LAUSANNE – The 2020 World University Championships are well on track, as representatives of all the Organising Committees converged in Lausanne to learn, exchange ideas and plan for the months ahead. An intensive, productive and successful seminar concluded on Friday, 17 May, leaving the future hosts with much greater clarity on the event they will organise next year.
The three-day seminar started with the basics – on how to structure an Organising Committee and how to manage relationships with stakeholders, finally building up to details of specific functional areas like media, marketing and protocol.
WUC Event Manager Julien Carrel said this year’s edition of the seminar was even more special, because it was the first time that FISU hosted it in its new headquarters in Lausanne.
“It was great to bring people to the FISU offices, on the University (of Lausanne) campus,” he said. “I think it was really good for all of them to see what FISU is, how we function and to meet all our colleagues from different departments.”
“The objective really, is to share knowledge and define clearly to them what we expect from their Championship,” he continued. “But importantly, it is also to break the ice and for them to get to know each other, as well as us better. That’s also why we organised the first evening to bring everyone together.”
On their first evening in Lausanne, all 66 delegates were invited to join the FISU staff on board a dinner cruise on the waters of the beautiful Lake Geneva, or Lac Léman as it is known in these parts. Over dinner, the OC representatives began sharing their experiences and discussing their common challenges.
“It was nice to meet people from around the world who may be facing the same challenges as us and also to learn how they are solving them,” said Ronald Ligtenberg, (3rd from left in picture), President of the Organising Committee of the World University Speed Skating Championship to be held in the Netherlands. “It was a very useful seminar and we got a lot of information, in addition to the documents that receive.”
The seminar also brought forth experienced Organising Committees to share their stories with many first-timers. For example, the Organising Committee responsible for the 2018 World University Floorball Championship and the World University Cheerleading Championship, both held in Lodz, Poland, presented their marketing and promotional strategies.
It was an opportunity for future Organising Committees to learn from a successful, on-ground example.
“In this seminar, we got an overall understanding of event planning,” summed up Zoe Fu, Event Manager of the University World Cup 3×3, which is held in Huaqiao University, China. “In the three days of presentations, we learned all the details of how to host a standard FISU event. Many thanks to FISU for arranging this seminar for us, it was an unforgettable experience.”
The Chair of FISU’s World University Championships International Technical Committee, Marian Dymalski rounded off the seminar on Friday afternoon, by saying “We held this meeting to get to know each other. We had interesting exchanges and shared experiences. This seminar was really very fruitful and now we hope you will organise an excellent event. See you in 2020.”
The FISU World University Championship calendar for 2020 will include 26 Championships and one University World Cup, in 3×3 Basketball.
