The first-ever European Athletics Health & Well-Being Conference, to be staged in Marseille, France, from 24 to 26 January 2014, aims to provide Member Federations with insight on how to enhance the sport’s role in society as well as the financial position of federations and clubs.
“We saw at our 2012 CEO Conference that most federation leaders are convinced of the need to add another dimension or pillar to the high-performance pathway and elite events that have been their main focus for so long,” says Jean Gracia, the European Athletics Vice President in charge of Development.
“The next steps are to show what the federations that are leading in this new field are doing and try to help the others who are interested in joining,” he continued.
Federations have been invited to send two participants each to the conference, one whose work covers recreational running and another who could be responsible for developing a programme or project touching on some other aspects of promoting health through athletics-related activities.
According to Jean Gracia, the conference will include a number of practical workshops on actions federations can take in the short- and medium-term.
During the conference, European Athletics will introduce its Road Race Safety and Quality Standards system, which is intended to strengthen federations’ positions as natural authorities in the ever-growing running market.
The conference participants will also participate in a Health & Fitness Day event to witness a real-life example of how to promote health and well-being related activities and attract participants to the sport.