HackUDC Management App
React Native app for HackUDC staff. Check-ins, food passes and attendance tracking, all from a phone on the event floor.
Overview
Most of the work at a hackathon isn't the code, it's the logistics: getting people through the door, feeding them, and knowing who's actually in the building at any given moment. HackUDC 2026 needed one tool for staff to do all of that from their phones, and this is it.
It's a React Native/Expo app talking to the event backend. Staff use it to look people up, scan badges, check attendees in and out, hand out meal passes and read live numbers off a dashboard. The whole thing is built to be used one-handed while standing at a busy door, and it holds a session for a full day without making anyone log in again.
The part I'm most proud of isn't visible in the app itself. I set up App Store Connect for our organization from scratch, fought hard against INFORMA D&B and Apple to get our non-profit status recognized for Apple Developer's fee waiver, and handled the provisioning profiles, app validation and distribution so staff could actually install a signed build on their iPhones. That side of shipping to iOS is fiddly and usually undocumented, and getting it working was most of the battle.