Greece hosted a unique three-day sports management conference online last week that included 20 world-class speakers in the field and over 450 participants from 23 countries.

Also taking part in the Front Runners in Sports Management 3.0 conference last week were more than 200 sports industry companies and 90 students. The event was organized by the Active Media Group, the Sports Management of Deree – The American college of Greece and ran from Thursday, 21 January to Saturday, 23 January.

On the first day, Active Media Group’s Chief Strategy Officer Themistocles Karvountzis said an important aspect of coping with the pandemic was to use “Vitamin N” which he said was “spending 30 minutes in nature every day.” He said activities like cycling and running were growing fast not only because they were “wellness experiences but also because they are natural distance activities.”

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The 400m hurdles world champion Periklis Iovakis praised European Athletics for allowing an active athlete to sit on the Athletes Committee board and take part in top-level decision making and to also have the right to vote.

Speakers also came from the world of basketball and included Greek national team coach Rick Pitino who is also in the Basketball of Fame. Another famous basketballer to speak was Real Madrid and F45 Madrid co-founder Joe Arlaucas.

The Greek CEO of the Basketball Champions League, Patrick Comninos said Greece’s success in countering the spread of COVID-19 was one the reasons why Athens was chosen to host the Final 8 2020.

“We chose Athens because at the time Greece’s reaction to COVID-19 had been exemplary, the numbers and indicators were very low,” said Mr Comninos on 22 January.

Nic Barlage of the NBA team the Cleveland Cavaliers spoke on the final day of the conference.

A panel discussion on gender equality was held on the final day and included USA Olympic and Paralympic Committee member Karen Irish and Greek former basketballer and journalist Theodora Panteli.

“The more educated you are, the more knowledgeable about your job, there is no way you will not get a chance to prove it” and “as long as you are knowledgeable of the subject and you don’t just want to go in front of a camera, and you want to have a duration and a long-term career, the more chances you will have,” said Ms Panteli.

Other speakers such as Zack Klima, the founder and CEO of Wait Time stressed the importance of technology in the post COVID-19 era.