The 3rd City Events Conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, from November 14th to 16th, 2012, organised in cooperation of GL events with the International University Sport Federation (FISU). Over 235 participants and 20 journalists from 42 different nationalities gathered to discuss about ways to implement winning bids to host international sporting events.

The third edition of the event was therefore focused on bidding for major sporting events, with the following topics:

- Preparing to bid;

- Bidding to win;

- Bidding, what really matters: the view of international federations.

The conference began with the plenary sessions, and several interaction workshops and sessions were held. One of the highlights of the conference were 1on1 meetings session, which promoted over 140 meetings between International Federations, cities, organisers and sponsors. This unique networking opportunity was later completed by the FISU reception.

During the break-out sessions, the attendees witnessed presentations of case studies from the hosts of accomplished major sporting events and successful bids, like the Province of KwaZulu-Natal (2010 FIFA World Cup), City of London (2012 Olympics), Istanbul (Europe’s most active bidder); Gwangju (2015 Universiade & bidder for 2019 FINA World Championships), Amsterdam (2016 European Athletics Championships) - to name a few.

FISU President Mr Claude-Louis Gallien addressed the conference’s participants at the opening ceremony and together with FISU Secretary-General/CEO Mr Eric Saintrond discussed future FISU activities with the many interested parties visiting the FISU promo booth.

It is noteworthy mentioning that delegates of host cities of upcoming FISU events were present as well, some also as speakers at the conference, i.e. Igor Sivov, Marketing Director of the Kazan 2013 SU Organizing Committee and Kim Yoonsuk, Secretary-General of the Gwangju 2015 SU Organizing Committee.

More info about the event can be found at the official website http://www.cityevents-sport.com.