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Top Executives' Meeting in Budapest

Top Executives' Meeting in Budapest

The 38th Tennis Europe Top Executives’ Meeting was held from 26-28 November in Budapest, where the annual gathering was hosted by the Hungarian Tennis Association.

32 of Tennis Europe’s member nations were represented at the conference, which is intended for the chief executive officers and/or general managers of the European federations and serves as a forum for a discussion of contemporary issues affecting the administration of the sport and for sharing of best practices.

On this occasion, the two-day conference was preceded by a Management Workshop (pictured) for delegates from nations that benefit from the ITF/Tennis Europe Development Program. Led by the region’s Development Officer Hrvoje Zmajic, the workshop’s broad aim was to assist the executives with the preparation of 5-year development plans for their federations.

The main meeting was opened by Tennis Europe President Jacques Dupré and moderated by the organisation’s CEO; Olli Mäenpää. Several member nations made presentations, alongside those of Tennis Europe and the International Tennis Federation, which was represented by Executive Vice-President Juan Margets, Executive Director of Professional Tennis Kris Dent and Dave Miley, the Executive Director of Development.

The remainder of the meeting was divided into three key sessions, each of which saw the delegates split into working groups during which topics such as lifelong tennis, tennis development, and the commercial and communication strategies of national associations (led by Bruce Phillips and Adam Mason of Altius Sports and John Bushell of Sports Marketing Surveys Inc. respectively) were explored.

Thursday’s official dinner at the Kempinski hotel saw the delegates joined by the Hungarian Tennis Association President Lajos Szucs and the country’s most celebrated former player Balasz Taroczy. A special award was also given to Walter Goethals of Belgium, who was appearing at his last Top Executives’ Meeting, having attended almost all previous editions.

Olli Mäenpää commented, “It’s always a thrill to come to this meeting and see so many of the leading executives from our sport eager to contribute and to learn from each other, and it has been encouraging to see many new faces at this edition. I’d like to thank everybody involved, and particularly our guest speakers for their willingness to share their knowledge and expertise. Our friends from the Hungarian Tennis Association did an excellent job in organising the event, and we are extremely grateful for the hospitality and warmth that they have shown us once again.”

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