Beijing by night, along Houhai Lake. Image CC: Morio
BEIJING —FISU President represented the University Sport Movement late last week at the Host City Asia Conference by delivering a keynote address “Reaching New Audiences” at an event originally launched by the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to facilitate knowledge transfer on all aspects of event hosting.
Asia is still a tiger in the major events hosting market with China alone looking to invest over one trillion USD in sports in the next ten years as Asian cities look for leading global partners to develop their sports and entertainment sectors. The conference brought together international event owners and Asian destinations, investors and suppliers, for strategic relationship building and to gain valuable insight into future sports business trends within the region.
The keynote presentation by President Matytsin focused on FISU’s efforts to promote sports among the world’s students. He also spoke specifically about FISU’s experience in Asia, as the continent has been, and continues to be, a key destination for FISU events. Starting with the Summer Universiade in Beijing in the summer of 2001, Asian cities have went on to host the Universiade in the meantime in Harbin, Shenzhen, Gwangju, Almaty and Taipei. In addition, Asian has held a host of World University Championship events, as well as new intra-university sports competitions such as the 3×3 Basketball World University League in Xiamen, China and upcoming FISU University World Cup Football in Jinjiang, China.
President Matytsin’s Beijing visit also presented the opportunity for him to meet up with leaders from the Federation of University Sports of China. Vice Minister of Education Tian Xuejun, together with FUSC President Xue Yanqing, welcomed Mr. Matytsin at the Ministry of Education headquarters to discuss the recent developments of university sports in China where they discussed ongoing preparations for the first final of FISU University World Cup Football, which will take place in October 2019.
FISU President Matytsin with Tian Xuejun, Vice Minister of Education, at the Host City Asia conference