Run a GPT Hackathon

• Identify desired outcomes (e.g., new prototypes, ideas for specific business challenges, learning goals)

• Ensure participants have access to ChatGPT Enterprise and have tested their login

• Invite participants to event with an overview of what to expect (example email)

• Create teams of 3-5 participants. A few options to consider:

  1. Pair participants up based on their department/function, so they can solve deep departmental challenges

  2. Pair participants up cross-functionally, so they get a chance to work on more existential business challenges and share perspectives from their own function

  3. Be mindful of experience level - pairing high-proficiency power users with new users can be a great way to foster mentorship and learning

  4. Consider assigning a Team Captain, responsible for communication and updates, as well as keeping the team on task

  5. Teams may be tempted to start working on their GPTs ahead of the Hackathon - you may consider keeping teams private until the event starts to ensure fairness and keep in the spirit of fast collaboration

• Other roles to assign:

  1. 1 Facilitator to MC the event, clarify instructions, and announce winners

  2. 1 trainer to review GPT fundamentals and answer any technical/product question

  3. 2-4 power users to float around to different groups to facilitate discussion/support with prompting

  4. 3-5 judges (or you may choose to have participants themselves voice)

• Determine categories for judging (example rubric and scorecard) and structure

• Determine prizes and criteria

  1. You may want to award prizes for specific categories, or just the top points overall

  2. Think of prizes that will resonate with the audience enough to keep them engaged

Pre-Event Activities for Participants

• Complete ChatGPT 101 & 102 Training to get basic understanding of prompt engineering best practices

• Brainstorm some use cases that could be solved with a GPT

Subject: 🚀 Join Us for the Upcoming GPT Hackathon!

Team - 

We’re thrilled to invite you to our upcoming GPT Hackathon, an exciting opportunity to collaborate, innovate, and explore the possibilities of GPT technology in solving real-world challenges.

Hackathon Details

• Date: [Insert Date]

• Time: [Insert Start and End Time]

• Location: [Insert Venue/Virtual Link]

• Agenda Highlights:

  • Welcome and Introduction to GPTs

  • Hands-on Hacking Session

  • Presentations & Awards

Why Participate?

• Learn & Innovate: Discover new GPT capabilities, experiment with solutions, and gain hands-on experience.

• Collaborate: Work with your peers on creative solutions to real challenges.

• Win Exciting Prizes: Compete for categories like Most Innovative Solution, Most Valuable to the Business, and People’s Choice Award.

How to Prepare

• Ensure you have completed ChatGPT 101 and 102 training to get an fundamental understanding of ChatGPT and GPTs

• Start thinking about potential use cases for GPTs in your work or workflows. See 

• Bring your creativity and enthusiasm—we’ll provide the rest!

We can’t wait to see what you’ll create! Let’s build something incredible together.

• Kickoff & Welcome (10–15 min) 

  • Facilitator welcomes participants and reviews agenda and structure of day

  • Facilitator reviews hackathon purpose and best practices

• Introduction to GPTs & Tips (20 min)

  • Trainer provides high-level overview of GPTs and how they fit into ChatGPT to reinforce learning from ChatGPT 102 training

• Hacking Session (2 hrs): Teams gather together to begin brainstorming and prototyping

  • Brainstorm business challenges

    • Teams gather to brainstorm business challenges, irrespective of ChatGPT capabilities

    • Questions to ask:

      • What do we spend too much of our time doing today?

      • What are painful bottlenecks in our existing processes?

      • What are key activities related to writing, brainstorming, research, and analysis that are critical to our day-to-day work?

      • What systems do we retrieve or send information to regularly?

  • Draft GPT instructions

  • Build and test GPT prototype

    • Because only one user can edit at a time, the collaboration should happen outside of the ChatGPT UI. Consider using a screenshare to review work together

  • Prepare for presentation

• Presentations & Awards (30-60 min)

  • Team GPT presentations

    • In random order, participants share their GPT using template slides

    • 5 minutes per team

      • Overview of business problem

      • Solution overview

      • Demo

      • Q&A

  • Judging/Voting

  • Awards

• Send email to participants (example template) to thank them for participating and share slides and links to GPTs

• Consider sending a survey to participants for feedback on event structure and gauge their appetite for additional engagement activities

• Find ways to highlight this work across the organization, not just to participants in the event

Subject: 🎉 Thank You for Participating in the GPT Hackathon!

Team - 

A huge thank-you to everyone who joined the recent GPT Hackathon and contributed to making it such a creative and inspiring event.

What’s Next?

As promised, we’re sharing the materials used during the hackathon to help you revisit, refine, and share your learnings. Attached, you’ll find the slide deck used during the event. This includes:

• An overview of GPT capabilities

• Best practices for developing GPTs

• Showcase and links to GPTs built during the Hackathon.

Highlights from the Event:

• Innovative Ideas: Teams presented solutions addressing real-world challenges such as [Insert Specific Example Here].

• Impactful Prototypes: Many ideas showcased the potential to drive efficiency and creativity in [Insert Domain/Function].

• Collaboration & Learning: Participants demonstrated exceptional teamwork and learned new techniques to maximize GPT's potential.

Share Your Feedback!

We’d love to hear from you about your experience. Please take a moment to fill out this short [feedback survey link]. Your input helps us shape future hackathons to be even better.

Keep the Momentum Going

Whether it’s refining your prototype, exploring new use cases, or sharing your learnings with your team, we encourage you to keep experimenting. If you need any support or have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Let’s continue pushing the boundaries of what GPT can achieve!