Gathering pace

An update on December's World Yacht Racing Forum

The launch in January this year of the World Yacht Racing Forum has received an extraordinarily positive reaction from almost every sector of the yacht racing industry world-wide in a clear demonstration that yacht racing deserves its own forum to debate the issues affecting the business of the sport.

The Forum is modelled closely on the successful Motorsports Business Forum (www.motorsportbusinessforum.com), now in its fourth year, and the two events will co-locate and share the Grimaldi Forum facilities in Monaco in December.

Just three months from the launch, more than a quarter of the delegate places have already been booked, and a third of the available exhibition stands reserved. The conference side of the two-day Forum will consist of eight separate sessions with 34 speakers of whom 16 are already confirmed, including key-note speakers:

Rod Carr OBE, CEO of the Royal Yachting Association
Malav Shroff, Chairman, ISAF Olympic Classes Sub-Committee
Andrew Pindar, CEO of the Pindar Group & Team Pindar
Stuart Quarrie, CEO of Cowes Week
Mark Turner, CEO of Offshore Challenges Group
Paul Strzelecki, Joint CEO of Henri Lloyd and Director of the International Sailing Summit

In addition international speakers and delegates from US, New Zealand, China, Spain and Italy have been invited to attend the inaugural international forum. As Malv Shroff succinctly puts it: “Sailing is now the third biggest sport driven by sponsorship. We need a forum to discuss how we can deliver more for our sponsors, for the media and for the public at large. It’s a great initiative for our sport, and if we can learn a thing or two from Motorsports, I think they can also learn something from us.”

The organisers see this forum as being much more than a conference. Chris Trainor, Event Director said: “We want to focus on the really important issues in yacht racing, and as you see the speaker line-up and the subjects develop, you will see what we mean!”

The objective of the Forum is to bring together in one place the principal players in the industry: Yacht Racing Sponsors, Yacht Race Organisers, Venues and Cities that host sailing events, Marine suppliers, Media and Associations, Clubs and Race specialists, Sports Marketing Companies, Teams, Owners and Captains.

“In all, we expect to cater for up to 500 people. It’s the ideal business networking opportunity for anyone that is involved in Yacht Racing. It is so important to recognise and understand the role of sponsorship in shaping the future of this sport, and we are pleased that so many key sponsors will be participating in the forum to explain what they are looking for from the sport in the future”, said Will Morris, CEO of organisers, the Informa Yacht Group. Will Morris was one of the principal founders of the Motorsport Business Forum in 2003. With 15 official media partners so far committed to the event, the organisers are being very careful to ensure that it remains exclusively about yacht racing and not the marine industry as a whole. Sail TV and Eurosport have confirmed TV coverage of the forum, and the conference topics will be streamed online after the conference via the WYRF website.

The Forum is all-inclusive. Participants, whether they are delegates, sponsors, exhibitors or speakers, have access to every part of the event. Breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch, and tickets to the Gala Dinner are all included. There will also be a combined ‘Track’ and ‘Ocean’ Cocktail Party to create a further networking opportunity between participants of the Motorsport Business forum and the Yacht Racing forum. The Yacht Racing Awards will take place at the Gala evening and will incorporate an exciting and animated review of the sailing year, at the same time celebrating some of the finest moments in yacht racing history. Awards will be presented to many of the unsung heroes of race management and event organisation as well as recognising the part played by host venues and race sponsors.