Forum gets down to business

Wednesday 09, December 2009, 20:00 GMT

The second World Yachting Racing Forum started in Monaco today with over 350 delegates and 50 speakers in attendance.

In his opening address, Peter Gilmour, the event chairman, underlined the key objectives of the Forum. "We are here to build the platform for young sailors", he said. "This is a unique opportunity for us all to steer the business of yacht racing. The people gathered in this auditorium represent projects worth over one billion dollars."

Debates and presentations focused on the commercial value of the sport will underpin the schedule over the two days of the event. Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad is among the headline speakers.

Today's sessions gave the opportunity for speakers to describe the most efficient methods of providing a strong return for stakeholders. "The number of boats and events is increasing, and their management is often extremely well executed," said keynote speaker Tom Whidden, the President of North Sails. "Any business can learn from a well run sailing campaign."

One of the highlights of the day was the presentation by sports marketing expert Richard Moore, the CEO of Capitalize, who confirmed that the global sports business has been less affected than other industries by the worldwide economic crisis. "The sport industry has increased by 0,4% this year and the predictions for next year are for an increase of 11,2%. However", he added, "the sport of sailing represents only a marginal percentage of this pie."

Managing Director of IFM Sports, Ulrich Lacher confirmed that the yacht racing industry has challenges ahead. "The potential of sailing is massive yet largely unexploited," he said. "The strengths of the sport are the business opportunities it provides, the emotions it generates and the hospitality platform it offers."

The debate entitled "How can sailing deliver benefits to host cities and ports" concluded that venues unanimously praise the commercial return they derive from  hosting sailing events.

The panellists explained that the key to success is to set clear and realistic objectives. Some figures speak for themselves: 650,000 people visited Galway during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover.

Maria Moynihan Lee, the festival director, City of Galway revealed that an event must be built from a local support basis otherwise it is hard for it to work.

Following the success of the Galway stopover, she added: "The city of Galway is finally looking towards the sea. Some cities turn their back on the sea. We are now looking at a future with a mix of events we might grow and things that may come to us."

Karin Backlund, the Global Sponsorship Director of Volvo Car Corporation (left), was one of the speakers in a discussion entitled "The commercial Case for Sailing Sponsorship".

The last session of the day centred on new media technologies. Ian Taylor, the CEO of Virtual Eye, reminded the audience how much the technology has evolved in the past 15 years. "Not long ago, we used some virtual images to illustrate the television footage," he said.

"During the last event held on America's Cup yachts in Nice, we added some television footage to the live virtual race."

Joint CEO of the TV production company APP Sunset+Vine, Richard Simmonds didn't quite agree: "There is nothing like the live emotions provided by real footage. Just imagine a live coverage of a sailing boat sailing in the roaring forties when a storm is about to hit!" All panellists agreed that virtual and live coverage had to be used together, providing both the emotions and the precision.

Held in conjunction with the Forum, the inaugural Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium discussed a proposal by designer Juan Kouyoumdjian to fine tune the ISO standards applied to yacht racing by the International Sailing Federation.

"The current norm is not appropriate", he said. "I would like to walk out of this symposium tomorrow with an agreement by the industry to work together on a norm that is better adapted to our needs and constraints."

The Forum's second day will begin with a keynote address by double Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux. It will be followed by a debate, featuring Frostad, on cost cutting and what sailing can learn from other sports. It will include presentations from America's Cup protagonists Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth.

The Yacht Club de Monaco is once again the official host of the conference, under the patronage of Prince Albert.