Beyond Sport kicked off its three day Beyond Sport House with a program entitled “10 round tables”. Each table was comprised of 10 leaders, from 10 different organizations, focusing on 10 timely topics, thereby creating 10 in-depth discussions.
The topics included:
- NO POVERTY—The role sport can play in building resilience to environmental, economic and social disasters.
- GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING—The role sport can play in prmoting mental health and wellness through reducing non-communicable diseases
- QUALITY EDUCATION—The role sport can play in increasing the number of people with STEM skills that will lead to more opportunities.
- GENDER EQUITY—The role of sport in providing career pathways for girls and women.
- DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH—The role sport and social enterprise can play in promoting economic growth, job creation and sustainable social change.
- INNOVATION AND TECH—The role esports can play in achieving access to information and communications technology
- REDUCED INEQUALITIES—Collective Impact Award Winners Task Force
- SUSTAINABLE CITES AND COMMUNITIES—The role sport can play in inclusive and sustainable urbanization through impact investing
- CLIMATE ACTION—Collective Impact Award Winners Task Force
- PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS—The role of sport, tech and innovation in identifying inclusive solutions for groups in conflict.
Though the conversations themselves were “off the record”, I was allowed to observe the process and follow some of the discussions as the high-level participants delved into topics that need a lot of attention. Even though the underlying perception of the issue is not highly controversial, the mechanisms for identifying and implementing solutions remains a large challenge.
Ultimately the group came up with a variety of recommendations that are going to be presented to the United Nations. These recommendations will be covered in greater detail once we are able to get the final positions of each of the roundtables.
In the meantime, the energy in the room was high and set a terrific tone for the discussions which will be occurring over the next three days.
After the roundtables and recommendations were completed, the group had the opportunity to browse through the information around the fantastic SAP Innovation Lab. A unique exhibit showed photos from many soccer programs around the world. Here a few for your perusal.
