The EUSA Conference 2015 continued on Saturday, March 28, starting with three interesting parallel workshops in the morning, enabling more in-depth presentations and interactive discussions between the audience and the panellists.

The first parallel workshops entitled Engaging Students – Good Practices featured panellists representing three National University Sports Associations who presented their activities in the promotion of healthy lifestyle, engagement in sports and recreation activities, targeting especially higher education students. The session was moderated by Mr Christopher Purdie, Student Commission of the European University Sports Association and the panellists included Mrs Hilkka Laitinen, Secretary General of the Finnish Student Sports Federation (OLL); Mr Mozes Szekely, Secretary General of the Hungarian University Sports Federation (HUSF) and Mr Erwin Apitzsch, Board member of the Swedish University Sports Federation (SAIF).



The second workshop on funding opportunities reflected on the fact that financing organisations, activities and special projects is always challenging and often depends on the situation on local and national level. Concrete initiatives, opportunities and positive examples were presented in this workshop, chaired by Mr Olaf Tabor, Treasurer of the European University Sports Association. Ms Laska Nenova, Project Manager from the International Sport and Culture Association; Mr Haris Pavletic, Executive Committee Member of the European University Sports Association and European Universities Games 2016 and Mr Stefan Bergh, Executive Committee Member and CDSU Chair of the International University Sports Federation spoke about their projects, initiatives and experiences.



Last of the parallel workshops focused on the New Media. As media coverage and visibility are an important aspect of every organisation, sports event and project initiative, the discussion focused on what are the new media, how accessible are they and what are some of the good practices. Contributors were Ms Bella Colafrancesco, from the Student Commission of the European University Sports Association; Mr Paulus-Johannes Mocnik, Media Manager of the German University Sports Federation and Ms Monika Sobotka and Mr Lukas Turlej from the University Sports Association of Poland. The session was moderated by Mr Valentin Dupouey, member of the Media and Communication Commission of the European University Sports Association.



After the parallel sessions, the moderators of the workshops presented in brief the presentations nad discussions in their respective groups and the final plenary session was dedicated to the topic of Activating Europe.



In 2015, European Union is launching the European Week of Sport, with the #BeActive campaign, in order to increase the physical activity of the European citizens. Ms Agata Dziarnowska, Policy Officer from the European Commission DG EAC – Sport and Erasmus+ presented the history and main ideas of the European Week of Sport (EWOS) and the planned activities.



As university sport is fully endorsing the initiative and will carry out own activities, Mr Matjaz Pecovnik, Secretary General of the European University Sports Association presented in an innovative way the activities related to the subject matter, organised and endorsed by EUSA in 2015, starting with the current EUSA Conference in Zagreb, covering 19 European Universities Championships, 8 sports events under EUSA patronage, supported by promotional activities, leading to the pinnacle EUSA activity within the EWOS – the European Universities Rowing Championship and related events, placed in the City center, promoting physical activity and sport engagement. These events will be held in Hannover, Germany, between September 9 and 12, 2015. The plenary gave a strong signal and showed commitment of EUSA to be a partner of the European Commission in the European Week of Sport.



The closing part of the conference started with the thanks of the main moderator Mr Leonz Eder to the main coordinators of the conference – Mr Andrej Pisl and Ms Jelena Matesic who received symbollic gifts on behalf the entire team.

Mr Adam Roczek on behalf of EUSA and on behalf of the hosts – the Croatian Academic Sports Federation and EUG2016 Mr Haris Pavletic concluded the event and thanked the participants for attending the Conference in such big numbers, all partners for their support, as well as the speakers, panellists, moderators and facilitators for their contribution and the wide teams of volunteers and staff for the excellent preparation of the event.



The EUSA Conference was organised by the European University Sports Association (EUSA), in cooperation with the Croatian Academic Sports Federation (CASF), Organisers of the European Universities Games Zagreb-Rijeka 2016 and supported by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) and local partners.