How Comedy Hack Day threw a perfect themed hackathon

I flipped on the mic after attending Comedy Hack Day's inaugural Los Angeles event.  This is my first solo episode.  

Organizers and Sponsors can learn a lot from CHD.  Their themed hackathon game is on point.  They used native advertising principles in their sponsorship talks.  Plus, the hack demos were hilarious.


Listen on Sound Cloud -->





0:00 - 3 reasons you should care about Comedy Hack Day

  • CHD was fun

  • Sponsors at comedy hack day provide and get value using the principles of “native advertising" 

  • CHD does a great job involving non-hackers into their event

1:45 Overview of the event:  

4:16 Overview of the apps

  • Kill Fuck Prez

    • play on kill shag marry

    • (deep dive description of the app at ~7:40)

    • reminds me of card against humanity

  • Flosst

    • connected social gamified social app

  • Youtube Shrink

    • analyzes your mental disorder is based on your smile

  • Die-o-meter

    • what cause of death is most likely?

    • (deep dive description at ~8:55)

    • judges interaction with the comedian presenter was hilarious

  • Shit Talk

    • social pooping chat

  • Scavenge

    • ambiguously defined topic picture scavenger hunt

  • Me the Internet

    • inputs your name into news headlines and swaps in your pictures

9:45 What makes comedy hack day work?

  • Pitches were very polished

  • Comedians and judges interactions was funny

  • Improv elements

  • Turned cliche hackathon judging questions into jokes

  • Prizes

    • Runner up prize - “I want to put this on my wife’s computer” - by Troy Carter - awarded to Me The Internet

    • 2nd place - Youtube Shrink

    • 1st place - Shit Talk

Most important section! -->

13:25 - How comedy hack day used native advertising to get their sponsors involved

  • Sponsors at CHD

  • What is native advertising?

  • Who uses native advertising in the tech world?

  • 15:00 - Mashery’s native ad -

    • n/a, most of the demo attendees (audience members) were nontechnical.  

  • 16:00 - Lagunitas’s native advertising -  “API” demo

    • Get request - Confirm get request - Pop - Chug (units are in seconds) - Post

  • 17:45 - MailChimp’s native ad - “How (not to) Send an Email”

    • To: basically everyone at the company, plus optionally anyone you know

    • CC: “cover your ass button” - address anyone who can limit your blamabilty

    • BCC: “the snitch button”

    • Subject: [something completely misleading]

    • Body:  [long, rambling, action items buried deep in paragraph 7 and 8]

    • Signature: [something that makes you seem important]

    • Send button: [something you will work up courage to press then immediately regret]

  • 19:50 - Squarespace

    • http://againstpeopleagainstchd.squarespace.com/ - Fake Westboro Baptist Picket

      • signs include “God hates apps,” “Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve Jobs”, “Burn in HTML,” “God can see your browsing history.”

    • direct link to squarespace from that microsite

  • 20:45 - Judges at Comedy Hack Day

    • Combo of comedians, youtube influencers, and talent management folks

    • Judges asking questions with the intention of making comedy

    • Not the “gotcha” questions, but calibrated for laughs

    • 22:00 -Felicia Day

      • youtube influencer

      • legitimately hilarious

    • 22:15 - Rhett and Link

      • youtube influencer

      • deadpan humor specialist

    • 22:40 - Troy Carter - investor and super-talent manager

      • Talent Managment - worked with rappers, and recently John Legend and Lady Gaga

      • Also an investor now

      • (Based on his AngelList) Somehow invested in both Uber & Lyft, also Misfit wearables

24:45 - Wrapping up

  • Organizers - check out CHD as the prototypical themed hackathon - they were 100% congruent with their mission

  • Sponsors - try to involve yourself natively into the proceedings, and consider creative ways to get involved

  • Organizers - there are a variety of formats that you can throw, not just collaborative and competitive.  


Contact me:  twitter.com/jnconkle.  Find my email on the blog hackathon.posthaven.com.


If you are from Mailchimp, Mashery, Squarespace, or CHD - I want to interview you!