Hackathons and idea competitions are "innovation theater" — performative activity that looks like innovation but produces nothing durable — unless they are wired into a defined system that captures their outputs and channels the best ones into the real innovation pipeline (staged funding, evidence review, a Organizational Landing Pad for Scaling Validated Ideas). Run in isolation, they generate enthusiasm and a pile of unowned ideas that die by default the moment the event ends, because no mechanism exists to carry a winning idea into Explore/Exploit Dual Portfolio Management.
This is a domain-specific instance of the broader failure pattern in Checkpoints vs. Performative Rituals (QBR Theater) and Transformation Theater: a ritual substitutes for a connected system.