As a student, hackathons in 36, 24 hours have mostly been like field trip to another campus. But cool learning about other companies I didn't know and students

As a student, hackathons in 36, 24 hours have mostly been like field trip to another campus. But cool learning about other companies I didn't know and students I would never meet but I feel like I never really make a good project if I go in without any thought-out idea. Forget learning a new tech well enough to use it.