If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask them here. This will be our first crack at what we hope to be a bi-annual event for Ann Arbor, and we already have over $2000 in prizes for the event. We hope you guys will come!
Why 36 hours? For the 24-hour hackathons I usually stay up the whole time but 36 plus the surrounding time might be pushing it. I'll try it though :)
I see that the tickets are limited in numbers based on what they bring to the table: dev, design, biz. What was the thinking behind doing it this way? The page mentions that it was to make sure to get enough devs, I don't recall that being a problem at the hackathons I've been to.
(On details page say typo: says that have over $2,00 worth of prizes.)
For me, 24 hours felt like too little to get something very cool out. However, I had the same mindset as you in that I felt a 40 hour or 48 hour hackathon I would never be able to stay up for. So, I decided to meet in the middle: 36 hours :)
The idea behind the tickets was that, this was first and foremost about programming, meaning I wanted designers and developers to make up the majority of the attendees. I felt while Startup Weekend was building a startup from scratch, this was about building a great product — and not having to worry as much about the marketing, business profitability, etc. I had also been scorned after going to a "Engineer and Entrepreneur meet and greet" in Ann Arbor and realized that everyone there was looking for a programmer, and there were no engineers/programmers at the event. My number one worry was that people would come and would all have ideas, but no one to build those ideas.
Thanks for the typo as well, we fixed it right away!
I see you guys are looking for speakers, I would love to be one. I have spoken at plenty of web events in the past. I think my experience is relevant (VC, designer, developer) and I have a perfect talk for a hackathon (tshirts are the new suits) and would even love to participate if possible!
Man, the last time I had set foot on Michigan's north campus was about 8 years ago. Hope the attendees enjoy themselves, Ann Arbor is one of the best college towns in the country.
I was thinking it was on north campus at the first glance, but actually it's at the new North Quad on central campus. (And another building on nearby Washington St.)
The other building is the Techarb, a student startup accelerator - http://cfe.engin.umich.edu/techarb/
My startup, Fetchnotes, works out of there, it's a great place.
Cool. I regret that I can't make that date due to prior commitments, but I've forwarded this to some people who may do various things. (Can't commit them to anything since they probably haven't even gotten my email yet. :) )
