On the eve of its official Congress the FIH took the chance to host a Forum for all the hockey delegates from around the globe. With the theme, “It’s All About Events” delegates had the opportunity to gain knowledge and insight on the many aspects of hosting events from a panel of experts.
The forum, which was sponsored by Musco Lighting, was broken into two parts. The morning session was one large group with four keynote addresses, while the afternoon featured various breakout sessions for the delegates in smaller working groups.
“Events are the backbone of every international federation and we thought this Congress was the perfect chance to hold a forum that highlighted both the FIH and organizer’s needs for events of all sizes,” said FIH CEO Kelly Fairweather. “We had a great turnout for the forum which shows the need for such a platform. I think everyone took something away from the day that they can use at their next event.”
The morning kicked off with FIH Competitions Committee Chairman taking the delegates through the FIH event portfolio, laying out the vision for the next cycle for the FIH calendar of events.
The second presentation was a perfect follow-up with FIH Event Director Sarah Massey taking the delegates through the Hockey World League process. Massey outlined the four-round process and provided feedback from the Round One hosts to date. Outside the forum meeting room, there was also a Hockey World League exhibition for all nations to see first-hand the progress of hockey’s newest competition.
After the delegates heard the FIH side of event hosting, they had the opportunity to learn about hosting from the Organizing Committee side when Hilary Poole and Thomas Lund presented the benefits of hosting an event. Poole was instrumental in the recent hosting efforts of the Champions Trophy when it was in New Zealand and explained how to get the most out of such a major event.
The morning session closed with a presentation on the event bidding process to give delegates a better idea of what is expected when bidding for an event in addition to the follow-through steps.
In the afternoon, delegates could select one of three breakout workshops to attend: Revenue Maximization, Using Events as a Driver to Develop a Marketing Plan, or Capacity Building to Enable Event Hosting.
Tomorrow will feature the main event of the week when the FIH Congress takes place.
