The Climathon as the enabler of lifelong sustainability and entrepreneurial education

Social sciences, particularly business and management, are now adopting hackathons, traditionally used in IT, to enhance entrepreneurship skills. These co-creative activities, lasting one or two days, involve teams generating ideas or facing challenges. Climathons aim to empower citizens to combat climate change through local activation and collaboration. This study investigates the effectiveness of a Climathon in promoting sustainable entrepreneurial mindsets. Two Climathons were held in Greece in 2023, Lavrio and Agia Paraskevi, to assess the effectiveness of these events. A self-assessment survey was developed and disseminated, with the Climathon participants seeking to provide answers to two research questions: first, whether a Climathon can be utilised as a mechanism to enhance awareness and motivate participants to embrace sustainable practices, and second, which soft skills essential for an entrepreneurial attitude are activated during a Climathon. Results indicated an increased participants' comprehension of sustainability after taking part in the Climathon. The study also found that awards and team leadership experience were significant predictors of sustainability education, which could impact workforce development and corporate training. Problem-solving skills were found to be non-significantly associated with sustainability education. Improving one soft skill could promote the development of additional talents, such as time management and collaboration. Finally, the study identified operational gaps in organising ideathons and suggested areas where future Climathons should focus, such as workshops, team challenges, and solution-creation sessions over expert talks.