City Events 2014: Join our line-up of expert speakers!

City Events, symptoms the conference specialized in city-hosted sporting events will hold its fourth edition on November 13^th and 14^th in Paris, France, around the theme “Winning strategies for hosting sporting events.” We are launching a call for submissions open to anyone with an interesting angle or experience to propose a conference topic and join our line-up of expert speakers. 

Last year, City Events brought together 250 participants from 24 countries to discuss, debate, and collaborate on the issues facing city-hosted sporting events, from the point of view of local organizers, private events rights owners, and international federations. The conference takes a holistic view of the hosting process, from preparing a successful bid to ensuring a tangible legacy for citizens of the host city after the event. 

We would like to invite interested parties with unique experience or forward-thinking idea pertaining to this year’s theme to send us a short presentation of the conference that they envision giving at City Events 2014, as well as a bit of detail about their current situation and past experience pertaining to hosting sporting events. 

In 2013, we received around 20 conference proposals and retained three speakers from our call for submissions. First, Shaun Dawson, Chief Executive at Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, is responsible for ensuring a positive legacy of three venues from the 2012 London Olympic Games—Lee Valley Velopark, Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Center, and Lee Valley White Water center—by adopting a model of community-focused and commercially driven venues that combine elite and grassroots sporting events. He presented his views on ensuring a positive legacy for venues by incorporating legacy as a key concern from the outset. 

Second, Alf Oschatz, Head of Sports at EMEA Geography AECOM in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and lead project manager and stadium manager for the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban presented us his experience-based lessons on budget management for a stadium. 

Finally, James Patterson, Director of Government, Tourism, and Events at Repucom with over 20 years experience in sporting event consulting, specializing in holistic major event evaluation and valuation, led participants through innovative and effective ways to measure return on investment for a sporting event. 

We look forward to receiving your submissions and enriching the 2014 City Events program with your fresh ideas. Send your short abstracts and personal information before July 1, 2014, to Pierre-Emmanuel Danger at pe.danger@cityevents-sport.com. Submissions will be evaluated by the City Events program committee composed of athletes, institutional leaders, experts, and key international decision-makers. 

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Info & Registration: www.cityevents-sport.com