The digital 2020 FISU World Forum is set to start on Wednesday, 12 August at the University of Physical Education (UPE). The online event will be attended by 1,400 participants from more than 100 countries worldwide, which is a figure that has never been seen in FISU’s history. One day before the start of the Forum, Mr. Dániel Mezei, leader of the Organizing Committee (OC) talked about the preparations and his expectations.
Following a six-week long intensive and extremely short preparation, the 2020 FISU World Forum is set to start with the Opening Ceremony at 13:00 (CET) on Wednesday. As known, due to the coronavirus, the event will be staged online in a very thoroughly prepared digital platform. It was announced yesterday that the Hungarian channel Sport1 TV will broadcast the first 90 minutes of the event.
Participants must register to be able to attend the Forum. Currently, nearly 1,400 people have registered from more than 100 countries of FISU’s 174 member states. The Forum will last three days and includes panel discussions and workshops, entertainment events such as Quiz questions and gamifications.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, FISU President Oleg Matytsin, Hungarian Secretary of State for Sports of the Ministry of Human Resources, Dr. Tünde Szabó and UPE rector Prof. Dr. h. c. Lajos Mocsai will deliver a speech at the Opening Ceremony.
“The Organization Committee is fine-tuning the preparations”, admitted Mr. Dániel Mezei, leader of the OC. ”The last few days have been critical as usual, but my colleagues, with the help of the FISU team coordination, do their best to finalise the work by the opening day. I believe that everything has been set at the digital platform and the 1,400 participants coming from more than 100 countries will see that Hungary, UPE and its strategic partners, as a result of the cooperation, are capable of implementing a high-standard international digital event. To sum it up, we are doing great but I do not want to count our chickens at this stage already. We have done the preparations and the exam is yet to come.”
The Forum offers a wide range of programmes including the panel focussing on 70 years of FISU, art which participants can discuss hoe FISU can maintain its heritage and what kind of challenges it needs to face, the workshops concentrating on The International Day of University Sport, Healthy Campus, University Ranking and Digitalization.
“I am so keen to see the 70 years of FISU that will try seek the answer to the question about ‘How to proceed?’ in particular” informed Mr. Mezei. “It is a great honour to work with FISU representatives who form a very professional and human team helping our work. FISU and the national university sport federations are significant organisations. Considering the tendencies caused by the pandemic, it is likely that university sport will receive a greater importance and role in the future. Due to the pandemic, the situation is everything is but normal. Consider the fact that according to the data available, people’s interest in the football Champions and European League that are currently going on may decrease. If this tendency continues, we will experience an entire rearrangement in professional sport. As a consequence, the Hungarian and the international university sport and the important organisations such as FISU may benefit from the situation. This may raise awareness to the importance and reconsideration of branding and marketing design.”
It is interesting to note that the Hungarian University Sport Federation (HUSF) is to hold its annual meeting at 10:00 (CET) before the Opening Ceremony, which will bring attention to the importance of domestic and international university sport.
