Today marks the start of the third edition of the ITF’s World Participation Conference. Hosted by Karthi Gnanasegaram, the three-day virtual event brings together global leaders and experts to share best practice and drive the conversation around increasing participation in tennis and sport.
Judy Murray and Martina Hingis will headline an impressive list of speakers who will each reflect on the conference’s theme of ‘Innovating to drive participation in sport’. The conference will explore a range of topics from the impact of major sports events on participation to the importance of player retention. There will also be a strong focus on digital innovation, including a look at the latest developments on the ground-breaking ITF World Tennis Number project, which has already been adopted by more than 130 nations globally.
The conference will also provide a first look at the headline statistics from the forthcoming 2021 ITF Global Tennis Report, which reveals that tennis participation has increased globally, despite the impact of the pandemic. The new report is an important and timely update to the 2019 Global Tennis Report which was the first time a worldwide picture of performance and participation had been established in tennis. The data provides crucial insight that informs the ITF's Global Development strategy, which sees more than $10 million invested each year to ensure the sustainability and long-term health of tennis.
ITF President David Haggerty said, "Together with our 210 member National Associations, the ITF is committed to increasing the number of people playing tennis by 30 million by the year 2030. Grassroots tennis has shown its popularity and resilience despite the challenges of the past 18 months. This conference will inspire action and innovation to continue the drive to grow tennis participation, as we strive to reach our collective goal of 120 million players across the world."
ITF Executive Director, Tennis Development, Luca Santilli said, "The theme of this year’s conference reflects the importance of innovation and digitalisation when developing strategies to engage people in sport and physical activity. Ultimately, we want to increase the number and standard of players worldwide by encouraging tennis participation for people of all ages, genders, playing standard and physical abilities."
The third ITF World Participation Conference will take place virtually on Monday 12 - Wednesday 14 July, with daily sessions from 11:00-13:30 (BST / GMT+1). Hosted virtually for the first time, the 2021 edition will be open to anyone wishing to attend.
The cost of registration will be USD 9.95 per attendee*.
REGISTER HERE
*Conference attendees will need to be a registered user of the ITF Academy to attend. Once registered, attendees will be able to access content from the previous two ITF World Participation Conferences via the ITF Academy Library, over 150 courses through the Education section, and much more educational content.
For further press enquiries:
ITF Communications
Email: communications@itftennis.com
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