Until not long ago, I didn’t even know the word “hackathon.”
Then, for the first time, someone told me that
“Hackathon” is a word that combines “Hack” and “Marathon.”
At that moment, I thought,
“Oh, so the ‘thon’ in hackathon comes from marathon.”
and it made a strange amount of sense to me.
Strictly speaking, it’s a combination of “Hack” and “Marathon,” but the moment I learned that, the word “hackathon” suddenly became much easier to remember.
And that led to my next question:
So are there other “-athon” events?
When I looked into it, there were.
Ideathon.
Datathon.
Makeathon.
And, with a slightly different kind of name,
Game Jam.
Even more words I didn’t know.
But as I looked into them, they all seemed a bit similar to hackathons, with something slightly different at the center of each one.
This time, I decided to look into the question that started when I learned that “the ‘thon’ in hackathon comes from marathon.”
An Ideathon is about “coming up with ideas first”
As the name suggests, an Ideathon is often used to mean an event centered on coming up with ideas.
At a Hackathon, you’re often expected to actually build something that works, like an app or a service.
But at an Ideathon, you don’t necessarily have to go that far.
You think about a theme.
You find problems.
You talk as a team.
You think about solutions.
And at the end, you present your ideas.
Some events follow that kind of flow.
For example, JAXA also announced a call for participants in 2026 for “Space Harvest Ideathon,” an international educational program.
The theme was to come up with ideas for plants and growing methods suited to food production in space, assuming long-term stays on the Moon or Mars in the future.
Here too, the focus is first and foremost on
what kinds of ideas are out there.
Ideathons might be easier for non-engineers to join
This connects to what I’ve felt from joining AI hackathons so far.
At a hackathon, things move on to
“So, how do we actually build this?”
And once it turns into a technical conversation, suddenly there’s a lot I don’t understand.
But at the stage of thinking about
who is struggling,
what would be interesting to make,
how people would use it,
and what features are needed,
I can take part too.
Institute of Science Tokyo also runs Ideathons as workshops that use design thinking to generate business ideas.
So if you feel like
jumping straight into a hackathon is a little scary,
starting with an Ideathon might be one way in.
A Datathon is all about data
Next up, the Datathon.
This one is pretty easy to understand.
It’s often used to mean an event centered on solving problems with data.
The Psychometric Society describes a Datathon as a competition where teams work on a shared data-related challenge within a limited period of time.
As final deliverables, teams may submit not only reports but also things like analysis code.
In other words, rather than
“Let’s build an app,”
the starting point is
“What can we learn from this data?”
For people who are good at data analysis, statistics, or machine learning, it sounds like it could be really interesting.
Datathons seem harder for me than hackathons
This is completely just how I feel right now, but
out of the four,
Datathons seem the furthest from me.
Looking at a dataset,
figuring out how to analyze it,
writing code,
and interpreting the results.
All of that looks like it requires quite a bit of specialized knowledge.
Of course, I’m sure some events are beginner-friendly.
And with generative AI, the ways in may be wider than they used to be.
But if I saw “Datathon” on an event page right now,
I think I’d read the participation requirements and the required skills very carefully first.
A Makeathon puts “actually making things” even more front and center
At a Makeathon, getting hands-on and actually making something is very much front and center.
In the description of a Makeathon published by MTF Labs, participants form teams and tackle real-world problems using things like prototyping techniques, microcontrollers, sensors, and craft materials.
At this point,
the atmosphere seems a bit different from events that happen entirely on a computer.
Connecting sensors.
Assembling things.
Trying to make them work.
Failing.
Fixing them again.
It seems like it could feel close to “crafting.”
If you’re looking for events involving not just AI but also robots, IoT, or hardware, it seems like you might come across the name Makeathon.
The “Jam” in Game Jam isn’t from marathon
And then there’s the Game Jam.
This is the only one that isn’t an “-athon.”
I also wondered whether this might be an event similar to a hackathon, so I looked it up.
According to Global Game Jam, the “Jam” in Game Jam comes from musical jam sessions.
Musicians get together and make music on the spot.
In the same way, people get together and make games in a short amount of time.
Besides digital games, people sometimes make analog games, like board games or card games.
Once you know where the name comes from, it’s much easier to remember.
Game Jams are pretty close to hackathons
Global Game Jam itself describes Game Jams as being similar to hackathons.
Participants get together,
a theme is announced,
and within a limited time,
they make a game from start to finish.
It’s not just programming — there are many different roles, like
game design,
story,
graphics,
music,
and testing.
Looking at it this way, it’s actually pretty similar to the AI hackathons I’ve been joining.
The difference is that what you make in the end is a game.
If you like games, searching for “Game Jam” instead of only “Hackathon” might help you find a completely different set of events.
Different names, but a lot in common
Ideathon.
Datathon.
Makeathon.
Game Jam.
When you line them up like this, what’s at the center of each one is different.
For an Ideathon, it’s ideas.
For a Datathon, it’s data.
For a Makeathon, the focus is on actually making things.
For a Game Jam, it’s games.
But they have a lot in common:
people get together and think about or make something within a limited time.
So for me, it’s easiest to think of all of them as
“part of the same family as hackathons.”
Strictly speaking, they’re each different kinds of events, but for someone hearing about them for the first time, I feel like it’s fine to start with that level of understanding.
You can’t tell how easy an event is to join from its name alone
And there was one more thing I realized while looking into all this:
it’s better not to make assumptions about an event based on its name alone.
For example, some Datathons take place over a short period like a day or a weekend, while others run over a longer stretch of time.
Some Ideathons stop at coming up with ideas and presenting them, while others also ask you to go further and build a prototype.
And even if something says “Hackathon,” some are beginner-friendly, while others require quite strong technical skills.
In other words, it’s hard to judge just from the name, like
“It’s a Hackathon, so it must be like this. It’s an Ideathon, so it must be like that.”
In the end, you need to look at the event page closely enough to see
what you’ll be making,
who can join,
whether it’s team-based,
what skills are needed,
and what you need to submit.
I think this is a really important point when I organize event information on this site, too.
From the “thon” in hackathon, I found more events I didn’t know about
This whole question started when I learned that
“the ‘thon’ in hackathon comes from marathon.”
That was all it was,
but from there,
Ideathon,
Datathon,
Makeathon,
Game Jam —
names of events I didn’t know kept connecting one after another.
Not long ago, I didn’t even know the word “hackathon,” and now I even have more words to search with.
From now on, when I look for events, I want to search not just for
“AI Hackathon,”
but also for words like
“AI Ideathon,”
“AI Datathon,”
“AI Makeathon,”
and “AI Game Jam.”
Just learning one word can suddenly make events visible that you couldn’t see before.
There may be more ways into events I can join than I thought.