I think we'll probably have them start on Ruby since we have a few students that can teach it and have experience in RoR.
> Perhaps you could set up teams that could compete with each other through a series of programming challenges?
I like the idea but I think students might find this to be too much in the beginning. Especially when CS majors are competing with non-CS majors.
Maybe a better option is to promote the Binghamton hackathon from early on and offer prizes/competition for the groups that entered without experience.
> You could find a local business who would sponsor a prize, or a restaurant that would offer a dinner for the winning team.
I definitely want to keep it as local as possible and even have a few community members signed up.
> Be sure to post updates on your group's website.
I'd recommend following the progress on Twitter and GitHub:
> I definitely want to keep it as local as possible and even have a few community members signed up.
You might gain some local sponsors by offering to put their company logo on your website. See the bottom of the page of http://clojure-conj.org for the Clojure Conj conference. There are "Platinum," "Gold," and "Supporting" sponsors listed.
Put a Sponsors page on your website and make it easy for businesses to sign up. You could even have a donate button.
I think we'll probably have them start on Ruby since we have a few students that can teach it and have experience in RoR.
> Perhaps you could set up teams that could compete with each other through a series of programming challenges?
I like the idea but I think students might find this to be too much in the beginning. Especially when CS majors are competing with non-CS majors.
Maybe a better option is to promote the Binghamton hackathon from early on and offer prizes/competition for the groups that entered without experience.
> You could find a local business who would sponsor a prize, or a restaurant that would offer a dinner for the winning team.
I definitely want to keep it as local as possible and even have a few community members signed up.
> Be sure to post updates on your group's website.
I'd recommend following the progress on Twitter and GitHub:
- https://twitter.com/HackBinghamton
- https://github.com/HackBinghamton
Thanks for all the advice and feel free to reach out by email (it's on my profile).