We are planning a hackathon in the late summer. Based on searching "hackathon" on here, i see a lot of skilled people having very strong opinions. To me, that's a perfect spot to get feedback on everything from promotion to execution.
How can we make our event the best it can possibly be?
Is this hackathon a poorly disguised recruiting event? If so, it's a bad hackathon.
Are the participants going to feel used afterwards? Are you trying to use them? Are they going to have fun? You're asking people to come in and work very intensely on something and get nothing in return. If they don't feel good about it afterwards, you're hosting a bad event.