yes we will cut you off during the real thing at 76 seconds and so we will the practice as well.)

Rob Spectre (of Twilio) has graciously offered to give you guys feedback on your run through!

3) Keep Practicing!!!

Here are some of his tips from our past hackathon from Rob Spectre himself:
Demoing your hack is the second critical part of participating in any hackathon. Crushing your demo can make a good hack great and bombing your demo can make a great hack bad. Rob’s presentation this afternoon on “How To Crush Your Hackathon Demo” are available on his Github.

Here’s a summary:

Rehearse, rehearse, REHEARSE! - You only have two minutes. Make sure your timing is right.

Capture your audience in 30 seconds - if you don’t get ‘em early, you don’t get ‘em at all.

Abandon PowerPoint - Deckware is for financial consultants and insurance salesmen. Don’t be that guy (or gal).

Show them what your hack is, don’t try to narrate or tell them about it - Let your hack wow the crowd, not your initimate familiarity with 4chan memes.

Fail gracefully - you wrote this software in 48 hours. There are bugs. Be ready to deal with them.

Demos are the meant to be the most fun part of any hackathon. If you’re having fun, the crowd will be able to tell.
Good luck guys and see you soon!
- September 16, 2012 (10:41 am)