One of the target audiences for college hackathons are college students who have very little experience. I think they are a great learning experience, at least

One of the target audiences for college hackathons are college students who have very little experience. I think they are a great learning experience, at least your first few - they give you the confidence to sit down with a team and an idea and actually build it. When someone goes from never having built a mobile app to having a working iOS app they designed and built themselves with the help of a team and maybe a mentor, the hackathon was worth it. These are the weekends that will motivate them to decide to work on a startup with a friend, or realize they can be both programmer + designer at the same time.