At the end of a stellar year for Paralympic sport in Ireland, there will be an opportunity to plan for an even better future this Friday when the European Paralympic Committee comes to Dublin for its Annual General Assembly and Conference.
President of the Irish Olympic Committee and IOC Executive Member Pat Hickey will address the Assembly on the aims and aspirations of the European Olympic Movement. Tim Maher will speak on the growth of Irish Wheelchair Basketball and Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business will address the group on the importance and opportunities within Women’s sport.
John Treacy of the Irish Sports Council as well as Liam Harbison and James Gradwell of Paralympics Ireland will also make contributions among the leading lights of the Paralympic movement from across the continent.
The General Assembly was sought as part of sport’s major contribution to the Gathering. In the same way as sailing showed last year when hosting it’s international congress in Dun Laoghaire, this event highlight’s the different opportunities that exist for sport making a major contribution to the local tourism and business economy.
Travel, hotel accommodation, event management, local transport and the hosting of a major dinner in the Guinness Storehouse will deliver real financial benefit for Dublin and many of the delegates will stay on for at least a couple of days longer to spread that effect around the country.
Sport for Business 20/20 takes place in Dublin on Tuesday October 8th. It is a unique opportunity for Irish business leaders to see 20 great sporting programmes for 2014. The event is now full with participants from GAA, Athletics Ireland, Swim Ireland and Irish Hockey among those presenting to businesses including Eircom, Aer Lingus, Ulster Bank, Tesco and Accenture.
Ireland is in the early stages of planning to bid for the hosting of matches in Euro 2020 and for the Rugby World Cup three years later but there are plenty more opportunities within international sport – at administrative rather than playing event level – where our strengths as a hospitable nation, and our hotel and conference facilities put us in a strong position.
Being seen to accommodate gatherings at this level and play a role in international sport will be of great long term benefit for overall sport as well as can be seen through the strides made by Cricket Ireland through playing an international role in administration.
Further good news was felt through the Paralympic movement late last week when NBC in America announced it was expanding its live coverage of the Paralympics in Rio in 2016 to no less than 66 hours. This compares to only 5 hours of live coverage from London 2012 and is a further sign that Paralympics has crossed the threshold as a full on mainstream sport which the public wants access to.
Setanta Sport, through a partnership with Allianz enabled free to air viewing of Jason Smyth, Michael McKillop, Mark Rohan Bethany Firth and Darragh McDonald’s golden exploits in London. RTE’s coverage was largely in highlights and on digital but Irish success and international expansion may see that expand here as well in three years time.
