Hackathon in the Cloud: Virtual Event Tooling for Students

GitHub has added a new offering to the Global Campus Student Developer Pack: the Hackathon in the Cloud Experience. It bundles virtual event resources and software into a single package available to verified students at no cost.

The package is designed for student hackathon organizers. It covers the full event lifecycle, from planning and promotion to communication and collaboration, with materials drawn from experienced student-run hackathon communities.

Planning Resources

The experience includes a series of guides created by Major League Hacking (MLH) that detail software solutions for managing different aspects of a codefest. A notable entry is HackMIT’s Virtual Hackathon guide, which explains how to build efficient systems for running an event. HackMIT’s associated repositories are also available on GitHub for reference.

Promoting the Event

Organizers can stand up a hackathon website using GitHub Pages. For outreach and participant management, the package points to two complementary tools:

  • Typeform: for building registration forms, running surveys, and collecting participant information.
  • Mailgun: for sending, receiving, and tracking event email communications.

Keeping Participants Connected

For asynchronous community discussion, GitHub Discussions provides a forum built around open source projects. For real-time collaboration during the event, the package highlights VS Code Live Share and GitLens, the Git extension for VS Code that adds auto-linking and rich hover details for pull requests and issues. These tools help track commit authorship and timing throughout the hackathon.

How to Unlock the Experience

The Hackathon in the Cloud Experience is part of the GitHub Student Developer Pack. Eligibility is open to verified students ages 13 and up in any region where GitHub is available. Applicants can verify their status with a school-issued email, student ID, or other proof of academic enrollment. Once approved, members can redeem the experience through the Global Campus portal.