At an in-person event, you can quickly communicate with people in the same room as you. At a digital event, you’ll need to set up an environment so people feel comfortable starting conversations like they would in-person.
As we discussed in the "Software for Digital Hackathons" section, having a Slack/Discord is essential. Create separate channels for groups, teams, and interests. We also suggest your organizing team is active on these platforms to help facilitate conversations, moderate threads, and get people chatting. This also makes your hackathon more accessible for people who have a hard time in large groups.
Don’t forget to set up Discord roles to show if someone is an organizer, hacker, sponsor, or mentor. If you're using Slack, you can utalize statuses for this information.
Have an organizer in a voice chat at all times. Tell hackers and sponsors they can hop on the chat to ask questions or just hang out.
Send updates via Slack/Discord throughout the event. Remind people when activities are happening and share highlights from your activities! Expect questions to pop us as soon as you announce an event, so give some buffer time for questions and folks to join events late.