With the absolutely phenomenal global growth of the eSports industry in the past few years, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is going to host an eSports forum next month on July 21 2018, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
This means that eSports is on its way to become an official Olympic Sport, and this forum is a big step aimed in that direction. The official announcement was done on 26 June 2018.
This is what Kit McConnell, Sports Director at the IOC said regarding the esports forum:
“We are pleased to be hosting our first “Esports Forum”, which is a great opportunity for both the Olympic Movement and representatives from the world of esports and gaming to begin a discussion, listen and learn from each other, and understand the potential opportunities for collaboration. The IOC and GAISF are closely following the rapid development of esports globally, and we look forward to a really engaging discussion.”
The IOC will be inviting eSports teams, players, representatives and more to the event and they, along with the Global Association of International Sports Federation (GAISF), are both looking forward to discussions involving the nature of eSports and its development.
Patrick Baumann, president at GAISF said –
“Along with the IOC, the GAISF looks forward to welcoming the esports and gaming community to Lausanne,”
He continued, “We understand that sport never stands still and the phenomenal growth of eSports and gaming is part of its continuing evolution. The Esports Forum provides an important and extremely valuable opportunity for us to gain a deeper understanding of eSports, their impact and likely future development so that we can jointly consider the ways in which we may collaborate to the mutual benefit of all of sport in the years ahead.”
The Esports Forum will have panels with discussions on different topics. These will include panel speakers & representatives from both the eSports and Olympic Movement. One of the main topics will be “The World of Esports”. They’ve described it as “Leading esports and gaming industry executives will share their thoughts on where the industry is now, what the current priorities are, and what they would like to see in terms of collaboration opportunities with the Olympic Movement”. And then more individualized topics like The Key to Twitch’s Success, Gender Equality in Sports, and more. There will also be an interview about A Day In The Life Of An Elite Player as well.
The Forum will also feature some roundtable discussions on topics like Media/Broadcasting, Structure of Sports Organisations, and Perspectives from the Athlete and the Investor. This is a big news for the eSports industry and everyone involved in the eSports & Gaming community is definitely very excited to see what’s going to happen at the forum.
