Are Hackathons Losing their Appeal? – Noticeable Slump in Attendance

    SANTA CRUZ, CA, April 10, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The number of developers who attended a hackathon declined significantly in 2017 according to the newly released Evans Data Developer Marketing 2018 survey report. The survey showed that 70% of developers in 2017 had gone to at least one hackathon, which is a significant 19% decrease from the 83% that went to at least one in 2016. At the same time, those who went to only a small number of hackathons increased while those attending many hackathons showed a marked decrease.

Of those who attended hackathons, 46% said they went to one sponsored by a commercial vendor while 42% attended one sponsored by a local developer organization, and 37% went to one sponsored by a school or university. On the other hand, three-quarters of the developers had gone to at least one meetup. As this was a new question, no trending exists for meetup attendance.

"One has to wonder how long the hackathon phenomenon will go on in its current state," said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, "Hackathons have become key for many developer marketing professionals but while they are good for getting grass roots support for platforms or tools, they are also labor intensive for marketers, they involve cost, and by their very nature are extremely parochial and thus limited in reach."

The survey, with a margin of error of 4.2%, examined many factors related to developer marketing. A few other findings: 84% of developers think robots will enhance life for humans in a positive way; 69% of male programmers think there should be more women in the field while 78% of women think this.

The new Developer Marketing 2018 survey is exclusively focused on tactical marketing outreach efforts and understanding developers. The 221 page reference covers topics such as; Demographics, Firmographics, Psychographics, Purchasing Authority, Outreach Vehicles, Motivations, Using Social Media for Recruitment, Training, Conferences and Hackathons, Encouraging Participation in an Online Community, Using Search Engines for Marketing and more. Margin of error is 4.2%.

See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2018 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

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