Basically an apps contest is a publicity event that focuses talent and energy to support a worthy technical cause.
The principal resources needed are talent, time and coolness.
Talent: the principal forms of talent are participants, evangelists and mentors
- Mentors are typically mature professionals in a technical field related to computer science, engineering, business or interactive media. A mentor contributes 20-100 hours over the course of a semester or year to help ensure that actual products and continuing relationships come about as a result of the challenge. Teachers can be mentors; so can engineers from private company, attorneys who know startups, investors, etc.
- Evangelists form the steering and outreach arms of the challenge event; they contribute vision, mission, and networking over 3-6 months before the contest itself. Typically the level of effort starts low (3-10 hours per month) and ramps up to an intense 1-week period just before launch, when you have to pound the streets to get people excited and bring in the sponsors, media, etc.
- Organizer. You have to have an organizer -- one person whose cellphone will be passed around and who will be the prime point of contact for the event and accounting aspects of the work. This person may also be an evangelist, but they won't get tp do a lot of evangelizing once the planning gets going.
- Participants. Somebody has to jump through the hoops to take advantage of the mentor expertise, networking opportunities, pizza and venue provided by the event organizer. Students in high school or college make good participants, but you have to work around the academic calendar, and you have to have permission for the mentors to enter the schools to meet with students.
Time / Resources: we all have day jobs. So how much time is needed, and when does it come?
- The basic life cycle of a challenge is 6 months from concept to caper. You don't want to do the caper in summer or over Christmas because everyone is on vacation.
- There's a sheet attached to this one that sets out some actual examples of different challenges sponsored by the state over the last few years
- After the main event comes the real substance. If the crew of mentors and participants stay engaged and add to their projects in the 6 months following, then you have free publicity material, institutional change and the potential for a track record. If these things don't happen then you can do one more main event, but if that doesn't lead to sustainable success then the concept needs to be dropped.
Coolness: this is the key. You have to have something that makes the challenge cool enough to attract both students and mentors to work on this project when instead of pursuing their favorite hobby on a prefect sunny Saturday. Examples include:
- Great keynotes: engaging famous people who can fire up a crowd, and don't mind being heavily photographed in close proximity with students who may not have washed or dressed appropriately for the main event. High energy passionate people who are role models but very down to earth. CIO's work well in this role, so do angel investors, and some elected officials.
- Fun prizes: tours of cool places that people rarely get to see, like an aerospace shop floor, a startup company's skunk works. A hundred widgets from Amazon Web services; backstage passes; a surplus jet engine for your dorm room; the latest mobile devices, etc.
- Money prizes. Money prizes help get media attention, but they rarely work very well on participants. You have to have some, but they are tricky to divide among teams, and they can be a headache for public sector entities, which have to get value (e.g. a software license) for any money they pay out. $3,000 - $20,000 is a nice amount for a top prize, depending on how much other stuff you can bring to the table.
- Swag. These are the real badges of honor that confirm the participants' good judgment in coming to the event. Not big stuff, but nice and distinctive. Examples include: water bottles (the classic, now a bit dated), t-shirts (must have), stickers for decorating your laptop, flash drives, sharper image stuff.