The focus of the conference was less on attending sessions and more on developing "hacks": displays of programming, scripting, configuration, or other techie prowess.
Hacks were presented in a raucous Friday night show and recognized at a Saturday banquet.
The best-received hacks were those developed on-site during the three-day conference, and those that embodied both remarkable technical skill and utter impracticality.
Subsequent MacHacks were held in an indistinct Holiday Inn along the Southfield Freeway in Dearborn, Michigan, adjacent to a CompUSA, a Wendy's, a Chili's, and not much else.
Unbeknownst to most of the attendees, a key goal of prize selection was to see just how outrageous items could be and still have contestants being willing to take them home.