EVALUATION OF PLAY THE GAME 2017 Riding waves of change Internal evaluation / March 2018 EVALUATION OF PLAY THE GAME 2017 Play the Game 2 www.playthegame.org Title Evaluation of Play the Game 2017 – Riding waves of change Main author Christina Friis Johansen Co-authors Jens Sejer Andersen Stine Alvad Layout Play the Game/Danish Institute for Sports Studies Cover photo Thomas Søndergaard/Play the Game Edition First edition, Copenhagen, March 2018 Price The report is available for free download at www.playthegame.org Publisher Play the Game c/o Danish Institute for Sports Studies Kanonbådsvej 4A DK-1437 København K T: +45 70 27 55 77 E: [email protected] W: www.playthegame.org and www.idan.dk Quoting from this report is allowed with proper acknowledgements Play the Game 3 www.playthegame.org Content Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Economy and participation .......................................................................................................... 8 Participant survey ............................................................................................................................ 11 Survey background ...................................................................................................................... 11 Record high level of satisfaction ................................................................................................ 11 Media coverage ................................................................................................................................ 22 After the conference ..................................................................................................................... 23 Increased activity on website, app and social media .............................................................. 23 Conclusion: Fundamental challenges remain .............................................................................. 26 Appendix 1: List of participants..................................................................................................... 27 Appendix 2: Programme ................................................................................................................. 37 Appendix 3: Evaluation survey 2013-2017 ................................................................................. 56 Play the Game 4 www.playthegame.org Introduction For Play the Game as an initiative and an institution, the 2017 conference was a landmark event: This edition marked the 20th anniversary of the first conference in 1997 organised under the title “Sport, Media and Civil Society”. It was also the tenth edition of the conference, and with a record high of 475 participants and guests also the largest Play the Game conference to date. The timing of the conference held 26-30 November 2017 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, was more than suitable as the global focus on the dark sides of sport also reached an all- time high in 2017. International sport faced serious challenges ranging from unprecedented corruption and doping scandals to human rights discussions related to upcoming mega events, and sport organisations struggled to meet the demands of a world in disruption, challenged by new technologies and lifestyle patterns. An ongoing court trial in New York against former high-level FIFA officials, an imminent IOC decision on Russian participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea, and recent “Football Leaks” pointing to widespread financial fraud – all this contributed to setting the scene for academics, journalists, sports officials and other stakeholders to collectively debate on how sport should overcome the current challenges. Seen through the organisers’ own and not entirely objective lenses, Play the Game 2017 also reached a new and higher level in quality of the 226 presentations. The contributions by top decision-makers and the most knowledgeable experts from almost all walks of sport secured an intense atmosphere from the first to the last minute of the conference. But satisfied organisers would do little good if the participants were lukewarm. They were not. The participants responded very positively by expressing even higher satisfaction than in previous years, through an anonymous online survey in the week following the event. 96% of the participants declared that their overall impression of Play the Game 2017 is “good” or “very good”, and the top grade “very good” was for the first time given by no less than two in three participants. In short, Play the Game 2017 did reach a volume and an impact that matches the considerable resources spent by donors, arrangers, and participants. Contributions from donors and partners were received with much appreciation and we are thankful for every single one. The biggest contribution from the Dutch government of 100,000 euro provided a solid foundation under the event, and we owe our sincere thanks and gratitude to the Dutch government for this generous support. The following is an internal evaluation and does not claim to present a completely objective picture of Play the Game 2017. However, we do owe our donors and constituency a chance Play the Game 5 www.playthegame.org to assess their contributions, and we need to collect lessons learned with the purpose to create better conferences in the future. We shall do our best to support our reflections with evidence, and we hope you will find the reading interesting. We have made the following overall observations: At a time where international sport is facing scepticism and mistrust, this tenth edition of our Play the Game conference once again – and perhaps stronger than before – documented the need for and the relevance of an ongoing, independent, open, fact-based and democratic debate forum on strategic and sensitive issues in sport. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from the participants is consolidated by the findings in the online survey. It is for instance comforting that 88% of respondents find that the conference gives value to their daily work “to a high extent” or “to some extent”. 81% of respondents believe that Play the Game 2017 stimulated and qualified the public debate about world sport. The willingness to give keynote addresses shown by Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, WADA’s President Craig Reedie, and ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti, among many other leading experts and top officials, testifies to the expected political impact of attending Play the Game debates. Even if none of them materialised, the written confirmation of attendance from first the Russian sports minister Pavel Kolobkov and then the top executives of RUSADA pointed to the same effect. On the other hand, the organisers are fully aware that participation from the top ranks of the international sports community was weak, especially from the IOC and international federations. This shows on one hand that international sports presidents are reluctant to give public debate priority in a very busy calendar, but on the other hand it is also possible for Play the Game to do more in securing this group’s participation. It is interesting to observe the increased engagement from the (anti-)doping- environment. Various research groups approached us during the preparations and asked for podium time. It seems that the Russian-international doping scandal has raised awareness in many groups about the intensely political nature of the fight against doping. After two consecutive conferences in Aarhus, Denmark, the move to Eindhoven in the Netherlands proved to be a success. Geographically, Eindhoven was a convenient location with easy access from both European and overseas participants. Although the city administration was challenged by a change of staff in the department during the planning phase of the conference, the organisers are very grateful for the commitment, financial support, and assistance from the city in Play the Game 6 www.playthegame.org the execution of the conference. This concerns the payment of the welcome reception as well as the financial support of 10,000 euro. Hotel Van der Valk worked excellently as a conference hotel, offering practical support and smooth cooperation both in the planning and the execution of the conference. The facilities were perfect with all rooms located on the same floor, coffee and food served right outside the rooms, and the adjacent room providing participants with good opportunities to network and talk during breaks. Thanks to the vibrant environment centred around the downtown SX-building and the Fontys School of Sport Studies, both with a strong focus on innovation in sports technology and communication, a new dimension was added to Play the Game’s traditional focus on grass-root sport. It remains a constant challenge to draw the same attention to the ‘softer’ policy issues, but Play the Game still finds that the focus on sports scandals must be complemented and put into perspective by addressing the development potential contained in the wider sports culture, which is directly affecting the daily life of so many people. In future conferences, technology should continue to be considered as a dimension that can leverage the grass-root sport theme. It is an undeniable fact that there is still room for improvement in the gender distribution of attending participants, as only 28% of participants were women. Out of 226 presentations,