Strong partnerships are the key to delivering a flourishing events and festivals portfolio, according to Brendan McClements, Chief Executive of Australia’s Victorian Major Events Company and Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events. 

The driving forces of two of the world’s most successful event destinations spoke to Host City at the National Events Conference on 3 December 2015 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The conference focused on “Scotland the Perfect Stage”, the recently refreshed National Events Strategy for 2015-2025.

“You can’t do this by yourself, you need people to help. When I was reading through ‘The Perfect Stage’ strategy it was the first time I’d seen another nation highlight so clearly that we need this as a fundamental component of building success and how to use it to our advantage,” Brendan McClements, Chief Executive of Australia’s Victorian Major Events Company told Host City during the conference.

“Victoria has learned from Scotland’s approach. That’s something that’s helped drive success in Victoria.” 

After an unprecedented year for major events in Scotland in 2014, which included the Ryder Cup and Commonwealth Games, the nation is now looking forward to hosting the 2018 European Sports Championships, 2019 Solheim Cup and UEFA EURO 2020. 

McClements has been responsible for attracting some of the world’s most prestigious events properties to the state of Victoria, including the 2015 Cricket World Cup, Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and the incredibly popular artistic and cultural celebration, White Night Melbourne.

In his keynote speech at the conference, McClements emphasised Scotland’s pre-eminent position in encouraging and facilitating the public, private and third sectors to work in unison in the delivery of its events and festivals portfolio, valued at £3.5bn per year to the Scottish economy.

“Major international events, and indeed small-scale events that support local communities, all of which have a number of stakeholders, can only achieve successful outcomes for all parties if everyone buys into the same plan. Sustainable events cannot survive on a command and control model,” he said.

“Events are complicated; you need to build a coalition of people who want to work with you,” he told Host City. “You are talking about governments, councils, local authorities, local services, industry, venues, airports, transport authorities, rights holders and so on,” 

Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events, explained how partnership working drove one of Scotland’s most recent successful bids, for the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.

“We had 23 partners as part of our Solheim Cup bid including local bodies such as Creative Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. Bringing these bodies together you really see the value of working together; it’s broken down the silo mentality,” he told Host City.

“It’s brokered by people trusting each other, but ultimately you’ve got to put a system in place that maintains the momentum. It’s really an organic process that needs to become systemic; it needs to maintain its integrity when people leave.”

The Scotland’s First Minister and Victoria’s Premier established a Memorandum of Understanding during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in relation to securing major events. 

“We share a lot of things in confidence. They are not a competitor, as they are on the other side of the world, but it’s good to share intelligence about how you work with rights holders and which new cultural products to launch,” Bush told Host City.

Cultural events is a key area where Scotland has inspired Victoria. “The Edinburgh International Festival is outstanding example of what can be achieved in the cultural space. Any city in the world would look at this and think, how can we achieve this,” said McClements.

“It’s certainly informed our thinking of what’s possible. We have an event called White Night that’s drawn on models from all over the world. The Edinburgh experience helped inform what we wanted to do with that event. Edinburgh is the gold standard.”

This strategic, coordinated approach is not exclusive to Scotland and Victoria. Bush cites Copenhagen as a “fantastic example”, and also points to Auckland, London and “pockets in North America”.

Strong international relations can in some cases lead to shared hosting rights. Australia co-hosted the 2015 Cricket World Cup with New Zealand. 

“Having multiple hosts is a natural outcome. New Zealand are our siblings, so there is a high level of cooperation. 

“Hosting the 2015 Cricket World Cup with New Zealand was no more complicated than any other major event that takes place in two locations. The organising committees made sure there was investment in communications.

“The plan was well coordinated – this was delivered seamlessly, all the way through the public and private sectors. The government piece of the puzzle was well sorted out. Time spent getting that right really paid off for Victoria.”

Victoria hosted a disproportionately large number of big games during the Cricket World Cup, including the opening as well as the final match. 350,000 people attended World Cup matches in Victoria in total, 153,000 of whom were from outside the state and 75,000 from outside the country, resulting in AU$300m of spending in the state.

In 2015 Melbourne also hosted Rugby League State of Origin series, one of Australia’s biggest sporting events. 92,000 people attended, 40,000 of whom were from outside Victoria. 

“It’s been an extraordinary fiscal year for Victoria, where you can see and taste the benefits that major events can bring. We’ve set a new benchmark for what major events are capable of,” said McClements.

The National Events Conference was opened by Fiona Hyslop MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Europe, Culture and External Affairs and Dr Mike Cantlay OBE, Chairman of VisitScotland. Cantlay emphasised the need for continued investments in infrastructure, digital connectivity and air connectivity for Scotland to continue securing and delivering the next generation of events. 

The conference also focussed on operating outstanding smaller events, delivering safer events and addressing the opportunities provided to the sector by Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design. Speakers and delegates also discussed potential applications for 3D 360° video displays, gathering and interpreting real-time event insights and the TEDx phenomenon.

The conference followed the hugely successful Host City 2015 in November, which saw global cities, rights holders and experts converge in Glasgow.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who chaired the FIFA Bid Evaluation Group for World Cups in 2018 and 2022, was on Thursday notified by the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee of the reasons for his seven-year ban. 

The adjudicatory chamber, chaired by Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert, had banned Mayne-Nicholls from taking part in any kind of national and international football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of seven years.

The FIFA-led investigation found Mayne-Nicholls guilty of infringing article 13 (General rules of conduct), article 15 (Loyalty), article 19 (Conflicts of interest) and article 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE). 

The adjudicatory chamber described the violation of article 20 as “the most serious breach committed by the official”, contravening a provision that aims at “guaranteeing that the requirement for FIFA – and its bodies and officials – to behave with integrity and neutrality is upheld at all times”.

“Mr Mayne-Nicholls, in his capacity as chairman of the FIFA Bid Evaluation Group for the World Cups in 2018 and 2022, had a special obligation with regard to the integrity and neutrality of his work,” the adjudicatory chamber said.

“Confidence in the work of the Bid Evaluation Group was especially crucial in order for it to properly exercise its powers and duties. After having taken part in an inspection visit to one of the Bid Committees in September 2010, Mr Mayne-Nicholls, at his own initiative, repeatedly asked for personal favours related to the hosting and training of his relatives (a son, nephew and brother-in-law) at an institution linked with that Bid Committee. 

“Not only were these requests of a private nature, but they were made only a few days after the visit to the Bid Committee, during the time the Bid Evaluation Group of which Mr Mayne-Nicholls was the chairman was still exercising its duties and prior to the election of the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. 

“By making the requests, Mr Mayne-Nicholls did not act in FIFA’s interests and ignored his responsibility as a high-ranking FIFA official, someone who was expected to act with utmost neutrality and integrity, in order to pursue his own personal interests.”

Mayne-Nicholls now has the option to lodge an appeal with the FIFA Appeal Committee.

Los Angeles’ bid committee for the 2024 Olympic Games has selected UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) halls of residence as the proposed site of the Olympic Village. 

The Media Village would be housed at the University of Southern California (USC), in the event of Los Angeles winning the bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

“LA 2024 is first and foremost focused on the athletes and when we looked across the city at possible accommodations options, it became clear that we can offer the best personalized experience for athletes and other participants through existing facilities at UCLA and USC,” said Gene Sykes, CEO of LA 2024.

“With these excellent residences at USC and UCLA, LA 2024 has developed an innovative Games Plan that aligns closely with Olympic Agenda 2020’s sustainability and fiscal discipline goals.”

Building and finding suitable legacy use for athletes’ villages is a challenge for the organisers of mega sports events. 

LA 2024 had previously planned to build a new village for the Games, but with projected costs rising in excess of US$1bn the bid committee has proposed a more sustainable solution.

“We have carefully chosen facilities that are sustainable, fiscally responsible and athlete-friendly,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. 

UCLA will house all eligible athletes and team officials at its residential facilities. All of these facilities are either newly built or recently renovated and incorporate modern design, spacious layouts, social gathering places, and the latest technology and conveniences. 

The Olympic Village offers world-class training centres on site, allowing athletes the convenience of training for their events without having to travel outside the Village. The Village already includes the Drake Stadium, a 400-meter track and field venue. Other facilities will include an Olympic-size swimming and diving pools, gym, tennis, basketball, beach volleyball and other recreation and training facilities. 

“UCLA’s played a special and unforgettable part in my sporting career. It has always provided me with an environment in which to excel, and now I’m training for Rio 2016 at UCLA’s facilities,” said Dawn Harper-Nelson, Beijing 2008 Olympic gold and London 2012 Olympic silver medalist hurdler and UCLA graduate.

“I have experienced both UCLA’s residences and two Olympic Villages, and UCLA measures up perfectly. I am delighted that athletes from across the world will have the opportunity to experience the university’s best-in-class facilities if LA is selected as host city.”

Members of the media, officials and other stakeholders will be housed at USC, which offers newly renovated accommodations located around its Collegiate Gothic-style campus. USC is constructing a new 15-acre residential and retail village, which will house 2,700, and offers a grocery, drugstore, fitness centre, restaurants and retail stores.

USC’s campus and the new USC Media Village are located in the heart of the Downtown Games Cluster, within walking distance to events held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, USC Galen Center, Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and the renovated Convention Center.

“As a USC alum, I’m proud that the media, officials and other supporters of the athletes will have the opportunity to call USC’s world-class campus home during the Games,” said Janet Evans, LA 2024 Vice Chair and Director of Athlete Relations.

“USC is already home to thousands of international students and offers housing of the highest possible quality. The proximity of this housing to LA’s sporting venues will transform the media’s Games-time experience, ensuring optimum living and working conditions.”

A delegation representing European Athletics arrived in Glasgow on Monday to spend two days in Scotland as part of evaluation visits to cities bidding for the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships. 

And this is just one of a series of important meetings with international sports bodies scheduled for the year. 

Further visits from international federations will take place over the next two to three weeks, an EventScotland spokesperson told Host City, as Scotland continues to bid for and secure the right to stage some of the world’s most prestigious events.

Glasgow is hosting the 2018 European Sports Championship with Berlin. And Glasgow will also welcome the world of sports, business and cultural events to Host City 2016 on 16 and 17 November.

Glasgow is one of four potential hosts of the 2019 Indoor Athletics Championships and, if successful, would be the first Scottish destination for a European Athletics event in 15 years.

The other cities competing to host the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships are Apeldoorn (Netherlands), Minsk (Belarus) and Torun (Poland). 

Evaluation site visits are underway during February and March, before the Evaluation Commission files a report to the European Athletics Council.

The 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships will take place in Belgrade, Serbia.

The Council will vote on which city will host the 2019 championships on 23 April at its meeting in Amsterdam after presentations by the bidders that meet the requirements of the evaluation process.

The Evaluation Commission consists of Karel Pilný (Evaluation Chair); Célia Mendes, Marcel Wakim and Bernadette Brun.

“In recent years Glasgow has established itself as one of the world’s top sporting cities thanks to our investment in new facilities and our international sporting events programme,” said Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow Life, Councillor Archie Graham OBE.

“Athletics has been at the very heart of our rise as a world-leading sporting city. This weekend’s Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix will take the sport to a new level and we hope to build on that success with the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships, which would see Europe’s top athletes return to the Emirates Arena. Our aim is to deliver a world-class event with athletes and spectators at its very heart.”

As well as meeting with bid partners, including the Scottish Government, EventScotland, Glasgow City Council, Scottish Athletics and British Athletics, the group toured the Emirates Arena.

The itinerary also includes a visit to proposed training venue Scotstoun Sports Campus, and an assessment of Glasgow’s ability to accommodate hundreds of athletes and, potentially, thousands of tourists.

“This weekend’s 2016 Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix has sold out months in advance, demonstrating the huge support for elite athletics there is within the Scottish public,” said Niels de Vos, Chief Executive of British Athletics.

“I’m delighted that Glasgow City and EventScotland decided to build on the success of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and previous British Athletics events held in the city by bidding to host European Athletics’ flagship indoor event at the Emirates Arena in 2019.”

I listened on recently as a member of the Scottish parliament described the transformation effect sport has had on his city, Glasgow, over the course of his relatively short adulthood. While, as a child, being subjected to pervasive messaging which labelled Scotland’s largest city ‘the sick man of Europe’, he now takes particular delight in the continued regeneration on our west coast. 

This renaissance owes much to the foresight and subsequent effort of those who have successfully secured events like the 2014 Commonwealth Games, FIG World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and 2018 European Championships for the city, amongst many others. 

Accordingly, the catalyst for this revolution of sorts has been sport. A great love of sport, has, in the words of this MSP, driven and irreversibly altered how his constituents experience the city in which they reside: be it in the evolving cityscape, the upgraded infrastructure or prevalent belief among citizens that Glasgow is, once again, a powerhouse. No longer in an industrial sense, of course, but as the eighth greatest sporting city on earth. 

As a slight aside, I would argue that these events have altered the consciousness of the Scottish nation as a whole, not only in a sporting sense. Scotland now recognises that its sons and daughters are capable of shining on the world stage and that our investment in sport has engendered invaluable social impacts, as well as numerous medals and new records. 

Aside from partisan praise for Glasgow and Scotland, this anecdote serves a very simple purpose in this wider narrative; it demonstrates the potential created by events governed well. 

And as all of those involved in the process of attempting to secure events for their respective municipalities will know, good governance starts from the initiation of the bidding process.  

Now, I cite Glasgow as a recent example in which, through rigorous care and procedural best practice, the city has reaped myriad benefits which were successfully sown many years previously. There are many others, however, that do not realise such prosperous outcomes, the reasons for which are both too numerous and complex to discuss herein. The solution for the unpredictable nature of results in an industry where, at least on the pitch/track/court, results are the only thing of any consequence, is, fortunately, less obscure. It is the more transparent governance around the process of event bidding. 

Technical evaluations are, in principle, an excellent means towards this end. However, controversy arises when they inform the choice of candidates, rather than underpin their decisions. Of course, factors not taken in to account in the process of a technical evaluation have to be considered, not least political climate. But to those unacquainted with event bidding as it presently stands, the fact that the, apparently, most accomplished bid often loses out in the final reveal, bears further scrutiny. And probably rightly so. 

It begs the question over whether there is scope for a standardised stable of tools to be provided to federations and governing bodies to help inform their decisions. Objective criteria, consistently adhered to across all sports and all major events, would help better gauge the competency of competing bids and help to eradicate votes potentially cast on instinctive or misguided judgement. 

In support of this line of argument, it has even been reasoned that completed technical evaluations should be published to encourage stricter adherence to their recommendations, or at least to elicit an explanation as to why any departure from the recommendations of a technical evaluation is selected as the chosen course. 

Leaving aside any insinuations of wrongdoing, more must also be done to encourage economic transparency in order to eradicate the ramifications experienced by host cities who fail to predict difficulties some way down the line. 

At present, a situation often arises where, in an effort to impress, candidates overpromise only to, ultimately, under-deliver. To give one example, the Olympic Games are seemingly beset by a perennial sprint finish, whereby, only aware of shortcomings all-too-late, infrastructure projects are rushed or pared-back by the host city. At best, this erodes confidence in the potentially profound social impacts mega-events should guarantee; at worst, it risks dereliction of duty and gives rise to social unrest.

For those familiar with game theory, the competitive nature of bidding must be of the greatest interest. Lacking definitive criteria to meet, cities and states must simply seek to outshine their nearest competitors. Or, more accurately, seek to outshine what capacity they imagine their nearest competitor may have. The result of this ‘blind bidding’ is a less than ideal outcome for all involved, including the winner. 

With more strongly defined and widely publicised benchmarks upon which bids are judged, one can claim with some confidence that capability and credibility, rather cash, will become the foundations upon which successful bids are constructed. The result? Greater likelihood of well-placed investment, improved legacy benefits and less empty stadia as the circus leaves town. 

While it is not for me to pass judgement on the current health of global sporting governance, I am more than willing to indicate the current circumstances, while regrettable, present an invaluable opportunity. 

In the course of numerous allegations, withdrawal of support and widespread condemnation in recent months, we have learned in no uncertain terms that the forces behind the extraordinary commercial success of sport will no longer endure dubiety. Due to the extent of its own success, all of sport, particularly its governance, is being called to account, and it must reform. 

Emboldened by the voice offered by social media and the internet age, the public can no longer be categorised as homogenous factions of brand advocates. Today, the consumer more fluidly elects those it wishes to trust, and brands with a sponsors’ stake in sport will no longer tolerate its flaws. 

That being said, it should not be forgotten that, by the same token, the consumer of today is now open to more routes of engagement than ever before thanks to those same technologies. As such, the potential is more people, more enthused by a greater diversity of sporting pursuits. For the general health of the sector, that can only be an exciting prospect. But it can only be realised through change. That change being excellent governance from the ground-up. 

And, if we agree with the assertion above that good governance is established from the outset of the bidding process, what better area for us to concentrate those initial efforts towards reform. 

This opinion piece was written by Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events and Chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland

After the hugely successful Host City 2015 event in Glasgow in November, the must-attend conference and exhibition for leaders in event hosting will return to the state-of-the-art Technology and Innovation Centre on 16 and 17 November 2016. 

At Host City 2016, cities, event owners and suppliers will exhibit alongside a truly outstanding conference programme in the heart of Glasgow.

As the largest conference and exhibition of cities and cross-sector events, Host City provides a much needed one-stop event where city representatives, destination marketers, event owners and suppliers can all meet. 

Host City 2015 was twice the size of the 2014 launch event in London and Host City 2016 is set to double again to reach 500 attendees from cities and destination marketing organisations, cross-sector rights holders and suppliers. 

Host City features world class speakers from IOC, CGF, FIFA, sports federations, BIE, EU Capital of Culture, major scientific congresses; city event leaders from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Japan, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, USA and many more.

The conference attracts delegates and exhibitors from cross sector rights holders, together with organising committees, city halls, national Olympic committees, Convention Bureaus and the suppliers that make city events possible. 

The event is firmly established as the optimal environment for cities, events owners and suppliers to network with and learn from peers in the business of bidding for and hosting cross-sector events, from mega sports events to live entertainment and congresses.

With a mix of panel discussions, keynote addresses and case studies on how to attract and host secure and engaging sports, business and cultural events. The conference highlights the issues and opportunities facing everyone in the business of city events.

Host City attracts the attention of global media, with coverage from Press Association, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, O Globo, Bloomberg, Associated Press, ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, Huffington Post, Yahoo, China Sports, Indian Express, Yomiuri Shimbun, Sports Illustrated, Washington Times, MSN, Eurosport, STV, Kyodo News, Sky News, audioBoom and many more. Media partners have included SportCal, Around the Rings, iSportConnect, fcbusiness, SportBusiness, Sports Features, SportsPro.

What attendees said about Host City 2015: 

“Thanks again for a conference that was interesting, inspiring, very very well organised and a good opportunity to meet some interesting people” – Alex Koch, Corporate Communications Manager, FIFA

“It was a good platform which is completely new to us; it’s very interesting to meet senior level associations, buyers, suppliers, all areas of the business” – Livio Götz, Market Manager UK & Ireland, Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau

“An inspiring event” – Karel Bartak, Head of Culture, European Commission

“I was really impressed by the quality of the event – the speakers, the delegates, the topics and the venue” – Robert Datnow, Managing Director, The Sports Consultancy

“Great conference, well organised and a very good subject area” – Martin Fitchie, Programme Manager, European Sports Championships Management

“A great success” – Bridget McConnell, Chief Executive, Glasgow Life

“The speakers have all been good, the panels have been good and it’s explored a lot of different areas” Hamish Fraser, Group Director, NVT Group

“A good conference with interesting and motivating sessions” – Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor, Eurovision Song Contest, European Broadcast Union

“It was interesting to be here to promote the city of Bern as a host destination for major and small sports and cultural events” – Bernhard Rhyn, Bern Incoming Ltd.

“I found Host City to be very useful for audioBoom as a platinum sponsor for meeting a lot of people who we want to engage with in the sports and event industry” – Marc Webber, Head of Sport, audioBoom

“The quality of the speakers and the content was outstanding” – Mike Hopper, CEO, Advance Brand Consulting

Join the Host City movement

We look forward to welcoming you to Host City 2016, the EU’s leading meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events, in Glasgow on 16th to 17th November.

For more information on Host City 2016, join the conversation on on Twitter using #HostCity and visit http://www.bidtowin-hostcity.net. For updates on Host City 2016 and much more, keep an eye on www.hostcity.com

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has received candidature files from Los Angeles (USA), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary) and Paris (France) for hosting the Olympic Games 2024 by the Wednesday deadline.

The IOC has hailed the plans, which were submitted in digital-only format for the first time, as showing the potential for unprecedented venue sustainability. 

“Following Olympic Agenda 2020, the Candidate Cities are making use of an extremely high percentage of existing and temporary venues, possibly the most ever,” said Jacqueline Barrett, Associate Director Olympic Games/Olympic Candidatures.

Olympic Agenda 2020 is the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement and the candidature process for the 2024 Games is the first to be launched following its adoption. 

The new process encourages cities to present Olympic projects that best match their sports, economic, social and environmental long-term planning needs. It calls for the use of existing facilities where possible, and provides flexibility for the venue concept to meet local sustainability and legacy needs and ambitions.

“Los Angeles, Rome, Budapest and Paris are all submitting projects fully in line with Olympic Agenda 2020,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

 “It is impressive to see how they have incorporated the Olympic project into the long-term development plans of their city, region and country. Coming from different starting points, for all four there is a clear focus on sustainable development, legacy and in particular how the facilities are going to be used after the Olympic Games,” said Bach. 

“We are delighted to have four extremely strong candidatures and look forward to a fascinating competition.”

The submission of the Candidature Files on “Vision, Games Concept and Strategy” marks the end of the first part of the bidding process. 

“The plans received indicate very thoughtful consideration of what the Cities and their people need for the future,” said Barrett.

“The IOC has significantly simplified the Candidature Process, symbolised by the fact that the submissions arrived for the very first time on a USB key only, instead of thousands of pages of paper documents.”

An IOC-appointed working group will now study the files and report to the IOC Executive Board (EB) in June 2016. 

The next stage of the Candidature Process will focus on Governance, Legal and Venue Funding, to be submitted by 7 October 2016, followed by a final “Games Delivery, Experience and Venue Legacy” stage due on 3 February 2017.

During Stage 3, an IOC Evaluation Commission will make working visits to each City to study their projects in detail and issue a final report. 

The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be elected in September 2017 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

The English Institute of Sport, funded by UK Sport, will have provided 950,000 hours of support to more than 1,100 athletes between the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  

This amounts to more than 4,500 hours of support a week over the four year Olympic cycle, in a bid to help Team GB achieve success at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil.

The English Institute of Sport (EIS) is UK Sport’s science, medicine and technology arm, with 350 experts helping elite athletes improve performance in more than 30 Olympic and Paralympic sports.

UK Sport provided EIS with GB£59,775,973 of funding after London 2012, where the EIS had worked with 86 per cent of the GB athletes who had won a medal. UK Sport and the EIS have worked together to build a world-leading high performance system in a bid to deliver Team GB’s best ever away performance.

“With less than 100 days to go to the Olympics and 120 to go to the Paralympics, our National Lottery funded sports and athletes are in good shape,” said Liz Nicholl, CEO of UK Sport.

“I have every confidence that they, supported by the EIS, will inspire the nation with their performances in Rio this summer. 

“The thousands of hours of world class scientific, medical and technological expertise provided by the EIS each week to our Olympic and Paralympic athletes is key to ensuring they are the best prepared British athletes ever.

“The EIS has been the ‘team behind the team’ since 2002, and our high performance system wouldn’t be where it is today without the impact of their talented team of experts.”

EIS services support both the physical and mental health and wellbeing of athletes and coaches with expertise provided across areas including biomechanics, performance analysis, performance lifestyle, performance pathways, performance nutrition, physiology, psychology, physiotherapy, medicine, research & innovation and strength and conditioning.

This support combines to help athletes and coaches across a number of areas including maximising competition performance, recovering from injury, identifying talent, enhancing physical and mental health and wellbeing and transitioning into new careers following retirement from elite sport. 

“It is the vision of the EIS to be the world leading institute for sport and through the funding and support provided by UK Sport, our ambitious goal is within reach,” said Nigel Walker, National Director of the EIS.

“The high performance system we have in our country is the envy of many around the world and that is underpinned by our leading practitioners boasting over 1,100 years collective experience across 11 areas of expertise. 

“We remain on track for huge success at Rio 2016 and thanks to ongoing support from UK Sport, the Government and National Lottery, planning for Tokyo 2020 is well advanced as we continue to showcase ‘What It Takes To Win’ on a global stage.”

Olympic diving medallist Tom Daley received support from the EIS Psychology team. “If you can handle the pressure cooker environment of an Olympic final psychologically, you have the power to go all the way and win!” he said. “The support I’ve received from the EIS in sports psychology has made me into the diver I am today.”

Paralympic wheelchair tennis medallist Jordanne Whiley MBE said: “The EIS leave no stone unturned when it comes to helping athletes prepare for competition. The support they provide both on and off the field of play helps increase confidence and allows me to perform at my very best.” 

Glasgow’s Emirates Arena is to host the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group semifinal between Great Britain and Australia on 18 – 20 September, the Lawn Tennis Association announced on Tuesday. 

“We are delighted that Glasgow has been selected to host the Aegon GB Davis Cup Team once again for the semi-final against Australia in September,” said Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events. 

“Scotland is the perfect stage for events and we are certain that fans from all across the country will turn out in force to show their support at the Emirates Arena.”

Andy Murray, who won both of his singles matches against USA at the Emirates Arena in March, said “It’s exciting for the team to be going back to Glasgow. It’s always special to play in front of a home crowd and we are fortunate to have played our last three ties at home.

“We had a unique atmosphere in Glasgow, the crowd was unbelievable.  It’s going to be a huge week for our team and we’ll be doing everything we can to get GB through to the final."

The indoor arena in Glasgow’s East End was built to host badminton events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and now hosts basketball on a regular basis. It will have its capacity extended to 8,200 and a hard court laid down for the Davis Cup event.

The Great Britain vs. Australia semi-final coincides with the meeting between Belgium and Argentina at Forest National in Belgium. 

The winner of the semi-final in Glasgow will either travel to Belgium or welcome Argentina for the final in November.

Zimbabwe is making good progress as it prepares to host UNESCO Africa Engineering Week from 14 to 19 September, according to a senior World Federation of Engineering Organisations official. 

World Federation of Engineering Organisations vice president Yashin Brijmohan met with a number of stakeholders, including the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers, Engineering Council of Zimbabwe, UNESCO and government officials. 

"I'm quite pleased with the progress made so far," he told national newspaper The Herald.

"I believe in Zimbabwe and the country has shown a lot of potential in terms of hosting conferences of this nature.

"Zimbabwe is ready to host the event and I believe the local team will work hard to make this event a success."

Victoria Falls, the country’s leading resort, won the bid to host the second edition of the international event.

According to UNESCO, Africa Engineering Week aims to educate youth and the general public about engineering through outreach activities such as educational workshops, public awareness events, mentoring activities and university events that show how engineers are key players in the solutions to important global challenges, such as climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A conference on the theme of "Engineering Innovation for Accelerated Infrastructure Development for Africa", which aims to raise the profile of the profession, is expected to attract more than 500 delegates from outside the host nation. 

"Preparations are going on very well even though a lot of work needs to be done to promote the event," Eng Martin Manhuwa, president of the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers told The Herald.