The first Wearable Technologies Congress will be held on July 9 at the International Congress Center in Munich, coinciding with the next edition of ISPO Sport & Style, taking place on July 8-10 next door. This event will feature decision-makers and experts from the areas of retail sales, production and science from the sports, fashion and electronics sectors. The event will be preceded and followed by two panel discussions, one taking place on July 8 and dealing with “Mobile Motion Tracking Services in Sport,” i.e. movement sensors in sports and healthcare. Another discussion on July 10 around the theme “Best Agers” will cover wearable technologies for the 50-and-up crowd.
As at previous editions of the ISPO show, Messe München will house a Wearable Technologies section in the restyled ISPO Sport & Style show. This time it will take up 250 square meters of space in hall B2. The European Space Agency (ESA) will be a major partner for the segment, displaying a special suit that protects firemen from melting in an inferno. The technology used for this suit was developed originally for astronauts to protect them from the fiery rays of the sun.
The Munich fair will also put the spotlight on an interesting and easy sport – floorball – that could gain from a wider adoption internationally. A derivative of hockey and bandy, it is a very popular team sport in Sweden, where it comes after football in terms of male participation, and in Finland, where it occupies the third spot after football and ice hockey. It is also rather popular in such countries as Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Portugal, Turkey, China, Thailand, Australia and Canada.
The International Floorball Association is organizing a Floorball Village together with leading manufacturers of the related products at the ISPO show. Founded in Sweden in 1986, the federation groups 39 national associations with more than 300,000 active professional players and almost 1.8 million amateurs. More than one million floorball sticks and up to two million balls are sold annually, in addition to team uniforms and other equipment. A “Meet the Stars” event and a «floorball party» will also be organized during the show.
New at ISPO will also be a so-called “speed dating” event for young designers, called “Jobs & More.” It’s being organized by Sport Invest Search, the new French-based executive recruitment company recently set up by an international industry veteran, Andy Gugenheimer. His agency, which already works with 15 companies representing 25 brands in Europe and the USA, is setting up an office in Munich.
As for the famous ISPO Cup, a 26-year-old award given by the organizers of the ISPO trade fair, it will be presented on July 8 to a former national men’s volleyball team of Japan that won the gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, after beating East Germany in three sets. The event will mark the first time the award is presented to a sports team, as it has traditionally been given to an individual or a company.
