Friday 03.05.2019

ECAL partners with IMD’s MBA program, UEFA and ThinkSport to innovate fans’ experience. Jury selects project from IMD/ECAL team about wearable tech to be considered for UEFA EURO 2024 in innovation challenge for IMD and ECAL participants (MA Product Design and MAS Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship), organized in partnership with UEFA and ThinkSport.

Two schools, two leading sports organizations, ninety MBAs, eighteen design students, one challenge: to come up with an innovative new way for fans to improve their experience watching live football. 

The winning project was Euroband – a wristband with RFID technology, which fans can use to track their families’ locations and purchase refreshments and other items during football matches at stadiums and fanzones. The team was comprised of Anita Lee, Joseph Pineda, Peter Shibaev, Maki Shimizu, Tamil Varda Thamizharasan all from IMD, and Benjamin Bichsel from the Master in Product Design at ECAL. 

18 teams pitched their projects to the jury and six teams were chosen for the finals. The teams combined IMD’s MBAs with a student from ECAL’s MA program in Product Design and MAS in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship to reproduce the mix of business and design expertise to replicate the makeup of multidisciplinary teams in the real world of innovation. Many of the projects focused on improving the football experience for families and people with special needs.

More info:

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2603629.html

https://www.imd.org/news/updates/imd-uefa-ecal-thinksport-innovation-week/

https://www.imd.org/news/updates/imd-uefa-ecal-thinksports-innovation-challenge-2019/

https://www.imd.org/news/updates/2019-uefa-innovation-challenge/