Purpose

This guide exists to make hackathons at Builders Club smooth, welcoming, and low-drama — for hosts, participants, and the wider community. The space works when everyone operates with a host mindset.

Overarching Rule

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Don’t be an asshole.

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Be respectful of people, the space, and the neighbourhood. If something feels unclear, default to leaving things better than you found them.

Ideal timing

Everyone thinks they want a 24hr hackathon until they run one. The best hackathons we have had in the space wrap things up at 11 pm and open the doors at 8 or 9 am. If there is sleeping or napping we require that you set that up in the event space on the 3rd floor.

Other best practices:

• For hardware, a pre-hack night early in the week for everyone to figure out what parts they might need to order before the weekend
• Friday night starts and Saturday night wrap ups for software seems to work best. A lot can get done in a day. You could still host a demo/awards on Sunday afternoon but give yourself time to reset the space and for people to submit their final project.

Core Principles

1. Host Mindset (Required for Everyone)

Every organizer, participant, and guest is a temporary host of the space.

This means:

• Clean as you go
• Help others find their way
• Treat equipment and furniture like it’s yours
• Flag issues early instead of ignoring them
• No “someone else will handle it” thinking

If everyone adopts this mindset, most problems disappear.