SportAccord IF Forum 2014 a Huge Success
The SportAccord IF Forum in Lausanne this year was a huge success. Read below for a quick roundup of the events and activities.
CLOSING ADDRESS FROM THE PRESIDENT
The IF Forum provides the ideal platform for the international federations from where to adapt, every year, their management, marketing and media strategies to existing standards. It creates, at the same time, the most appropriate social environment that allows members and colleagues from the world of sports to interact with each other and the umbrella organisations.
We wish to thank our stakeholders and partners for their great support and trust, as well as ASOIF, AIOWF, ARISF, AIMS and IOC for their solidarity towards the Forum and the activities of the international federations.
The first SportAccord Convention: World Sport and Business Summit in Sochi aims to highlight and strengthen the liaison between sports, culture, arts, business, media and marketing offering the international federations the possibility to connect and interact, in order to improve their strategy of development and solidarity of their members for the benefit of their respective sports.
And last but not least, I wish to extend thanks to the SportAccord Convention and SportAccord teams, as well as to the Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne for their contribution and support.
VOTE OF THANKS FROM SPORTACCORD CONVENTION
NIS HATT, Managing Director, SportAccord Convention
The 8th edition of the IF Forum held at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne from November 3-5, under the working title ‘Innovation and Technology’ has been, in my mind, immensely successful. Not only has this year’s topic allowed international federations to share, learn and discuss, but also to walk away with tools and ideas that they will be able to implement.Looking ahead, we are shifting our focus to the SportAccord Convention – World Sport & Business Summit from April 19-24, 2015 in Sochi. This will be the launchpad for the new direction for the Convention which will embrace art, culture, construction, telecommunication and healthcare, in order to bring different industries in to the sphere of the sports world. In closing, I thank everyone associated with the IF Forum for their support and look forward to seeing everyone in Sochi in April 2015.
OPENING OF IF FORUM 2014
The 8th annual IF Forum opened in Lausanne on Monday, November 3rd with the promise of empowering top sports leaders from international federations with information and mutually beneficial exchanges. The IF Forum was opened by SportAccord President, Marius L. Vizer, who spoke of the importance of this year’s topic ‘Innovation and Technology’ for all member federations and the need for constant change.
“I believe that Agenda 2020, which will be decided in Tokyo, will help in taking best decisions on behalf of the sports world, which will be in their best interest and provide them with the best direction forward,” said Mr. Vizer.
Delivering a welcome address, IOC President, Thomas Bach, congratulated SportAccord for organising the theme of this year’s IF Forum and said, “We need to change at a time when we are successful and not when we are forced to. We need to be in the driver’s seat and not be driven around when it comes to the global sports movement.”
Olympic legend, Nadia Comaneci surprised all when she finished her keynote address with a perfect handstand. She recounted how she was surprised to note that she had only scored a ‘1.00’ in Montreal in 1976 at the end of her routine, simply because the scoreboard technology could not accommodate 4 digits with 2 decimal points. In her own words, “it was one time when the athletes were ahead of the technology on offer.”
Also delivering keynote addresses were Michael Peters, CEO of Euronews, who spoke of the importance of the new partnership between SportAccord and his organisation for ‘Sports United’, a new weekly sports news bulletin focusing on all sports, and Dr. Paul Hawkins, who gave a precise demonstration of howvideo refereeing could help eliminate errors from football, while making it even more viewer-friendly.
This year’s IF Forum attracted over 300 participants and featured more than 45 speakers and presenters.
DAY 2 OF IF FORUM
Day 2 of the IF Forum witnessed active interaction and participation from among the assembled delegates. The sessions and their take-aways included-
1. Innovative TV programming– Involving companies such as IEC in Sports, Panorama HD and others, the session spoke of the importance of high-quality HD signals in sports production globally, maintaining flexibility and mobility in production, and finally, enabling the viewers with choice by exposing them to multiple choices in sports and coverage elements.
2. Big Data in sports- Carlo de Marchis of Deltatre explained how Big Data can enhance the viewing experience for television viewers of sports events, empower broadcasters and federations with additional coverage options and also provide anlaytics that can help the experience from parking one’s car to walking inside a sports venue.
3. Innovative Equipment Technology in Competition Sport– Technology is at the forefront of change in sports globally and can impact safety, performance, excitement, risk and fair judgement. What are the limits to respect? Prof. Jan Anders-Manson of EPFL and AISTS provided an insight.
4. .sport- Uniting and Financing Sport– Imagine having a consolidated global calendar of sports at one click at your disposal. That is the reality of the SportAccord’s .sport project as SportAccord Director General, Vlad Marinescu led the discussion on how the project could help international federations monetize their activities further while using a common .sport domain for consolidation of services and data. The biggest advantage of the .sport project is that it would allow a young high-school athlete to gain exposure at an international level using a consolidated platform for information.
5. Technology and the law– Mediation is cheaper, more flexible and less time-consuming than arbitration. Watch as Stephen Townley, head of LawAccord led the assembled audience through the benefits of technology assisting the law and providing easier solutions to all sports.
DAY 3 OF IF FORUM
The closing day of the IF Forum provided insights to the assembled sports managers on the following-
3. Technology in Practice– Learn how the FIVB introduced technology into every aspect of volleyball and changed the complete experience of the world championships to make them an unqualified success. The use of LED nets and line technology is being experimented with to improve the experience of watching the sport even better.
Also, Ericsson shared a 5-point agenda on why every sport needs to create a virtual arena-
– To maximise value of a sport
– To re-position a sport
– To improve the on-site experience
– To improve the off-site experience
– To engage fans beyond the event
4. SportAccord website– SportAccord Director General, Vlad Marinescu led the audience through a detailed understanding of the new global sports calendar being incorporated into the upcoming SportAccord website, which would allow every sport a common platform to share event information, while providing users with easy one-click access to all sports happenings in a given place at one point of time.
APPEAL TO SPORTS TO #TARGETEBOLA
The sports world is never insulated from a global crisis and World Olympians CEO, Mike Miller made an appeal to all sports and sportspersons to come forward and support the fight against the Ebola outbreak.
If you would like to make a donation click here or use #TargetEbola on Twitter.
Tags: 2014 IF Forum, SportAccord
