Use case: a 72-hour hackathon run with Follow Lab Education

EGC Business Schools organise a national Hackathon every year: a 72-hour creative challenge that mobilises third-year students across all their campuses. In 2024 and 2025, Décathlon set the case: nearly 600 students, 20 campuses, teams immersed in the intensity of a creative marathon, with a finale at the Salon des Maires in Paris as the prize.
To run an event of this scale without losing track, the pedagogical team chose Follow Lab Education.
Their goal: coordinate the entire hackathon from a single platform, from kick-off to finalist selection.

A hackathon structured in 4 key phases

The team organises the pathway in clearly defined phases within Follow Lab Education:

Launch: presentation of the Décathlon brief, team formation, and platform access
The 72-hour marathon: continuous team follow-up, live exchanges with the partner, intermediate milestones
Deliverable submission: hand-in of the dossier and video in a dedicated space
Evaluation: scoring by juries, cross-campus peer evaluation, selection of the 5 finalists

Each phase is structured directly in the platform, visible to teams, facilitators, and Décathlon representatives alike.

The entire hackathon centralised in Follow Lab Education

With Follow Lab Education, pedagogical coordinators manage the entire event in one place:

real-time team tracking over the 3 days
live exchange forum between students and the Décathlon team (Q&A on the case in progress)
secure deliverable submission (dossier + video) by each team
evaluation grids completed directly by juries
cross-campus peer evaluation to objectify finalist selection

No more scattered emails, disorganised shared Drive files, or makeshift forms: everything is traced, dated, and accessible.

A smooth experience for students

On their side, teams access a dedicated space in Follow Lab Education where they find:

the partner brief and related resources
the forum to ask questions directly to Décathlon representatives
milestones and submission deadlines
the space to submit their dossier and video
feedback from their jury

From their phone or computer, they move forward without getting lost in scattered exchanges.

Less chaos, more focus on the challenge

Thanks to Follow Lab Education:

facilitators have a clear view of each team's progress over the 3 days
exchanges with the partner are centralised and accessible to all
cross-campus evaluation relies on structured data, not shared Excel files
finalist selection is traceable and justifiable

Students can focus on what matters: rising to the challenge.

Conclusion: running a multi-campus hackathon requires the right tool

A hackathon with 600 students across 20 campuses is a bold ambition, and a real logistical puzzle if the tools do not keep up!
Between real-time coordination, exchanges with the partner, collecting deliverables, and selecting finalists, pedagogical teams need a platform designed for group support, not a patchwork of general-purpose tools.
Follow Lab Education lets higher education institutions structure demanding programmes while offering an engaging experience for students.
In a context where partnerships with major national companies are becoming a marker of pedagogical quality, having a tool that measures up is no longer a detail, it is a condition for success.
👉 Discover Follow Lab Education:followlab.education