The MOVE2009 closing panel reflects about the event and future opportunities

The closing of the MOVE2009 saw panelists Walther Feldman (City of São Paolo), Rene Kural (Center for Sport and Architecture), Mogens Kirkeby (ISCA), Randy Rzewnicki (European Cylists’ Federation) and Ian McKenzie (Union of International Architects) debate the findings of the congress.

Inspired by moderator Jens Sejer Andersen (Play the Game) and apt questions from the audience, the panelists summarized som key topics of the conference to be

  @ Political momentum for Active Cities. Walther Feldman himself explained how the conference had inspired him to do more for physical activity in Sao Paolo, and during the conference, he had been in contact with the Mayor of Sao Paolo, whom had agreed to set up new projects inspired by the MOVE2009 conference.

  @ Cross-cutting Partnerships. Several panelists agreed that the huge challenges in the cities require concerted action among city planners, architects, the health sector, sport organizations and others. The MOVE 2009 conference had shown examples of cities and projects that inspire such cooperation between the sectors. Indeed the conference was itself run by a cross-cutting consortium of organizations.

  @ Re-thinking Active Cities and physical activity. From “World Village of Women’s Sport” and  “Project Underground” to “Sport Caravan”. The projects and indeed ways of thinking about physical activity in the cities have been challenged during the MOVE 2009 congress. “We need to stop conventional thinking about sport and physical activity” said Mogens Kirkeby. “And I take with me from the congress in particular a concept by Milan Hosta: Let’s think holistically and move from ‘health-enhancing physical activity’ to ‘ Life-enhancing physical activity’!”

Closing the conference programme and inviting participants to the following day’s study tour programme and not least closing dinner, all participants were invited to see or revisit the presentations, videos, book of abstracts and speaker bios etc. that were available on the www.MOVE2009.org web site.

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The importance of a dialogue with the citizen.

The MOVE2009 City Profiling session featured presentations including the city of Vancouver-Canada, the city of Sao Paulo-Brazil, the city of Bologna-Italy and the Region of South Lanarkshire-Scotland. The Canadian representative of the International Union of architects, Conrad Boychuk, underlined the importance of culturally relevant public spaces. Densely populated areas call for the public recreational areas that fulfill the needs of the urban population - parks need to be accessible, functional, enjoyable and recreational in order to penetrate the heart and the life of the community around it.
The Sport and Leisure Director of the City of Sao Paulo, Walter Feldman presented various campaigns that Sao Paulo is implementing in order to create a culture of participative sports in the city. Sao Paulo has increase its budget for public sport and leisure programme dramatically and is in permanent dialogue with the local sport and culture organizations facilitating the implementation of the campaigns.
“The quality assessment and labeling of existing sport and leisure facilities are essential”, states the deputy mayor of the city of Bologna, Luisa Lazzaroni introducing the most interesting Italian label of PLAY and DISPLAY for sport, and cultural facilities respectively. “The cooperation with the Italian ISCA member UISP (Italian Sport for All Union) is very important to us. We believe that the participation of the civil society and citizens is essential in establish a strong profile for Bologna”, concluded Lazzaroni.
In his answer to a congress attendee question, Gerry Campell, Sports Director at South Lanarkshire, addressed the eventual gains of major sport events on the overall activity of the population. “From statistical intelligence we know that the presence of the Commonwealth Games did not increase the physical activity of the Brits, nevertheless we see an encouraging tendency with respect to the up-coming Olympic Games in London2012. We hope that the strong profile of the event will entail lots of participatory sports events and help the UK to become more physically active.”

The MOVE2009 World Congress on Active Cities: Sport, Health and Citizenship opened its gates on the evening of Wednesday 21/10/2009. The Congress Consortium is very pleased by the great number of Congress attendees and the quality and energy of the MOVE2009 speakers and experts.
The MOVE2009 website will be fully updated right after the congress. It will feature speaker presentations, videos, interviews, outcomes and findings of the congress including the final congress statement.
Get a preview on some of the videos here.

On the October 21 the MOVE2009 World Congress on Active Cities: Sport, Health & Citizenship will open its gates in Copenhagen, Denmark.

During 4 days MOVE2009 will welcome more than 300 participants from 45 countries; 55 speakers and experts will address urban planning, sport and leisure architecture, social change management, health, sport and citizenship in 14 working sessions. Make sure to make your registration for MOVE2009.