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ASOIF
19 May 2023

IF development and education experts gather at ASOIF Workshop

Earlier this week, ASOIF’s Sport Development and Education Workshop brought together 50 experts from 29 Summer and Winter Olympic International Federations (IFs). Organised by the ASOIF Sport Development and Education Group (ASDEG), the Workshop focused on the common challenges and opportunities related to digitalisation, the centralisation of information, the evaluation of return on investment of IF development programmes, new revenue sources for such programmes, and sport initiations at multi-sports events.

The highly interactive event was held on 16 and 17 May in Lausanne, Switzerland, led by the Chair of ASDEG Deqa Niamkey, Development Director at United World Wrestling (UWW). Several representatives from ASOIF member federations presented case studies and shared best practice, while a number of external experts provided additional insights into the topics addressed. Cynthia Amami and Margaux Kaltenbacher from Olympic Solidarity shared their experience on successful methods and tools to centralise information, whereas Jonas Gredenhag from PGA Tour explained how new ways of data collection have helped to enhance professional golf tournaments. Katie Brazier from Birmingham City Council and Lilia Barieva from the International University Sports Federation (FISU) then presented successful examples of innovative sport initiations at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the World University Games respectively. During another session, Elena Portas and Patrick Massey from Portas Consulting discussed social return on investment with the Forum participants.

ASDEG23B

ASDEG Chair Deqa Niamkey said after the Workshop:

Development and education are crucial to solid foundations and the healthy future of every sport. It's great to see that each year, our Workshop attracts more IF colleagues and the discussions and outcomes are really constructive. We aim to address pressing topics that concern all of us in a pragmatic way to find joint solutions. This year, digitalisation, the centralisation of information and evaluating the return on investment of development programmes featured high on the agenda. I am optimistic that every one of us will go back to our own federation with important takeaways.

The Workshop facilitates a united approach of a large number of IFs in the implementation of their sport development and education projects. This allows efficiencies in terms of human and financial resources, ensures a certain consistency across the sports and thereby maximises the impact of the related IF activities overall.