How to go about developing a hackathon?

1.They don't think strategically long term 2.They don't understand that their true assets are their people and are afraid of excellence instead of promoting it 3.Their leadership lacks development

The best ones are done over the weekend. My favorite schedule for it is from Saturday morning until Sunday noon. You could make it a competition for people to build something to solve something specific. They have the liberty to do whatever tool they think best to solve that problem. Also, make sure the prize is useful for them.

Here are some suggestions for protecting your product idea and taking steps to realize it without fear: File a provisional patent application with the USPTO. This establishes an early filing date and allows you to further develop the idea for a year before deciding on a regular patent. Conduct a prior art search to ensure your idea is truly novel and non-obvious. Document any prior art you find for future reference. Mark all development documents, drawings, prototypes, etc. with clear copyright and do not publicly disclose details until protections are in place. Incorporate as an LLC or similar entity. This provides liability protection as you work to commercialize. Start small, build an MVP, get early customer feedback, and validate assumptions before going all in. De-risk as much as possible. Consider bringing on an experienced co-founder or advisor you trust for guidance and support. Apply to startup accelerators or incubators. The structure and funding can help propel ideas forward. Look for grants and other non-dilutive funding sources if possible in the early stages. Don't share too widely until you are ready to partner or license. Sign NDAs with any potential partners or investors. The key is establishing ownership, validating demand, de-risking, and then scaling incrementally with the right support. Patents, entity protection, and early customer feedback can help build confidence to pursue the idea further.

Everyone likes innovation and will rah-rah for it until it gores their ox. The misalignment of incentives and innovation is always the biggest problem. Technology challenges can always be beaten into submission. Real innovation is by definition upsetting to the status quo, and it takes intestinal fortitude on the part of the leadership (not management, _leadership_) to face the incentive issue and get the org properly aligned around change.

Ugh. Investors. Here's the harsh or maybe happy truth. If your Startup offering (product, service, information, courseware, consulting, etc) provides stellar value, then you require no investment. Do your launch + if money starts pouring in, either skip the investors of if you really must use investors (doubtful, if you're providing stellar value), then the more revenue you have, the better terms you'll get from investors.