Chapter 8: Setting Up Your Event on BuilderBase
Your event's digital home base
By now you've defined your objective, chosen a format, figured out the money, and sorted your venue or platform stack. Now it's time to set everything up on BuilderBase — the platform that ties it all together.
BuilderBase is designed to handle the operational backbone of your event: your public event page, participant registration, challenge management, team formation, project submissions, judging, and post-event analytics. This chapter walks you through getting it all configured.
Step 1: Create your event page
Your event page is the first thing potential participants see. It needs to answer all their questions quickly:
Essential information to include:
Event name and a clear, compelling description
Date, time, and duration (with timezone if online/hybrid)
Format (on-site, online, or hybrid)
Location (physical address for on-site, or "virtual" for online)
Who it's for (your target audience — be specific)
What participants will do (hack, learn, build, compete?)
What they'll get (prizes, experience, connections, skills)
Sponsors and partners (with logos)
Code of Conduct (link or embedded)
Tips for a great event page:
Lead with the "why" — why should someone spend their weekend here?
Use clear, simple language. Avoid jargon that might alienate newcomers.
Include a strong call-to-action: "Register now" should be impossible to miss.
Add photos from past events if you have them — social proof is powerful.
Make the schedule visible so people can see what to expect.
Step 2: Configure registration
Registration is your first interaction with participants. Make it smooth, collect what you need, and don't ask for more.
Fields to include:
Name (legal and preferred/display name)
Email address
Role or job title
Experience level (first-timer, some experience, veteran)
Participant type (developer, designer, product manager, domain expert, student, other)
What they're interested in working on (free-form — this helps you plan)
Team status: "I have a team" / "Looking for a team" / "Open to either"
Dietary restrictions (for on-site/hybrid)
Accessibility needs
How they heard about the event (tracking)
Agreement to Code of Conduct (mandatory checkbox)
Photo/media consent
Fields you might add depending on format:
T-shirt size (if providing swag)
Emergency contact info (for on-site events)
Timezone (for online/hybrid)
GitHub/portfolio link (if relevant)
Capacity management:
Set your maximum capacity. For free events, cap registration at 150% of actual capacity — about 65% of registrants will show up. This is remarkably consistent across events.
Enable a waitlist once capacity is reached.
Set a registration close date (usually 1–3 days before the event).
BuilderBase sends automatic confirmation emails — customise the message to include logistics info and community links.
Step 3: Set up challenges and tracks
Challenges give participants direction. Without clear challenges, people flounder — especially newcomers.
For each challenge/track, include:
A clear problem statement (what are they solving?)
Context and background (why does this matter?)
Success criteria (what does a good submission look like?)
Available resources (APIs, datasets, documentation, starter code)
Any constraints (required tech stack, specific deliverables)
Tips:
Make challenges broad enough that multiple approaches are valid, but specific enough that teams know what "done" looks like.
If sponsors are setting challenges, work with them to make the problem statement clear and the resources accessible.
Include at least one "open" challenge for teams who want to pursue their own idea.
Publish challenges on BuilderBase so participants can browse them before the event and start forming teams around shared interests.
Step 4: Enable team formation
BuilderBase's team formation tools let participants find each other before the event starts. This is especially valuable for online events where the natural "hey, want to team up?" conversations don't happen organically.
How it works:
Participants can browse who else is registered and what skills/interests they have
They can post project ideas or express interest in joining teams
You can facilitate matching based on skills, interests, and experience levels
Your role as organiser:
Encourage participants to engage with team formation early (mention it in confirmation emails)
Keep an eye on participants who are still solo as the event approaches — proactively connect them
Have "ready-to-join" projects available for people who arrive without a team (see Chapter 9 on the Project Cultivation Framework)
Step 5: Configure submissions
Set up the submission portal so teams know exactly what they need to deliver and in what format.
Typical submission fields:
Project name
Team name and members
Challenge/track category
Project description (what it does, why it matters)
Demo video URL (YouTube, Loom, Vimeo)
Code repository URL (GitHub, GitLab)
Live demo URL (if applicable)
Presentation slides (PDF or link)
Technologies used
Any supplementary materials
Tips:
Test the submission portal yourself — upload a test file, fill out every field, make sure it works
Set clear file size limits and document them
Consider requiring a demo video — it's more polished than live screen shares and creates a permanent record of what was built
Set and communicate the submission deadline clearly (with timezone!)
Step 6: Set up judging
BuilderBase's judging module handles rubric distribution, score collection, and automatic winner calculation.
To configure:
Define your judging criteria and point scale (see Chapter 15 for designing rubrics)
Add judge accounts — each judge gets access to the judging portal
Configure which submissions each judge will evaluate (all, or assigned subsets)
Set the judging timeline (when judges can start, when scores are due)
The flow for judges:
Judge logs into BuilderBase's judging portal
They see all assigned submissions with descriptions, demo videos, and links
They score each project against the rubric
BuilderBase calculates rankings and identifies winners
This removes the chaos of collecting scores via spreadsheets and manually computing winners — which is what most events do when they don't have a platform handling it.
Step 7: Test everything
Before you go live, walk through the entire participant journey:
Visit your event page as if you've never seen it. Is everything clear?
Register as a test participant. Does the confirmation email make sense?
Browse challenges. Are they clear and well-resourced?
Try the team formation flow. Can you find people and projects?
Submit a test project. Does the form work? Are file uploads working?
Log in as a test judge. Can you see submissions and score them?
Fix anything that feels confusing or broken. First impressions matter, and your event page is where most people decide whether to register.
Going live
Once everything is configured and tested:
Publish your event page
Share the registration link everywhere (see Chapter 12 on promotion)
Start driving registrations
Monitor signups and engagement through the BuilderBase dashboard
BuilderBase gives you real-time analytics — registrations, team formations, demographics — so you can see how your event is shaping up and adjust your promotion strategy if needed.
Key takeaways:
Your event page is your first impression — make it clear, compelling, and complete
Registration should be smooth and collect useful data without being overwhelming
Publish challenges early so teams can form around shared interests
Test the entire participant journey before going live — registration through judging
BuilderBase handles the operational backbone: registration, teams, submissions, judging, analytics
Set your free-event registration cap at 150% of actual capacity (65% show-up rate)