A Guide to Running a Community-Led Hackathon

Unlike a hackathon whose primary purpose is corporate recruitment communications or product promotion, a community-led hackathon is planned and run by the community itself, beginning with what it wants to create and whom it wants to open the setting to. Its design extends to participants' learning, interaction, challenges, and opportunities to grow within the region. UNKNOWN QUEST, held by Miyako de IT in 2023, is a representative example. It was a Kyoto hackathon centered on developing applications using blockchain. It took place on July 29–30, 2023, at UNKNOWN KYOTO.

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Why we held this hackathon

The event was born after a Miyako de IT community team won a hackathon organized by NEMTUS, the NEM Technology Promotion Association, an NPO corporation, and reinvested the prize money to create the next opportunity to take on a challenge.

This was not a place for processing a theme assigned from outside. The community itself reinvested its prize money to create the next opportunity to take on a challenge.

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Core plan

The goal was to build a socially useful application using blockchain. We aimed for an outcome that could eventually lead to real-world implementation or commercialization.

An idea list was published and shared with every participant. It was a mechanism to help people who had technical ability but tended to stall before finding a starting idea.

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Points in designing the theme

The required outcome was an application using blockchain. Technical support was available for teams using Symbol, but other blockchains were also permitted. Mainnet and testnet were both acceptable.

These conditions mattered. They narrowed the theme while preserving freedom of technical choice.

• Participants could not build just anything
• No particular technology was compulsory
• Choosing Symbol brought more substantial support
• People using other chains were not excluded

Many hackathons emphasize “freedom” when defining a theme, but that makes the level of the outcomes difficult to control. What is needed is a set of constraints that makes progress easier.

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Designing the target participants

The target audience was explicitly stated as engineers, designers, and planners. Individual participants were told that being able to implement an application themselves was desirable.

Because implementation was a premise of the hackathon, opening individual participation without limit to complete beginners would cause the operational burden on the day to explode. The position was: welcome people, but state the expectations too.

Ambiguity may look kind, but in practice it can be cruel. The greater harm occurs when someone mistakenly thinks they can manage, arrives, and finishes the event without finding a place in it. Organizers have a responsibility to say in advance what is required.

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Support design

Support for participants was relatively concrete.

• Sharing an idea list
• Technical support from community members for teams using Symbol
• Reference materials including *Learn Symbol Blockchain Quickly* (Japanese)
• Introduction to an implementation-support library, tusnagi-functions

In other words, participants were not abandoned with nothing more than “do your best.” The event supplied starting ideas, guidance on technical choices, learning materials, places to ask technical questions, and implementation support.

The purpose of a hackathon is to create a structure that lets participants make it all the way to the finish.

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Judging and awards

The Grand Prize benefits were XYM worth ¥100,000, the right to enter BAR KRYPTO for one day and serve as its manager for one day, and one free bottle at awabar okinawa.

The design was not about money alone. It combined benefits meaningful within the community context. The award itself expressed what the event valued and which communities it wanted to connect participants with.

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Stating rights and costs

The rights to outcomes were explicitly stated to belong entirely to the applicants. Participation in the event was free, while participants paid the venue-use fee, with UNKNOWN KYOTO's co-working rate provided as a reference.

Hackathon organizers must not leave the following points ambiguous.

• Who owns the rights to the outcomes
• Whether organizers receive subsequent usage rights
• Which costs the organizers cover

UNKNOWN QUEST did not evade real costs by calling everything free; it stated those costs clearly.

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Schedule design: build relationships first

• Early June: Announcement began
• Early July: Discord invitations, introductions, and idea sharing
• July 28: Pre-event party at BAR KRYPTO
• July 29, 10:00–19:00: Opening ceremony, team building, and development
• July 30, 10:00–15:00: Presentations, judging, and networking

A major point was placing Discord and the pre-event party before the main event. Hackathons often stumble at the start when everyone meets for the first time on the day. UNKNOWN QUEST created contact online first, shortened the psychological distance at the pre-event party, and enabled participants to begin development immediately on the day.

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Venue selection

The venue was UNKNOWN KYOTO. Accommodation was also introduced.

For a community event, the venue itself communicates a message. It simultaneously created Kyoto-specific local character, the extraordinary feeling of developing while staying on site, and an atmosphere where interaction and making mixed together.

Venue selection should examine four points: access, suitability for development, suitability for an extended stay, and worldview.

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Judges, sponsors, and supporting organization

Junya Kondo, MIYA, Taisei Arakawa, and Hiroyuki Goto served as judges. The sponsors were Opening Line, Inc., XEMBook, and awabar okinawa. The supporting organization was the Kyoto Chiesangyo Sozonomori.

If left unaddressed, a community-led event can look like an insiders' gathering. Moving beyond that impression requires supporters visible from outside, experts aligned with the theme, and backing that gives participants confidence.

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Practical points for a community-led hackathon

1. Put the reason for holding it into words — If “why now?” is weak, everything becomes shallow

2. Do not make the theme too broad — Establish an axis while preserving some freedom of choice

3. Increase participants' initial momentum — Remove early bottlenecks with four elements: an idea list, Discord, a pre-event party, and technical materials

4. Build technical support into the event design — Without mentors or a place to ask questions, participants stop midway

5. Do not leave rights and costs ambiguous — State ownership of outcomes, participation fees, and venue fees in advance

6. Design awards that reflect the community — Include benefits that carry meaning within its relationships

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Conclusion

UNKNOWN QUEST is a real example of a community-led hackathon. Its motivation was clear, its theme was reasonably constrained, it offered both idea and technical support, its relationship design extended from the pre-event party through networking, and its rights and costs were disclosed to participants.

What hackathon operations truly test is whether organizers can create a place where participants can take on a challenge, reach the finish, and connect what they make to a next step.