SportAccord Launches Sustainable Event Management Service

(ATR) Director General Vincent Gaillard tells Around the Rings that SportAccord’s new Sustainable Event Management service is getting "very positive" feedback following its launch at the IF Forum in Lausanne.

More than 300 delegates from 60+ international federations convened Monday to Wednesday in the Olympic capital for their annual invite-only gathering.

Unlike the past five editions, Gaillard says this year’s focused on a single theme – sustainability – in order to really hammer home that topic and to introduce the new offering from SportAccord.

"What we’re aiming to do is provide our members – not only the big federations but perhaps more importantly the smaller IFs, those that have less needs or less capability, if you will – with very concrete turnkey solutions linked to Sustainable Event Management," he explains by phone from the IF Forum.

"It’s about how we support our members in running and planning their events more sustainably."

According to Gaillard, the five-pillar strategy launched in Lausanne includes education, implementation, certification, reporting and communication.

"We are essentially trying to use all these great tools that have been developed over the last few years, specifically around the Vancouver Games and the London Games – trying to take those tools and those principles down to a more grassroots level," says Gaillard, who managed activation of Coca-Cola’s sponsorship at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

He says the highlight of the IF Forum was beginning Monday with the "inspirational" yet "intimidating" sustainability story of London 2012 but ending Wednesday with "really practical" solutions that even the smallest IFs can incorporate into event bidding and organizing.

The next steps for SportAccord are to accelerate discussions with the IOC over potentially providing the service to some Olympic federations and also to secure a promotional alliance with the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

"This week was extremely productive from that standpoint because we had everyone in the same room for three days," says Gaillard.

"Lots of good discussions, lots of good networking as well, so we’re moving forward, which is quite exciting.

"We are about to move from theory to practice."

Reported by Matthew Grayson

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