In April 2026, more than 500 students and young professionals spent 48 hours on the campus of the Technical University of Munich building AI prototypes for four industry challenges. The event was called a makeathon (European Hackathon League, 2026). A few years earlier, the same word mostly stood for a workshop full of soldering irons, cardboard and 3D printers. Today it covers both. The labels for hackathon variants have drifted so far that the name on the poster no longer tells participants, sponsors or judges what will happen in the room.
That is a problem if you run an accelerator, a university entrepreneurship centre or a corporate innovation team. Somebody approves your budget: a head of innovation, a dean, a sponsor. They will not ask what the format was called. They will ask what came out of it. This guide compares the five common variants (ideathon, hackathon, makeathon, designathon and datathon) by what each one produces, who has to take part, what it needs and how judges should score it.
Our view in one sentence: choose the variant by the output you need on the Monday after the event, then invite the people that output requires. The name is the last decision, not the first.
What is the difference between a hackathon, ideathon, makeathon and designathon?
All five formats share the same skeleton. Small teams work on a set challenge for a fixed time, mentors help, and a jury scores the results at the end. They differ in what the teams are expected to produce:
- An ideathon is a time-boxed event where teams develop and pitch concepts, not working code.
- A hackathon is a time-boxed event where teams build a working software prototype, usually in 24 to 48 hours.
- A makeathon is a time-boxed event where teams build a physical or hardware prototype; in 2026, the term is also used for AI build events.
- A designathon is a participatory event where teams develop solutions together with the people who will use them, in three stages: preparation with end users, an intensive collaborative phase and a follow-up for implementation (practical guide by the World Health Organization and its research programme TDR, 2024).
- A datathon is a time-boxed event where teams analyse a prepared dataset to answer a set question.
The table puts the five variants side by side from the organiser’s point of view.
| Variant | Output on Monday | Who must be in the room | What the venue needs | Typical length | What judges score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideathon | Scored concepts and pitches | Domain experts, people who do not code, the problem owner | Workshop room, facilitation, mentors | Half a day to one day | Problem fit, originality, feasibility |
| Hackathon | A running software demo | Developers, designers, product people | Wi-Fi, power, test data, access to interfaces | 24 to 48 hours | Working prototype, problem fit |
| Makeathon | A physical or built prototype | Engineers, makers, designers | Workshop, tools, materials, safety briefing | One to three days | Function, usability, cost to make |
| Designathon | A concept tested with end users | End users, designers, domain experts | Co-design space, recruited end users, follow-up plan | 3 hours to 7 days of intensive work | Fit for users, feasibility, implementation plan |
| Datathon | An analysis or model on given data | Data scientists, analysts, domain experts | Cleared dataset, data dictionary, secure environment | One day to one week | Answer to the question, method, limits of the data |
Source: Converve editorial comparison; designathon length from the systematic review by Tieosapjaroen et al., BMJ Global Health, 2024. Other lengths are typical ranges, not rules.
Read the table row by row and one column stands out: who must be in the room. That column decides your recruitment, your venue and your budget. A makeathon with forty developers and no workshop is a hackathon with cardboard. An ideathon with only developers produces software ideas that nobody in the business can judge. The participants define the format.
Start from the output you need on Monday
If the participants define the format, the output defines the participants. That gives you a simple rule. If you need code, run a hackathon. If you need a physical prototype, run a makeathon. If you need ideas from people who do not code, run an ideathon. If end users must shape the solution, run a designathon. If the asset is a dataset, run a datathon.
Choosing the format
Five questions, in this order
- Output What must exist on Monday? A concept, a software demo, a built object, a concept tested with users or an analysis. Pick one.
- People Who can produce it? List the skills the output needs, then the groups that have them. Recruit for that mix.
- Room What does the venue need? Tables and walls, a workshop with tools, end users on site or a secure data environment.
- Owner Who receives the result? Name the person who will use the output after the event and invite them to the final pitches.
- Name Only now: choose the label Use the word your audience knows and explain it in one sentence on the invitation.
This order also prevents a common mix-up. Our guide on how to host a hackathon sorts hackathons by goal: talent, internal innovation, corporate startup challenges and ecosystem building. The variants here answer a different question: what kind of result that goal needs. The two combine freely. A talent goal can run as a makeathon for engineering students. A corporate startup challenge can run as a datathon when the problem sits in the data.
Ideathon: when the best ideas come from people who do not code
The first variant removes the build almost entirely. An ideathon brings people together who know a problem well but would never sign up for a coding weekend: nurses, sales staff, students of every subject, customers. In half a day or a day, teams frame the problem, develop concepts and pitch them. The output is a short list of scored ideas.
That is also its weakness. Picture a jury scoring twelve slide decks about a better hospital discharge process. Without a nurse or an IT lead on the jury, the most polished deck wins, not the most workable one. Polish is not feasibility.
Three choices make an ideathon useful:
- Put at least one person per team who can judge what is technically possible, or add a feasibility check to the jury criteria.
- Give every team the same one-page concept template, so the jury compares ideas rather than presentation skills.
- Decide before the event what happens to the three best concepts: a follow-up workshop, a budget for a prototype or a place in a later hackathon.
The difference to a hackathon fits in one sentence. An ideathon ends with a concept; a hackathon ends with something that runs. Many programmes use the two in sequence: an ideathon to find the right problem, a hackathon or makeathon a few weeks later to build for it.
Makeathon: from soldering irons to AI builds
Where the ideathon removes the build, the makeathon traditionally makes it physical. The format grew out of the maker movement: teams work in a workshop with tools, 3D printers, microcontrollers and sensors, and the result is an object you can hold and test. That changes the organiser’s job more than any other variant.
Hardware does not forgive missing parts. At two in the morning on the first night, the team that needs a motor driver discovers that the box of spare parts does not contain one. Send a parts list to teams a week ahead, order a buffer of common components, and plan a safety briefing before anyone touches a laser cutter. Your venue needs workbenches, ventilation and someone who knows the machines, not only Wi-Fi and coffee.
The Munich example shows the second meaning. The TUM.ai Makeathon describes itself as a 48 hour AI hackathon, and its teams build AI prototypes for industry challenges (TUM.ai, 2026). Nothing is wrong with that use of the word, but it confuses applicants. When you see “makeathon” on an invitation, ask what teams will build. When you write one, say it in the first sentence.
Judging also shifts. In a makeathon, a jury can test the object: does it do what the team claims, can a user operate it, what would it cost to make again? A demo that only works when its builder holds the cable at the right angle should score lower than a slower prototype that works every time.
Designathon: put the end users in the room
Makeathons test whether something works. Designathons test whether it works for the people who will use it. The format is best documented in health research, where it has been studied systematically.
Designathons in research
What 42 studies show
The review describes a designathon as a three-stage participatory activity informed by design thinking. The practical guide by the World Health Organization’s research programme TDR names the stages: preparation with end users, an intensive collaborative period, and follow-up to implement the solutions (WHO/TDR, 2024). Two of those three stages happen outside the event. For you as an organiser, that means most of the work is recruitment before and follow-up after, not the sprint itself.
The median figures also help with planning. Around 50 people in eight teams is a size one facilitator team can handle. If your board asks what such an event costs, keep your own figures: with only two detailed cost reports in 42 studies, nobody else can give you a reliable benchmark yet.
Designathons fit wherever the users are not the buyers: patients and hospitals, citizens and public services, students and universities. If the people who will live with the solution cannot be in the room, choose another variant. Without end users, it is just a design workshop.
Where the datathon fits
The fifth variant starts with neither an idea nor a build, but with data. At a datathon, every team works on the same prepared dataset, so the quality of that data sets the ceiling for every result. The bottleneck moves from the room to the data release: whether the data fits the question, is ready to use and is cleared for outsiders. Our guide on how to organise a datathon covers those checks and an eight-week plan, so we keep this section short.
Whatever the variant, the Monday after decides
Five variants, five outputs and one shared weakness: most results stop moving soon after the event. A study of hackathon projects on the platform Devpost by Nolte, Chounta and Herbsleb (2020) found that more than a third of projects showed some continuation activity, but only about 5 per cent continued for more than five months. Short-term continuation was linked to winning and to technical preparation. Long-term continuation was linked to the mix of skills in the team and to the team’s intention to take the project further.
Those findings translate to every variant in this guide. The right mix of skills means something different in each: a nurse in the ideathon team, a mechanical engineer in the makeathon team, a patient in the designathon team. The intention to continue can be part of your jury criteria. And the person who receives the result should meet the winning teams before everyone leaves, with a date in the calendar rather than a promise by email.
Both start at registration. If you ask applicants only for name and company, you cannot build mixed teams. Our guide to registration questions for matchmaking shows which questions to ask before and after confirmation. That is how you give the person who signed the budget an answer three months later.
Solution: Converve supports the people side of formats in which teams meet challenge owners, mentors, sponsors or exhibitors. Registration questions capture each participant’s skills, background and interests, and your team can use those answers to put mixed teams together before the event. Challenge owners, mentors, sponsors and teams then request and confirm one-to-one meetings in time slots you define, based on a rule-based meeting matrix that your team controls. Our solution for startup and investor events shows how this works in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ideathon?
An ideathon is a time-boxed event, usually half a day to one day, in which teams develop and pitch concepts for a set problem without building working code. It suits early stages, when the problem is not yet clear, and audiences that include people who do not code.
What is the difference between an ideathon and a hackathon?
An ideathon ends with a concept and a pitch; a hackathon ends with a working software prototype. Ideathons are shorter and open to any background, while hackathons need developers and usually run for 24 to 48 hours.
What is a makeathon?
A makeathon is a hackathon variant in which teams build a physical or hardware prototype, typically in a workshop with tools, microcontrollers and 3D printers. Some events, such as the TUM.ai Makeathon in Munich, now use the term for AI build events, so check what teams will actually build.
How do designathons work?
A designathon runs in three stages: preparation with end users, an intensive collaborative phase in which mixed teams develop solutions with those users, and follow-up for implementation (WHO/TDR, 2024). A global review of 42 studies found a median of 49 participants in 8 teams and an intensive phase of 3 hours to 7 days (Tieosapjaroen et al., BMJ Global Health, 2024).
Which hackathon variant should I choose?
Choose by the output you need after the event. Code calls for a hackathon, a physical prototype for a makeathon, ideas from people who do not code for an ideathon, solutions shaped by end users for a designathon, and answers hidden in a dataset for a datathon.
How many participants does a hackathon variant need?
It depends on the format, not the name. A designathon in research typically has around 50 participants in eight teams (BMJ Global Health, 2024), while open makeathons and hackathons can host several hundred. More important than the number is the mix of skills in each team.
Conclusion: name the format last
The words ideathon, makeathon and designathon sound like different events, and sometimes the same word describes very different ones. That is why the label is a poor starting point. Start with the output you need on Monday, then recruit the people who can produce it and prepare the room they need. Only then choose the name, and explain it in one sentence.
The person who signed your budget will judge the event by what moved afterwards. So plan the teams, the jury and the meetings after the event as carefully as the format itself. If your programme ends on a stage, our guide on how to run a pitch competition covers the format that often follows.
Want to plan the teams and the meetings around your next innovation event? Get in touch with Converve.
