The IAEH exists for representatives of international destinations to collaborate together to generate the best possible value from hosting major sporting and cultural events, and provide a voice for ‘not for profit’ hosts of events.

At its 2017 Annual Forum the IAEH decided that the most important area of interest for their members, among their nine key areas of focus, is “Measuring social and economic impacts.”

Sportcal launched the Global Sports Impact (GSI) Project in 2011. The project aims to understand the true impact of sport and to develop a standard for measuring the impact of major sporting events by the end of 2020.

The project engages all stakeholders involved in sport, ranging from event owners, event organisers, host cities, host governments, academic institutions, sponsors, broadcasters and everyone involved in delivering sporting events.

As Strategic Partners, members of IAEH will participate in Working Groups to establish standard definitions for measurements across all areas of impact. Once agreed, these standard definitions will be published as “open source” to encourage use by all stakeholders measuring the impact of sports events.

With 30 sports already engaged in the GSI Project, the addition of IAEH’s destination members means that the GSI project is now strongly represented by hosts and owners.

This includes members from the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), with whom Sportcal signed a four-year agreement in 2017 to provide funding for its members to undertake GSI Event Studies during the current Olympic cycle (2017-2020).

Over 20 event studies will have been conducted on a wide variety of events by the end of 2017 including:

· 28th Winter Universiade – 2017

· 29th Summer Universiade – 2017

· The World Games 2017

· 2017 World Baseball Classic

· AIBA World Boxing Championships 2017

· FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2017

· Women’s World Floorball Championships 2017

· UWW World Wrestling Championship 2017

· World Archery Championships 2017

· World Fencing Championships 2017

· World Table Tennis Championships 2017

· Sailing World Cup Series 2017

Commenting on the three-year agreement Iain Edmondson, Head of Major Events at London & Partners and a Director of IAEH stated “As cities and countries are becoming more experienced hosts, they are increasingly seeking a common language to assess the benefits of hosting events. By agreeing standards between different event stakeholders this collaboration will help the whole industry, not just those directly involved in the project.”

Mike Laflin, CEO, and Founder of Sportcal and the GSI Project, stated “We have been developing the concept of the GSI Project for over five years now and to have the support of IAEH and its member destinations brings a wealth of experience from some of the leading sports destinations in the world.”

He continued “This agreement will help sport establish a standard methodology for measuring the impact of events across all sports. Owners and hosts frequently under estimate the true impact of their events and this agreement will help them explain the true holistic benefits of hosting major sporting events to governments, the media and ultimately the general public”.

For further information on the GSI Project and the GSI Event Studies Programme contact gsi@sportcal.com.

For further information on IAEH please contact olga@eventhosts.org