It was one year ago when the last Administration Seminar took place as an online meeting. The circumstances in Europe and especially in Austria have made it possible to hold this year’s edition as a face-to-face meeting.
The European Judo Union organised the Administration & Organising seminar to inform the national federations about the roadmap for 2022. Altogether 38 representatives of national federations came to Vienna.
Head Office Director, Martin Poiger welcomed the participants of each federation and introduced the program and the planned changes for 2022.
Agenda
- Calendar 2022
- Marketing & Media Matters
- New Marketing Rules & Requirements for 2022
- Update EJU Handbook
- New Event Contracts
- New Education Projects
At the beginning the EJU Vice President, Michal Vachun presented a recap of the sport year. The success at the Games in Tokyo was one of the topics.
“After a long time without seeing each other it was a pleasure to meet personally all the people. It was a difficult time without events but it had no effect on the participation at our championships. I am very happy that we have more candidates for our events than before the pandemic and that makes me very optimistic for the next Olympiad.”
The main thing on this seminar were the new marketing rules. The new Vice President Otto Kneitinger found the EJU in a difficult situation when he stepped in to the new position. He expressed his new idea:
“I took over the marketing department in December last year. It was very difficult to find new sponsors especially during the COVID times. It was clear that we have to find a new strategy to be attractive for our sponsors. Today we have presented these new marketing rules and I am happy that we have the full support of the national federations.
It is a new system but also a big chance for the EJU, the national federations and also our partners. I am sure that with the new marketing system we will emerge from the crisis stronger than before.”
EJU President Sergey Soloveychik was also present at the seminar and he pointed out the importance of these kinds of events.
“I can see the great opportunities and positive things for our federation. The money we earn will be spent on our members. We see a lot of advantages for our European federations and I strongly believe in the new marketing system.”
In a brief survey at the beginning of the seminar it turned out that the biggest problem of the federations is the strong decline of memberships due to the Corona pandemic. Some federations lost up to 40% of their members.
On the last day the French and the Austrian Judo federations have shown their marketing & communication campaigns to get members back in the dojo. In the next weeks we will present the different campaigns on our website under the headline: Best Practice Cases.
Martin Poiger declared:
“This seminar is very important for our organisation. We were talking about the future of our sport and how to continue the successful story after Tokyo. Many things can be clarified by phone or online meeting. But to meet personally is also very important. “
Last point on the agenda were the two new education projects – Judo Schools League and Judo Youth League. Yana Dmitrieva, Director Presidential Office, explained in detail the benefit and the opportunities for the federations.
Finally Sergey Soloveychik thanked the Austrian Judo Federation for the great hospitality;
“It was a great family atmosphere, with good ideas and good meaningful discussions. We will continue to be the best continental judo union also in Paris 2024.”
Several EJU members were also present and activity participated in the presentations: Catarina Rodrigues (Sport Director), Eddy Koaz and Alexander Nagibin (Marketing Directors), Yana Dmitrieva (Director Presidential Office), Mario Krvavac (Event & Promotion Director), Sören Starke (Communications Director), Jennifer Harroider (Assistant Vice President), Alla Hösl und Sarah Rosenkranz (Assistants Head Office)
Author: Sören Starke