During the afternoon of 26 September, European Aquatics organised several presentations, open to all delegates attending the Congress in Tbilisi to share best practices and common experiences to support our member federations and future organising committees.
The first presentation in the Biltmore hotel, was hosted by Apostolos Tsagkarakis, sport director for aquatics, supported by his colleagues Renato Zivkovic (sport director water polo) Kirill Haller-Goncharov (marketing director), Daniel Marinho (Academy manager) and Silvia Costa (ASR project manager).
In a lively discussion with federation representatives and future organisers, key topics related to the organisation of events were discussed, setting out the challenges for hosts, the key requirements required and the opportunity to count on the support of EA and other partners to make events cost effective, attractive to fans and sustainable in impact.
The Medical Committee, represented by Wessel Zimmermann, then shared their strategic plan for 2025-2030, which will focus on open water swimming and high diving research as well as injury registration protocols in 2025 and 2026. For 2027-2030 the committee aims to extend education and research to all aquatic discipline with the ambition to become recognised as a leader in the field of Aquatics sports medicine.
A shared ambition to create the right environment for sustainable development of aquatics sports saw presentations from three of EA’s commercial and broadcast partners. Oriol Serra from sponsor partner Fluidra shared some insights into technical advances in pool technology, while Rebecca Bunn from the European Broadcasting Union, and Drew Barrand from Aquatics GB, discussed the challenges but above all, the opportunities around broadcasting aquatic sports in a way that allows for all year-round storytelling and maximising multi-channel distribution.
Finally, a presentation by Balazs Magyar of Digital transformation partner EPAM, laid out the exciting possibilities to enhance efficiencies of operation as well as awareness of the sport, by exploiting AI and other technological advances.
