Students create marketing concepts for the first official beach chair slalom world championships

The first official Beach Chair Slalom World Championship is to take place from 12 to 14 June 2026 as part of the Baltic Sea Sports Games and is being organised by the harbour office. Teams from Cottbus, the region and beyond are expected to compete against each other in this unusual sporting competition.
In the "Marketing Management" module, Business Administration students from the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) worked in small groups to develop creative and strategic concepts for the successful marketing of the event. They focussed on three areas: attracting international participants, gaining sponsors and increasing the event's reach.

Professor Florian Dost, head of the ABWL chair, in particular Marketing, emphasises the importance of cooperation between university and practice: "We are very pleased to be able to support our practice partner Hafenbüro with this great international event as part of the Marketing Management module. We hope that our students' ideas will help to make the event a complete success."

Three selected student teams presented their concepts to the chair of ABWL, in particular Marketing, and a representative of the Cottbus Port Office on 9 February 2026 and received direct feedback.

Concept 1: Participants win

"Probably the craziest competition in Europe", as the team describes the event, is intended to attract young participants in particular. Various activities on the BTU campus and in Cottbus city centre are designed to get teams excited about the competition. The main prize is a beach chair.

Concept 2: Gaining reach

With the help of word-of-mouth propaganda and influencer marketing, the aim is to get as many spectators as possible excited about the event. In addition to activities in the sports sector (including university sports or local football matches) and the university environment, there should also be gamification elements and free drinks via NFC tokens.

Concept 3: Visitor acquisition

The focus is on addressing the local audience - young adults and families, but also sponsors and the general city public. One of the ways this is to be achieved is by using a beach chair as a pop-up bar at Cottbus Barhopping. For example, the "Korb-A-Libre" or a "Ostseewasser" lemonade would be served there.

Studying business administration at BTU

The Bachelor's degree programme in Business Administration begins with a sound and broad basic education. The study programme attaches great importance to teaching scientific working methods, but at the same time combines these with practical relevance and funds the project-oriented application of the acquired knowledge (such as the project for the Beach Chair Slalom World Championships). From the 4th semester onwards, students can choose an individual specialisation.
The option of a co-op programme with practical placement is also particularly practice-oriented.