Hackathons appear to be a popular activity for students, novice programmers, and even seasoned professionals. There is a reason for the popularity surge that even students from the fashion school are joining in on this new technology. The interest in hackathons seen in the fashion industry has given rise to the Fashion tech hackathon.
You've almost certainly heard the term hackathon before, but unless you work in IT, most likely you're undoubtedly curious about what it means.
A hackathon or virtual hackathon is an event, generally conducted by a technology firm or organization, where programmers collaborate on a project for a set amount of time. During the event, the participants work diligently and often end up not getting enough sleep to complete their jobs, as the event typically lasts a short time.
What is a Fashion Tech Hackathon?
A fashion tech hackathon is an event that brings together teams of Kent State University to develop new skills and techniques that will impact the future of the fashion industry. The event is free, accessible, dynamic, interdisciplinary, and collaborative to the participants.
Students spend 36 hours working on a project of their choice that analyzes the relationship between fashion in tech. The project could be a piece of technology-enhanced apparel, a responsive web app for wearable devices, or an innovative way to disrupt fashion through retail data.
Throughout the Detroit fashion +tech hackathon event period, faculty and industry mentors are available to assist students with any concerns or questions that they may have. After all the activities, the event typically closes with an awards ceremony.
Benefits of Bringing Fashion and Tech Together in a Hackathon
Fashion has begun engaging in "hackathons", usually reserved for programmers and software developers, to think and behave more like technology firms. Historically, fashion in tech was more diverse. The rise of fashion in tech is attributed to the long-standing Silicon Valley tradition and can be related to the luxury market's delayed digitization. The benefits of fashion in tech include:
Reduced carbon footprint
Firms are embracing hackathons in fashion to produce ideas for carbon reduction as the industry grapples with concerns such as waste management, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use.
Strengthen its viability
Fashion brands host fashion hackathons to help them manage their supply chains more effectively and avoid overproduction. Additionally, fashion in tech serves as a form of advertising and demonstrates a business's commitment to environmental stewardship.
Relationship development
Fashion hackathons are an excellent way to network with fashion industry members and exchange ideas. If an individual has an abundance of skills or talent, networking will eventually help them to improve their entire lives through their career.
Help bring your wildest dreams to life
The fashion concepts discussed in the fashion hacking event are often entirely insane and creative.
However, by doing an insane thing, you will achieve the best outcomes possible. With the help of fashion in tech, you can turn your craziest ambitions into reality and show the world that nothing is impossible in today's society. There is no end to ideas; therefore, there should be no end to their realization.
Identify and hire a new co-founder
Participating in a fashion tech hackathon is advantageous even if you are not part of a team. The same is true if you have a deficiency of inspiration.
The majority of what you need to learn about the fashion industry, you will learn during the event. You'll meet people who can assist and guide you in experimenting with new ideas at the fashion tech hackathon. Attend the fashion hacking event and participate in one of the group projects to gain knowledge and have the opportunity to discuss a variety of themes.
How to Run a Successful Hackathon in Tech in Fashion: A Full Eight-Step Guide
If you are a fashion university student, participating in a fashion hackathon is an excellent way to boost your team's creativity and stay one step ahead of the competition.
Organizing a global fashion hackathon is also a perfect way to motivate students in the fashion industry, realize hidden talents, and develop creative ideas. This guide will walk you through the process of organizing and running a global fashion hackathon.
STEP 1: Pick a theme
You must choose the global fashion hackathon's theme or focus correctly. This enables all participants to stay on brand, maintain uniformity, and avoid unforeseen chaos.
STEP 2: Involve everyone in the preparation
Ensure that you take opinions from the participants before commencing the fashion hacking event preparation process. Also, ascertain that all team members are aware of the essential details about the global fashion hackathon, such as the duration, the date, and any extra suggestions. This instills a sense of ownership in everyone and helps build up excitement among the participants.
STEP 3: Prepare the rules of the hackathon
Coming up with the rules includes drafting a set of instructions to guarantee that everything runs smoothly and without interruptions or miscommunications about what to accomplish. Ensure that your language in conveying the rules to the participants is straightforward to avoid any ambiguity.
Also, ensure that the rules are fair to all participants.
STEP 4: Define judging criteria
Since the fashion industry accommodates talented and creative individuals, the global fashion hackathon is expected to remain competitive. Ensure you indicate how the winners will be selected and on what basis before the global fashion hackathon event starts.
STEP 5: Choose the judges wisely
Choosing the judges can be challenging. Consider allowing the university students to vote on the finalists of the global fashion hackathon but have a judging panel that will ultimately determine the final winners.
It would be best to choose judges from the fashion industry as they are more conversant with the nitty gritties of fashion than general judges.
STEP 6: Make the hackathon fun
While a fashion hackathon enables fashion industry members to work on personal projects, it requires considerable effort. The bulk of individuals do not get enough hours of sleep to complete their projects on time and with the most outstanding potential results.
Consider incorporating exciting ideas that will engage participants and break up the monotony of constant work while planning the global fashion hackathon.
STEP 7: Go all out for the final event
Just as the participants have put in a lot of effort in their projects, match their energy by going all out for them. Surprise them, ensure they are comfortable, and generally be a good host.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Organizing Fashion Tech Hackathons
Organizing a hackathon in fashion does not guarantee its success. There are a lot of considerations to make and mistakes to avoid.
Not having a well-defined schedule
Without a proper schedule of how events will follow each other, the fashion tech hackathon may be a complete failure due to confusion.
To avoid this mistake, clearly outline a strict schedule that everyone in the fashion hacking event is aware of and will follow. This gives each participant time to plan themselves adequately.
Not having a clear objective of the fashion hackathon
As with any other firm initiative, a hackathon must have a purpose. To see the fashion hackathon to fruition, the participants, host, and sponsors must all have their objectives outlined.
While it is vital to have an objective, ensure that this objective gives room for innovative thinking.
A rigid objective will yield very consistent results and leave individuals feeling as if they followed the same path as everyone else.>
To avoid this mistake, all attending parties must exercise extraordinary caution when coming up with their objectives.
Scheduling the hackathon during an inconvenient time
The fashion hacking organizers need to examine the start and conclusion times of the event carefully. Also, consider the time of day and duration. If the fashion hackathon is set for an inconvenient time for the attendees and participants, the attendance may be low.
To avoid this, study your participant's general schedule and develop a date and duration that works best for most.
Lack of teamwork
When hosting a fashion hacking event, the biggest mistake you can make is failing to persuade individuals to collaborate and connect. Remember, teamwork makes the dream work.
The best way to ensure teamwork is to organize the participants in teams. Additionally, a team structure helps shake people out of their complacency.
Giving sponsors precedence over attendees
When fashion hackathon organizers organize a fashion hacking event, the first people they tend to consider are the sponsors. Rightfully so, the sponsors financially contributed to the event's success; however, this shouldn't be the case.
What you ought to do instead is pay more attention to the participants and work to improve their experience.
When you prioritize the attendees or participants, it will be a win-win for everyone since they are the backbone of the whole event, and they ultimately determine its success.
Additionally, the attendees will think about the sponsors who helped make the event possible and want to bring their friends. If the fashion hackathon succeeds, the sponsors will be satisfied and get their money's worth since they are entrepreneurs and need to see value for their money.
On the other hand, if you host a poor event, the participants will be reluctant to return and speak poorly about their customer experience.
Six Best Fashion Hackathon Ideas
While participating in a fashion tech hackathon is fun, it also requires a significant amount of work and time to ensure the participants enjoy the fashion hackathon.
To assist you in determining what to do at a fashion hackathon, we've developed a list of suggested activities.
- Allow for participation in the hackathon by people with varying levels of experience in the fashion industry
By allowing people with diverse experiences, the attendees at the fashion hackathon can benefit from one. You can group them by ensuring each group has varying degrees of expertise together.
- Have a theme
Globally, hackathons are hosted all the time. How will you style your hackathon to stand out? A theme. Having a unique theme will aid in increasing attendance and pique the participants' interest. A fun theme will also help your participants get to know one another, especially if the theme is something they both enjoy.
- Having a grand prize or mentorship awards to be won at the end
Having a grand prize or mentorship award that the participants can win at the end of the fashion hackathon enables them to summon their inner creative selves and come up with the best and most innovative projects.
- Have breaks
Having breathers between the fashion hacking event allows the participants to avoid burnout from continuous work. They can rest and continue work, preserving their creative process. Breaks are also critical for participants to network and establish acquaintances.
- Providing healthy meals and snacks
As the host, you should avoid allowing the participants to go hungry or providing unhealthy food. Ensure that all participants consume nutritious foods to maintain the energy necessary to put in the long hours required to accomplish their assignments.
- Add fun games to the schedule
Fashion is a fun industry, which should also reflect in the fashion hackathon. Add some games to the schedule to break the monotony of constant work and serious mode. Games help take work off the mind of the participants and bring in the fun.
Looking for the Right Platform for Your Fashion Hacking Event? Try Hackathon.com
Using hackathon.com to organize your fashion hacking event is the best course of action when planning a fashion hacking event. We provide experienced mentoring and will walk alongside you every step of the way to ensure the success of your fashion hacking event.
Our mentorship is delivered via training films that describe each step you should take to prevent making mistakes. After the training, your site visits will be optimized, ensuring the fashion hacking event's success.
Additionally, our platform is not only the best platform for fashion hackathon but also machine learning hackathon and nft hackathon.
Final Points
We cannot emphasize the importance of a fashion tech hackathon enough. All fashion design students should consider participating in df+th if they want to be part of the winning team in the fashion industry.
If you’re ready to get started with organizing your fashion tech hackathon, contact us. Our team is ready to help you!
