TechCrunch Disrupt is an awesome event. Everyone I met was intelligent, hard working, and creative. The caliber of work produced blew me away. I look forward to participating in the future, but this weekend I was on the sidelines at the Microsoft booth giving away T-Shirts and learning how to tweet. Still, the potential for learning and practice was great. So, I’ve compiled a short list of things I would have like to know before my first Hackathon.

  • Have a good camera, with the ability to quickly post photos.
  • Bring lots of food and drinks (Alcohol can help, Thanks Joe!)
  • Presentation Skills - Nail your 60 second pitch
  • Talk to everyone - Ask them what they’re doing
  • Spend some time researching technologies (Make sure promo codes work)
  • Soft T-Shirts go fast
  • Bring an Xbox
  • Set Up a demonstration of your technology. Have it ready when people have questions.
  • Have a #HashTag make it clear on your table.
  • Come up with a good Hashtag
  • Have examples of Azure usage available, what have other people done. What is it capable of? From very simple to very complicated implementations.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I had a great time at TechCrunch and look forward to watching some incredible projects develop into real solutions.