HealthcareExample
How might we reduce missed medical appointments among patients ages 18–30?
Partners
Bring us a problem worth solving.
Put a real challenge in front of talented college athletes and students, then watch what happens when they have a weekend to understand it, challenge assumptions, build solutions and make their case.
Ballathon partners don't just sponsor the competition. They give teams something worth competing for.
Become a Ballathon PartnerChallenge Partners
Put your problem in play.
Challenge Partners bring a real problem their organization, industry or customers face.
At Kickoff, the Challenge is revealed. Teams then decide how to attack it, what they need to learn, what they should build and what evidence they need to prove their case.
By the Final Whistle, you'll have multiple teams approaching the same problem from different perspectives.
One problem. Multiple teams. One weekend of concentrated innovation.
Real problems. Open possibilities.
What could a Ballathon Challenge look like?
The best Challenges start with a meaningful problem, not a predetermined solution. Partners provide the problem, relevant context and constraints. Teams decide how to attack it.
College AthleticsExample
How might we dramatically increase student attendance at women's sporting events?
MobilityExample
How might we get 20,000 people out of a stadium district faster without adding parking?
TalentExample
How might we help employers identify high-potential candidates based on demonstrated ability rather than résumés and interviews?
Consumer HealthExample
How might we make healthy eating easier and more affordable for college students living off campus?
Sport & LifeExample
How might we make the transition out of competitive athletics meaningfully better for former college athletes?
Your Challenge doesn't need to be about sports. It needs to be worth solving.
Illustrative examples — no Challenge Partner, event, prize, winner or result is implied.
Partner roles
How to get in the game
Challenge Partner
Bring the real-world Challenge teams compete to solve.
Technology Partner
Put your technology, tools or infrastructure in the hands of teams competing to build something better.
Prize Partner
Provide cash, expertise, technology or other resources that help recognize exceptional performance and move promising solutions forward.
Event Partner
Help bring a Ballathon competition to life on a campus or in a community.
National Partner
Build a season-long presence across Ballathon events, teams, campuses and the National Intercollegiate Leaderboard.
Why Ballathon
See what people can do, not what they say they can do.
Innovation
Put multiple teams to work on a problem your organization actually cares about.
Talent Identification
Watch students think, communicate, lead, collaborate, adapt and execute under real pressure.
Athlete Engagement
Build meaningful relationships with competitive, coachable college athletes across sports and schools.
Recruiting
Meet potential hires after you've already seen how they perform on a team.
Product & Customer Insight
See how emerging talent understands your problem, challenges assumptions and responds to the evidence it finds.
Campus Engagement
Create a meaningful presence with athletes, students, universities and the broader campus community.
Content
Capture the Challenge, competition, teams, breakthroughs, Final and Champion as a story worth following and sharing.
National Visibility
Build your brand into a growing intercollegiate competition rather than a one-time sponsorship activation.
Resources & prizes
Give great ideas somewhere to go.
Ballathon is designed to provide meaningful resources when teams produce work worth continuing.
CashTechnologyExpertiseDevelopment ResourcesServicesPilot OpportunitiesContract OpportunitiesContinued Support
Winning earns recognition. Evidence earns resources.
A Ballathon win does not automatically result in investment, funding or a commercial relationship. But when a team proves something worth pursuing, Ballathon is designed to give partners ways to help take it further.
Put a real problem in play.
Give talented teams something worth solving and see what they can do with it.
Become a Ballathon Partner