YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
On November 14 / 15th, this event, organised by the regional sports association (Landessportbund Hessen, lsb h) provided an opportunity to gain first-hand information on the topics of construction and management of sports facilities. Along with the exhibition itself in the Heinz-Lindner-Halle the supporting programme included an all-day expert congress with 26 presentations dealing with questions concerned with sport infrastructure.
Already before the official opening of the sportinfra in the early afternoon of the first trade fair day, numerous representatives from towns, communities, regions and sports associations convened at the 3rd Sport Discussion with the title "Communities meet Sport".
The 3rd Sport Discussion was opened by Rolf Hocke, vice president, club management of the Isb, who emphasised the importance of cooperation between sports associations and communities in his welcoming speech, stating: "As organised sport and communities, we are committed to work together to the good of the community in general to safeguard the future of associations, ensure provision of offers to satisfy different interests of the population as well as maintaining general social conditions". At the same time, he declared himself to be well aware that the work of organised sport cannot be maintained without support from communities. This underlines the importance of the agreement between the community associations of the region of Hesse and the Isb h, with the title "Strong sport – strong towns, communities and regions" with the aim to maintain sports facilities and sports programmes.
This evaluation is also shared by Diedrich Backhaus, Director of the association of Hesse towns and communities. "In the current situation in which communities throughout Germany find themselves, it has become apparent that it is not only a community crisis, but also a crisis for sport." Backhaus also emphasised that the content of the agreement should be elaborated on in-depth.
Participants had the opportunity to do this not only during the Sport Discussion, but also during the expert congress with its 26 presentations and the Sportinfra sport infrastructure trade fair with 63 exhibitors concentrating on the topics of planning, construction and operation of sports facilities.
Increased sustainability during development and planning work and more energy efficiency during operation were the core topics of the two days of the trade fair. More than 1000 participants gathered information at the various events on topics such as sustainable operation of swimming baths, drinking-water hygiene in shower facilities or climate protection during construction or renovation of sports facilities.
It was the fourth event in this series organised by the Hesse regional sports association in cooperation with the Hesse regional authorities, the German Olympic Sports association, the Fraport AG and Mainova the expert trade fair on the subject of sports facilities.
Further information can be found at www.sportinfra.de.
Contact: Regional Sports Association Hesse, Business Area Sportinfrastruktur, Frank Grübl, Otto-Fleck-Schneise 4, DE-60528 Frankfurt am Main, Phone: 069/6789-266, Fax: 069/6789-428, E-Mail: fgruebl@lsbh.de.
