Hackathons are participatory event. You don't show up to watch or to hang out; you show up to lead or to join a team of other developers to imagine, create, and build something cool and useful in the course of a single day. This may sound impossibly ambitious. It is not. You can get a lot done when you can ignore your inbox and simply focus on the task at hand. The ability to tap in to high-level services certainly helps, as does the fact that everyone shows up expecting to work.

More information and Sign up instructions: http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2011/09/big-data-hackathon-at-splashoopsla-portland-october-2011.html