Hey everyone, this is Sydney - Cole’s wife! I’m helping him organize this Hackathon for all of you! I wanted to quickly post some common FAQs regarding the Hackathon. We’ll keep this pinned for you until the event is over. I hope this answers any questions you have and gets you feeling confident for the event! 
1. Can I register after the competition starts?
Yes! Feel free to register for the Hackathon even after the competition has started on January 8th. You’ll still have plenty of time to build an agent and compete even if you register late.
2. Can I compete with a team or submit multiple agents?
No, the Hackathon is for individuals to compete with a single submission. In the future, we would love to host team Hackathons!
3. Do I have to register before submitting an agent?
Yes, you are required to register for the Hackathon prior to submitting. Simply because you agree to the terms of the competition when doing so. However, you can even register right before submitting your agent!
4. How do I submit my agent?
To submit your agent, you can head over to this page on the Live Agent Studio! This is also where you will submit agents outside of the Hackathon - we wanted to make it simple and keep it all in one place!
5. How do I build an agent for the Live Agent Studio to compete?
After registering for the Hackathon, follow the Live Agent Studio developer guide, which gives you everything you need to build an agent for the Studio and this competition. There are even examples given there to get you started quickly and a video Cole made to walk you through it!
6. How will I know if my agent was accepted into the Hackathon?
After submitting your agent, it will be automatically accepted into the Hackathon. You’ll receive a confirmation email from Jotform (our form provider) as well. Our team will review your submission and if there is any reason we can’t use the agent we will let you know through email. That way you have time to adjust anything in order to qualify for the Hackathon!
7. Will all agents be available for voting?
We don’t want to overwhelm you with too many options! Therefore, a first round of voting will be done by the oTTomator team! We will decide the top agents (likely around the top 25%-50%) and post them to the Live Agent Studio for you to vote on from Jan 26th - Feb 1st.
8. What is the oTTomator team’s criteria for judging agents?
For the initial round of judging, we will evaluate your agent based on:
- Innovation: Novelty of the idea.
- Functionality: How well the AI agent works.
- Usability: Ease of use and implementation.
- Impact: Solves a real-world problem.
- Presentation: How you present your agent (through comprehensive documentation and optionally a walkthrough video).
During the community voting phase, we hope you will vote based on criteria like this as well! 
9. What if I don’t register before January 8th?
You can register anytime during the submission period for the hackathon, even after the 8th! We just require you to register before submitting your agent, it can even be the same day!
10. What if I miss the deadline to submit my agent?
If you miss the deadline for the Hackathon that doesn’t mean you can’t submit your agent! We still want to see what you create outside of the Hackathon and will continue to showcase it to the world on the Live Agent Studio, so feel free to submit an agent anytime! We also want to host more Hackathons in the future, so please don’t feel like you missed out on your only chance to compete.
I hope this helps with some questions you may have about the hackathon, feel free to post any other ones you might have in the chat and we will do our best to help answer them!