I agree with some of what this said. But disagree with quite a bit. Great point on the prize, having massive prizes leads to a startup demo day rather than a good hackathon.
Paypal does offer a $100k to the winning team at the end of their “hackathon season”, but does a good job of combatting startup demo day by having a theme like their current one, making an app for social good and checking to see all work was done during the event.
Disagree on sleeping rules. If you want to sleep, go for it. But to have rules that I have to sleep because you’re tired is ridiculous. We aren’t kids. Funny enough Paypal has sleeping rooms for those who want to sleep and they encourage it. When I competed at HackMIT they gave out an inflatable bed, penn apps gave out blankets and pillows. So many different hackathons help out with both energy drinks or sleeping its almost crazy that you want formal rules setup for this. Sorry but Id rather attend hackathons that are open and let hackers choose what they want to do.
Lots of college hackathons have lightning talks. They are great. Sadly not a big % of the hackers attend. I personally like to create and learn while doing. When I have questions i go to the mentors which is nice.