With over 6000 students from 18 different nationalities and more than 200 yachts, the famous EDHEC CUP, the annual regatta organised by the EDHEC student association Course Croisière, is not only the biggest European sporting event for students, but also an exceptional training experience for future managers.

This year the event was held in the French city of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast and as always it attracted the interest of students from all over the world with participants coming from as far away as Canada. The event also attracted sports fans and the media. During the competition week there were 15000 visitors to the 12000m² village that was set-up especially for the event. 45000 people visited the official website www.ccedhec.com, 5 hours of TV and radio broadcasting were dedicated to the event and about 800 articles appeared in the press.

The EDHEC CUP attracts two types of sponsors; those who support the different crews by putting their name on a sail or a spinnaker (more than 400) and those who fund the event itself. Last year, the crews collected a total of 2.5 million euros from sponsors. The companies (among them names such as Ernst & Young, HSBC and Xerox) that support the organization as official partners supply computer equipment, drinks and food or deliver a specific service such as radio and television coverage. Last year the official sponsors accounted for 10% of the total budget, while 60% of the budget came from the registration fees. The other 30% came from the earnings from the additional activities and events accompanying the race.

For the students involved in the organization The EDHEC Cup teaches real-life skills needed for managing the organization of huge events. It gives them real hands-on experience to complement the subjects they learn at EDHEC. They manage a budget of €1.4 million, a figure considerably higher than that of the average small or medium sized enterprise and at the same time, they apply in practice everything they have learned about management in their coursework.

The 51 members, all first and second-year students in the Master in Management programme, are organised into 17 units around three departments: the Sports Department, the Logistics Department and the Communications Department. By systematically pairing off a first-year' with a second-year', the knowledge that has been gained over the course of time is passed on to the next generation.

The operation starts ten months before the event by choosing a location for the regattas, and coming to an agreement with a port which has all the necessary infrastructures. The location has to be able to accommodate 220 boats, a "village" for 6000 people and have an area of countryside where students organize the Land Trophy events (with the participation of more than 110 teams), a land competition that includes mountain-biking, sand-yachting, canoeing, orienteering races, abseiling, archery and shooting.

Students  unable to attend the EDHEC Cup, a special regatta was organized from April 29th to May 1st in Antibes, the 14th edition of the Azuréenne. Many students, even those with no sailing experience took part in this competition as part of a mixed crew of students and participants from the business world.

Plans for next year's EDHEC's regattas are already underway.