The World University Festival 'The Universiade' now in Gwangju

The 27th Summer Universiade, which was held in Kazan, Russia under the theme 'U are the World', has come to a finish on the 17th, after 12 days of competition between 13,500 athletes from 170 nations.

At the closing ceremony, held on the 17th at 22:00 (local time) in the Kazan Arena Stadium, 2015 Gwangju Universiade Organizing Committee (hereafter GUOC 2015) received the Summer Universiade flag and officially declared the next host city as Gwangju, Korea.

Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, Kang Un-tae, attended the closing ceremony as mayor of the next host city and received the Universiade flag from FISU president, Louis-Claude Gallien, which was handed over from Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan City, the host city of the 2013 Universiade.

Following the flag-handover ceremony, Mayor Kang presented a speech to those in attendance and promised a successful Universiade with the evident values of eco-friendliness (Eco-versiade), peace (Peace-versiade), IT technology (IT-versiade), and culture (culture-versiade).

Afterwards, Korean traditional performers and K-pop group took the stage and put on a dynamic performance in a short 10 minutes and introduced the Korean culture to the world.

Gwangju Universiade D-2 years, preparations for the games in full motion

GUOC is getting ready to put preparations for the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade into the next gear.

In July of 2015, Gwangju will host the 28th Summer Universiade with the slogan "Light Up Tomorrow"(Light of Creation, Light of Tomorrow-Korean slogan), where 20,000 athletes and officials from 170 nations are expected to take part in 21 events for two weeks.

The organizers of the Gwangju Universiade are putting their utmost effort into creating an all time high event, according to the development schedule set by the committee.

First, the athletes' village, which will house 12,200 athletes and officials during the Universiade, is being built in a way to achieve urban regeneration by redeveloping obsolete apartments, a first in world history. Construction began last September and is aiming to be finished by March 2015, with 20% of construction currently finished.

As for competition venues, 3 out of the 76 venues will be newly built, including the aquatics center, multi-purpose gymnasium, and an archery range. The rest of 73 venues will use existing facilities with renovations, in line with the eco-friendly event that Gwangju aims to hold along with minimizing costs for construction.

In particular, the new aquatics center will be able to utilize extra seats, so the venue can be used if the 2019 World Swimming Championships are held in Gwangju, lowering the costs for the event.

In order to recruit 120,000 volunteers for the event, who will act as civilian diplomats and the face of the Gwangju Universiade, GUOC is operating volunteer training by securing partnerships with local universities and volunteer centers. The volunteers will be able to be trained in areas required for such a global event.

In addition, through the Universiade Foreign language schools, Junior interpreter contests, and English debate competitions, GUOC will be recruiting around 20,000 interpreting volunteers.

Also, groups of university students are taking the lead in creating interest boom in the Universiade, an event based around university students.

The groups of University student promoters include ambassadors 'Uni-friends', supporters 'Uni-birds', blog reporters 'Global reporters', and university journalists, who are actively taking part in the promotion of Gwangju Universiade on and offline.

In order to operate a surplus event, GUOC is preparing various large projects and building marketing strategies to do so.

Last year, GUOC signed a joint agreement with UNOSDP (UN Office of Sport for Development and Peace) and are currently working together on seeking peace in the Korean peninsula through sports until 2015. This is a key project in enhancing the value of the Gwangju Universiade and is planning to create a joint Korean team for the 2015 games through interchange of sports.

Especially, UNOSDP and Gwangju is hosting the international mentoring program, EPICS Forum, and the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) together this upcoming August. The EPICS Forum will be a mentoring program for the youths of the world whereas the YLP is to foster leaders of the next generation, and these two projects will serve as the first step in joint projects with the UN.

Additionally, the attention of the media will be on the Gwangju Universiade as it will serve as the pre-Olympics, where the athletes will be able to participate before the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and GUOC will appoint well-known athletes as ambassadors to increase the publicity of the games.

Currently, London Olympics stars such as Yang Hak-sun, Son Yeon-jae, Ki Bo-bae, and Choi Eun-sook have been appointed as ambassadors of Gwangju Universiade and are actively participating in major events in Korea and abroad, offering lectures and contributing their talent, and taking part in ambassador activities via websites and SNS.

By raising the value of the games through UN joint projects and Star Marketing, GUOC plans to attract corporate sponsors.

Last year, GUOC first signed sponsorship agreements with SK C&C and SK Telecom, leading companies in the IT and communication field, and are in the process of building a Total Integrated Management System. They will also put marketing strategies in place to attract sponsors in the category of electronics, automobiles, and finances.

In addition, GUOC is pursuing the business of manufacturing and selling items with official symbols of the games (emblem, mascot, etc), through merchandise licensing rights, by utilizing clothing, stationery, accessories, bags and more.

During the Kazan Universiade, GUOC dispatched a total of 33 people in the observer program and shared information in 35 operation-related fields through seminars and on-site visits to the related facilities and were able to intensively benchmark the previous games.

GUOC plans to create a differentiated Universiade through interchange of information among employees and executive meetings about the material achieved through the observer program.

Moreover, GUOC plans to supplement the existing Competition Procedure Manual and Venue Operation Plan, as well as making Action Manuals for operation personnels in each field to provide guidelines for flawless field operation.

The Secretary-General of GUOC, Kim Yoon-Suk commented, "The countdown for the Gwangju Universiade has officially begun with the Universiade flag handover." He also added, "In order to make the Gwangju Universiade the most successful event in history, the committee will be putting their full efforts in the organization and preparation for the global event."

For more information contact: Sara Shim, PR & Media Division

+82 62 616 3832, e-mail: sarashim@gwangju2015.com

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