I've won every hackathon i've ever entered (around 10 now). I enter them to win money or prizes, and as such take a cynical view of them which helped to find a

I've won every hackathon i've ever entered (around 10 now). I enter them to win money or prizes, and as such take a cynical view of them which helped to find a formula to present at them. Being confident wins over technical talent in most of the ones that offer prizes. Simply you need to show or tell the audience an example of you using X piece of software, pretend to be frustrated and then dramatically pause, and then start selling your version of it. Make them be sure they've had this problem before, even if they haven't.