As in previous years, for two days SportConnect has become a place for the hottest professional discussions and exchange of specialized knowledge and skills.

The event was organized by the Interros Group, the Russian International Olympic University, the Rosa Sport Club and the Rosa Khutor resort. This year the main topic of the forum was «Effective Management and Capacity Stewardship». The event also had two venues — the RIOU and the Rosa Khutor Mountain resort.

«The SportConnect forum has been held in Sochi for the fourth year in a row, and this proves that our focus on peer learning and real practice is the right story. The community of participants is constantly growing, this year the forum gathered more than 300 managers who develop sports facilities and promote sports events in Russia and abroad. They shared interesting stories, including in the field of mass sports», said PR director of Interros Anton Muraviev.

The agenda for this year event had six key aspects. The participants discussed how to create products for the global market, learned who makes the best club television channels, how to work with the audience at the newly built stadiums, how to organize successful events for summer and winter sports.

The forum opened with the session entitled «Head kick: how to fulfill one’s potential beyond a career in sports». Famous athletes shared their experience with the audience: YouTube sports star and author of the KraSava channel Yevgeny Savin, two-time Olympic silver medalist in volleyball Elena Tishchenko, Olympic volleyball bronze medalist Pavel Abramov, seven-time Russian snowboard champion Alexey Sobolev.

One of the hottest moments of the forum was the debate between the anchor of «Zenit-TV» Denis Denisov and the face of «Loko-TV» Cyril Breido. Representatives of the two most popular YouTube channels in Russian club football have argued about who makes the best club TV in Russia, where to draw the line between lifestyle and sports, as well as how to attract new audience to YouTube.

«The SportConnect forum is growing not only geographically — Sochi, Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan and Minsk — but also meaningfully. This year, special emphasis was placed on the topic of mass sports. Therefore, for the first time, the Rosa Khutor resort hosted the second day of the forum. The attendees were able to get acquainted with the best practices in developing interesting summer sports and activities at a ski resort, " said Anton Muraviev.

Among those who presented their unique case studies were representatives of the Ski Jumping Federation, the Prikamye Nordic Combined Federation, the Russialoppet All-Russian Series of Ski Marathons, the «Locals Only» Sports Music Festival, the Urals Promotional Company RCC and the executives of the Rosa Khutor resort.