At Friends of Bata, we believe entrepreneurship is best learned through action.
That spirit was fully alive during the EHL Innovation Sprint, a 24-hour innovation challenge hosted at the EHL Innovation Hub in Lausanne, Switzerland, where students from five leading Swiss institutions came together to build and test new ideas under extreme time pressure.
Representing Friends of Bata, our Switzerland-based Brand Ambassador Enrique Alvarado Hablützel joined the event as a mentor and jury contributor, helping guide teams as they moved from raw ideas to prototypes and final pitches in just one intense day.
A Cross-Institution Innovation Lab
The Sprint brought together students from:
- EHL Hospitality Business School
- ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne
- HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland
- EPFL
- EHL Hotelfachschule Passugg
Over 24 hours, participants formed interdisciplinary teams, explored real-world challenges, validated ideas with mentors, and rapidly developed prototypes before presenting their solutions to a jury. What made the experience unique was the open team formation process: students could join without a predefined idea, encouraging spontaneous collaboration between disciplines such as hospitality, design, technology, and business.
From Idea to Pitch in One Day
The Sprint followed a fast-paced structure designed to simulate real startup dynamics.
Friday — Kick-off
- Welcome and introduction
- Lightning idea pitches
- Idea voting and team formation
- Networking dinner
Saturday — Sprint Day
- Problem definition and value proposition design
- Business model development
- Rapid prototyping
- Pitch preparation
- Final presentations and jury Q&A
Within hours, ideas evolved into structured concepts supported by mock-ups, prototypes and business models.
Human-Centric Innovation Challenges
Participants explored a wide range of challenges focused on improving everyday life, including:
- Reducing human error at work through brain-wave measurement
- Using music to create stronger social connections at wedding events
- Helping travelers stay active by enabling gym access in hotels during the day
- Supporting individuals living with ADHD through community solutions
- Personalizing hospitality education using AI-powered learning modules
These topics reflected a strong mix of technology, design thinking and human-centered innovation.
Celebrating Bold Ideas
Two teams, Axonae and Tact, secured the top recognition, with the jury highlighting the clarity, feasibility and ambition of their solutions.
At the same time, mentors emphasized that the real achievement was the courage shown by every team — testing ideas publicly, iterating quickly and presenting solutions under pressure.
For Friends of Bata, events like this represent exactly what entrepreneurial learning should look like:
- experimenting before perfecting
- testing ideas early
- building together across disciplines
- learning from feedback in real time
The Sprint demonstrated how diverse teams and tight timeframes accelerate innovation, while mentorship helps transform rough ideas into clear and convincing pitches.
Because innovation rarely begins with a perfect idea.
It begins with people brave enough to build the first imperfect version together.
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