The Global Sports Forum Barcelona – Mes que un conference*

3 avril 2012

During two and a half days, we gathered together 1,200 delegates from 50 different countries and various backgrounds, 52 top-level speakers coming from business, institutions, media, sporting organizations, as well as 250 journalists.

We had a blast at sessions with exceptional athletes like Eric Cantona, Laird Hamilton or Oscar Pistorius.  We also enjoyed the conversation with Seb Coe just a few months before the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We even had a chance to hear NFL players Justin Tuck and Tony Richardson, as well as Sandro Rosell, Russell Coutts, Thierry Weil, or Paul Vaughan. The quality of the speakers and sessions has established the conference as a major international event where people from all horizons of the sports industry meet and debate.

We call this “More than a conference” because the Global Sports Forum is also an active digital community that started the conversation before the event and kept it going during and after. We are very proud to count more than 1,400 fans on Facebook  and 2,000 followers on Twitter. For this new edition, we had more than 1,500 tweets over the 2 days conference, 2,050 references to GSFB2012 on Twitter and 5,500 viewers for the live-streamed sessions.

I would like to thank a few people who made this event such a success.

A huge thank you to Xavier Trias, Mayor of Barcelona, and Maite Fandos, Deputy Mayor of Quality of Life, Equality and Sports, for welcoming this 4^th edition of the Global Sports Forum.  More generally speaking, I would like to thank the City of Barcelona for its outstanding support from the beginning.

Thanks to our fantastic and top-notch panelists whose contribution has definitely helped us all in articulating concrete ideas and action plans for all sports stakeholders and discussing new trends in the sporting landscape.

Thanks to all the moderators for their time and dedication, you really succeeded in rising the debate and asking the right questions.

Congratulations again to our Trophies winners¹ and thanks for demonstrating how sport is a universal driving force for progress, communication and exchange.

This event would not have been possible without the support of our official partners, Stade de France and Orange. Thanks for your trust and commitment.

Thanks to our international media partners, Eurosport, SportBusiness and Sport Magazine, our national media partners² and our social media partners (iSportConnect, sportsmarketing.fr) from all over the world. You helped us spread the word!

Thanks to our official providers (Lacoste, Viajes El Corte Ingles and Volvo).
Thanks also to our institutional partner (Consejor Superior de Deportes), academic partners (ESA, Ivy Sports Symposium, One Young World, Major Events International) and international recruitment partners (Sports Recruitment International)

Thanks to our bloggers for contributing editorial content and promoting the Forum live.

Thanks to the Bossaball team for sharing your passion and this amazing new sport practice!

All of this would not have been possible without the support of Havas Sports & Entertainment and the whole organizing team who did a fantastic job and made this 4^th edition such a success!

Finally, billion thanks to all of you who were in Barcelona and took part in the event. Thanks to those who followed us through social media and live-streamed sessions. I hope you enjoyed the experience. You’re now part of the GSFB community so welcome and feel free to participate!

We’ll be announcing dates and details regarding the 2013 edition very soon.
In the meantime, stay tuned on www.globalsportsforum.org and enjoy pictures of the event on GSFB Flickr.

¹ Gold and Community Trophy: Fundación Colombianitos ; Silver Trophy: Dream A Dream ; Bronze Trophy: Society Empowerment Project; Juan Antonio Samaranch Trophy: International Inspiration; Special Recognition Trophy: Heineken; SoMe Trophy: UFC; Stadium Innovation Trophy: Juventus Stadium

² La Vanguardia, AS, TV3, Esport 3, Executive Excellence, ara.cat, Le Figaro, Sportcal, Sport Stratégies, L’Equipe

(*More than a conference)