Way more than Red Bull and couches, hardware hackfests have to be planned on to the T.
As anyone who has organized one will tell you, organizing hardware hackathons is notoriously hard to get right. In many ways hardware hackathons are more "advanced" from an organizational standpoint than their software cousins are because the nature of hacking hardware requires more tools and parts than the standard laptop, Ethernet cable, and Internet connection attendees at a software hackathon need.