At September17, OSF organized a business event about Toky2020, which will take place in 2021 due to COVID-19. The meeting was held in the centre of Dutch sports, namely the Olympic Training Centre Papendal, where also the Netherlands Olympic Committee is located. The meeting offered a very interesting program with keynote speakers like Ms. Anneke van Zanen-Nieberg (President Netherlands Olympic Committee), Mr. Jochem Schellens (Managing Director Papendal) and Mr. Hans Verhoeven (CEO MTD Pure Water).
Mr. John van de Laar (OSF) started the meeting with several updates about Orange Sports Forum, like a review on the past six months, the upcoming (business) events, several projects of OSF regarding to China, Qatar and the United States and last but not least the European projects and calls of OSF. Mr. Jochem Schellens welcomed all the guests on behalf of Papendal and he also spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on the preparations for Tokyo2020 from his point of view. Also, he told more about the impact for the sports events calendar in 2021, like the World Championships BMX which will take place at Papendal in 2021.
After these interesting insights, there was an interactive Q&A with the president of the Netherlands Olympic Committee, Ms. Anneke van Zanen-Nieberg. She spoke about the many challenges for the Olympic Committee like COVID-19, an inclusive society and the role of sports and the role of the sports federations in the Netherlands. There was also the opportunity for the guests to ask questions and start a discussion about several relevant topics.
Finally, Mr. Hans Verhoeven (CEO MTD Pure Water) presented about his experience with doing business with many Olympic Games and in specific with Tokyo2020. It was an honest and transparent presentation about the process of doing business in Japan and with the Olympics and about the challenges he faces towards the Olympic Games in 2021.
The meetings ended with informal drinks and it was great to see that this led to many interesting conversations and synergies between the companies, governments and sports organisations. We look back on a very successful meeting and many thanks to the speakers and guests for making this possible!
