OC President Sergio Anesi
ROVERETO – The Winter Universiade Conference, titled ‘University Sport: Inspiring Innovation’, kicked off Monday morning, 8 December, in the city of Rovereto in Trentino.
A prominent focus of the conference is to highlight how sport can help innovate athletes to succeed in their education and the correlation that athletics and education can have to maximize the life and success of an athlete. The conference will touch upon the new innovations that are making their way into sport and how they affect not just athletics, but also education.
The opening remarks were made by the Mayor of Rovereto, Andrea Miorandi, before the President of Trentino 2013, Sergio Anesi, spoke about the event.
Other speeches were given by Rossana Ciufetti, who is the Director of the School for Sport at CONI, while Alison Odell, Chair of the FISU Educational Committee, gave a short dialect.
Daria de Pretis, Rector of the University of Trento, and Androulla Vassiliou, who spoke via video message and is the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, passed along pleasantries.
The two-day event also features six important keynote speeches:
– A new alliance between Innovation/Employment, Education/University and Sport;
– Academic Research and Sport: a new landscape for academia and innovation;
– Interconnections between applied research and sport;
– Innovation, University and Sports: a platform for action? The present and future;
– University and Innovation: the role of sport;
– University and Sport: a vision for the future.
The conference concludes Tuesday evening with the arrival of the Universiade Torch with the games officially beginning the next day on December 11th, highlighted by the Opening Ceremony that evening.
Matt Tidcombe, FISU Young Reporter