The ‘IOC World. Conference on Sport for All’ took place from 24 to 27 April 2013 in Lima, Peru and brought together over 500 leading experts in the field of Sport for All from almost 90 countries to share their best practices on a wide range of activities. 

 

“There was a great attendance from around the world with extremely knowledgeable people,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge. “And the active participation of all attendees meant a great deal was shared and learned at this Conference.”

 

The event which focused on the social benefits of sport and physical activity, the importance of the availability of sports facilities and public spaces, and the need for partnerships. The conference opened with the award of the IOC Sport for All grants to three inspirational projects from Peru, South Africa and Brazil which reflected the three conference themes and set the tone for the four days.

 

Mrs Alison Odell, Chair of the Education Committee attended on behalf of FISU, and listened to some stunning accounts of social transformation through sport, examples of community strategies to assure when building facilities related to the recent games in Vancouver and London, and the core need for partnership across sport federations (national and international), non profit organisations and corporate sponsors in driving sustainable success in such projects as "Magic Bus" (India).

 

Delegates were also treated to an opportunity to engage in very practical half day's activity with a number of socially transformative projects, and Mrs Odell took part in a session for 9-10 year old children around the value of perseverance learnt through sport at the Cantalao Football Academy, led by the charity Right to Play.

 

Participants left the conference with the "Get moving – the IOC guide to managing Sport for All programmes" toolkit, which combines practical guidance and inspirational cases aimed at assisting and motivating participants in the development of new programmes.