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Hackathon in a Box

MediaShift Offers Tiered Packages for Event Production

Since 2009, MediaShift’s live events have brought people together so they can socialize, learn and deepen connections. We started by offering networking mixers associated with existing conferences such as ONA and ISOJ, and have built onto that with one-day Collab/Space entrepreneurial workshops and weekend Hackathons. Participants include technologists, journalists, producers, marketers, advertisers, executives, educators, students and thought-leaders. They come from academia, established companies, startups, non-profits, public media and elsewhere.

One of the eight teams at the Women’s IoT Makeathon at WVU presents its idea to the judges on April 3, 2016. (Photo by David Smith/WVU Reed College of Media)

MediaShift aims to build on its success producing Journalism School Hackathons and Women’s Hackathons with a new “Hackathon in a Box” service to enable schools, companies, non-profits and other organizations to produce their own Hackathons. By offering tiers of service depending on the needs of the client, we can help in various areas: booking speakers, outreach and promotion strategy, brainstorming topics and themes, finding judges and mentors, selling sponsorships and much more.

MediaShift has produced five co-ed Journalism School Hackathons and four Women’s Hackathons since 2014. We bring together students from around the country to one school for the weekend hackathon, which also includes professionals and faculty serving as mentors, and speakers giving talks that help guide the students. Rather than focusing on coding, the Hackathons are geared toward creating media-related startups and pitching those startups to judges. People who attend often ask us to produce a Hackathon at their school or workplace, but it’s difficult for us to produce an event in every place. Learn more about our Hackathons on our Events page. Here’s a video from our 5th Journalism School Hackathon at University of North Texas:

Hackathon in a Box

MediaShift is developing the new Hackathon in a Box concept, and can help you produce your own Hackathon at these tiers:

The Works
MediaShift would provide nearly all your needs for the event, including:

– All phases of event planning in close consultation with the school or organization.
– Help with invites and marketing outreach, including via email and social media.
– Programming the event and booking speakers.
– Handling of RSVPs and on-site management of event.
– We will send a special physical box to make the event unique, including medals or prizes for the winning team, trinkets to identify each team, materials for brainstorming and crafting, and more.

Price: $18,000

Bigger Box
MediaShift would provide most needs for your event, including:

– Most phases of event planning in close consultation with the school or organization.
– Help with invites and marketing outreach, including via email and social media.
– Programming the event and booking speakers.
– We will send a special physical box to make the event unique, including medals or prizes for the winning team, trinkets to identify each team, materials for brainstorming and crafting, and more.

Price: $12,000

Big Box
MediaShift would provide many needs for your event, including:

– Many phases of event planning in close consultation with the school or organization.
– Programming the event and booking speakers.
– We will send a special physical box to make the event unique, including medals or prizes for the winning team, trinkets to identify each team, materials for brainstorming and crafting, and more.

Price: $9,000

The Basics
MediaShift would provide certain needs for your event, including:

– Many phases of event planning in close consultation with the school or organization.
– Custom needs for the event as decided by both parties.

Price: $7,500

We can also customize our offerings for your needs as well!

Note: We typically work about four to five months ahead of an event to make sure all the details are in place on time.

Testimonials

We have received praise from past competitors in our J-School and Women’s Hackathons, including from faculty, professionals and students. Here’s a sampling of our feedback over the years:

“I greatly liked the Hackathon experience. It forced me to be creative and practical at the same time. Two mindsets which will be crucial for innovating the media landscape.” -Keion Pitts, University of Georgia

“As my first Hackathon, I had no idea what to expect (let alone what a chatbot is). By the end of the weekend, not only did I understand more about the shifting market of chatbots in the media landscape, I was also forced out of my comfort zone enough to pitch a startup, make a business plan, and present it to some big names in the industry.” -Kayla Robertson, University of Montana

“I enjoyed the symposium and Women’s Hackathon. I would love to see more events like it at WVU and to participate in it again. I learned a lot and it will help me in my future.” – Caitlin Cuomo, WVU

Learn More!

If you’d like to learn more about the Hackathon in a Box and work with us on your future event, please contact Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org.

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