I attended this hackathon.

The biggest problem in these hackathons is that it's more about the pitching than the product.

At this particular one, they even told us, worry about the UI and the pitch, don't worry about the backend.

I've been to 5 hackthons total, including 2 Techcrunch disrupts, 2 angelhacks, 1 startup weekends. What I realize is that the winners aren't the best hacks, they are the best pitches, some people only demo their hacks for 2-3 seconds and it's questionable that it even works.

If the business person pitches well, and you have a good designer, you probably win.