In recent months, the Hungarian University of Physical Education (HUPE) and the Hungarian University Sports Federation (HUSF) were busy with the organisation of the 2020 FISU World Forum. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Forum could not be organised as planned before, and for the very first time, the event took place in an online space, making the preparation extremely challenging, as organisers Julianna Kiraly and Sabina D’Ess share their experiences.

Over 1400 participants from more than 100 countries registered for the Forum. Many countries would not have been able to afford to participate due to high travel costs, yet this unique online event made it possible for many of them to still participate or delegate a higher number of students than originally planned.

Julianna Kiraly and Sabina D’Ess, two FISU Ambassadors, were lucky enough not only to take part in the event, but also be part of the Organising Committee. They were both glad to see that many fellow student ambassadors also attended the event, while some of them even held presentations in the workshops.

Sabina, who currently works at the organising university, participated in the previous FISU World Forum in Russia, where she won the possibility to participate at the 2019 FVLA (FISU Volunteer Leader’s Academy). It goes without saying that her work was exemplary, as her passion for sport motivated her to be involved in the organisation of the 2020 Forum. She took part in a roundtable and was also part of the evaluator team for the educational project.



“It is still strange to be on the other side, as last time I was also a student participant, and this year I was an evaluator at the Forum. I was happy to see how hard students worked on their project,” said Sabina.

“I’m glad that Hungary could still organise the event, as we were not sure whether the event would be canceled, postponed, or held online. I believe that this is the best option that could have happened. Even though the participants are not present in Hungary, we could still show what we are capable of, and we were able to present our country. Having organised the first online FISU World Forum, we gained so many valuable experiences, even more than what we would have learned through a normal on-site forum. Of course, not everything went perfectly, but the overall opinion was positive. I can only hope that the regular participants enjoyed the event as much as we did. Sabina and I collected the materials for the Virtual Expo, sent out the invitation letters to speakers and moderators, tested the platform and created questions for the quiz. I’ve also got to try the interpreter function during the event, which was quite demanding,” said Julianna.



“The preparation of the quiz was exciting and challenging at the same time, because we tried to make a quiz related mainly to university sport, but also include questions to test the general literacy of people who are involved in sports. The hardest part was not even to make the questions, but to find not so obvious false answers! During this time we put ourselves in the shoes of teachers preparing an exam,” added Sabina.

We hope that the HUSF will be able to host other great events like this Forum and the ambassadors will continue to help their work. Julianna will soon be involved with another FISU event, as she is part of the team leader’s team at the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy in September.

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