You are in the room on [date]. Four things to do before then.

This is a one-day, hands-on hackathon run together by Microsoft and GitHub. You start the day with an idea and finish it with a working web application published on a live address. You do not need a coding background — but you do need the four steps below, and together they take about twenty minutes.

Please finish all four by [date], three working days before the workshop. If any step is blocked by your IT policy, tell us now rather than on the morning.

Reply with your GitHub username

FOUR STEPS, ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES

Create a GitHub account

Send us your username

Go to github.com/signup and register with the email address your organisation has told you to use for this workshop. Choose a username your colleagues would recognise. If you already have a GitHub account, use that one — you do not need a second.

github.com/signup

Reply to this message with your GitHub username. A few days before the workshop we will invite you to the hackathon organisation. Accept the invitation when it arrives — and check your junk folder if it does not.

Reply to this email

Install VS Code and Git

Install the GitHub Copilot app

Both are free. Visual Studio Code from code.visualstudio.com, Git from git-scm.com. Install Git first: the GitHub Copilot app will not start without it. Accept the default options in both installers.

Get Visual Studio Code

Download it for Windows or macOS, sign in with the account from step one and leave it signed in. This is the app you will build with all day, so it is worth opening once before you arrive.

Get the Copilot app

AND BRING ONE IDEA

Something your team still does by hand

Think of one thing your team does with a spreadsheet, a shared inbox or a form that somebody re-types: a tracker, a checklist, a small lookup, a request form, a rota. The best hackathon ideas are boring, specific and yours.

You do not need to design it or write anything down. Bring the problem. Your team lead will help you cut it into something that can be finished, reviewed and published inside a single day.

PLEASE READ · GROUND RULES

The hackathon runs in a temporary GitHub organisation that Microsoft and GitHub set up and then delete. Use sample or made-up data only — no customer data, no personal data, nothing confidential. What you build on the day is a prototype, not a production system, and we will show you how to export it before the environment closes.

IF SOMETHING IS BLOCKED

■	Locked-down laptop? Ask your IT contact for Visual Studio Code, Git and the GitHub Copilot app today — the approval usually takes longer than the installation.
■	Cannot reach github.com from the office network? Tell us now and we will arrange an alternative before the day.
■	Not sure which email address to use? Reply and ask. It is quicker than guessing and it saves re-inviting you later.

Reply and we will sort it out

Questions? Reply to this email and we will come back to you.

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