Live Coverage of the 13th International Sailing Summit

by Brenda Hoult on 14 Nov 2014 Every sailor should be interested in the future of their sport, but important conferences are often seen to be held behind closed doors. A key international conference takes place at the METS trade exhibition next week and, for the first time in the event's 13 year history, the ISS seminars can be viewed live and on replay by sailors all around the world.

The 13th International Sailing Summit (ISS) is one of the key events on the Marine Equipment Trade Show (METS) programme, taking place on Monday 17th November 2014, the day before the exhibition doors open.

British Sailing, the committee representing the interest of sailing within the British Marine Federation (BMF), host the Summit with the theme, ‘Waking up the sailing industry – how sailing needs to modernise, diversify and develop to attract and retain participants’, inspiring the sailing community with testimonies of success as well as presenting innovative strategies and thinking for individual business success.

Topics and speakers include:

• Welcome from Iain Percy, Olympic Gold Medallist
• 'Learning from Another Industry – Growing Participation in Cycling' : Terry Greenwood, British Cycling
• 'Empowering Women Through Sports' : Mrs Salma Al Hashmy and Her Highness Sayyida Ghada Al Said, Oman Sail
• 'Engaging Young Sailors' : Riki Hooker and Martin Wadhams, RS Sailing
• 'Defi Wind and Defi Kite' : Philippe Fourrier and Phippe Bru, Ilago Event

See the full list here

SailRacer, in conjunction with Danish sports media specialist SportsXstream, will be filming the presentations, streamed live via the internet on the ISS site here.

For those who are unable to make the trip to Amsterdam, British Sailing are already receiving numerous queries about whether the streaming will be available for replay, which it will be, indefinitely. This is expected to be a well visited platform as the sailing public worldwide visit the site to learn lessons from experts in sailing and from other sports. With a strong list of speakers, the topics to be covered have already fuelled interest and discussion amongst the UK sailing market and the debate about sustaining interest and increasing participation in our sport.

Simon Lovesey of SailRacer is amongst the speakers at the summit and reflects: 'We have seen participation double over the last five years and a 26% growth in the last year when we have introduced several new features such as GPS tracking, enhanced results analysis and social media engagement.'

Tickets for the seminars and conference dinner are still available. Click the 'Book' tab on the ISS site to download a booking form. Many METS visitors have already confirmed their attendance.

To view the live streaming visit the ISS website from 0800 (GMT) on Monday 17 November 2014.