A few days prior to the Budapest Grand Prix, which will take place on June 25 and 26 in the Hungarian capital, and for the first time, the International Judo Federation organized a marketing and media seminar with the different competent departments of the organization and numerous experts.
Among these experts, great names of international sport were present to share their experience and expertise, such as Mr. Ion Tiriak, IJF Ambassador, the legend of the international gymnastics, Mrs. Nadia Comaneci, or Mr. Rene Jaggi, IJF Strategy and Marketing Director and former President and CEO of Adidas AG.
The IJF President, Mr. Marius Vizer, who opened the seminar and was present during the discussions said: "This seminar is very important for our organization and for judo. We are talking about the future of our sport. Thank you to our guests for their outstanding support. A lot of work has been done over the past years and our sport has already changed a lot. We are keeping working on making judo more attractive and more popular without abandoning our values, which make judo different from any other activity."
Mr. Ion Tiriak said: "I am not a judo person and I discovered it late but I fell in love with your sport. It is a great activity and a fantastic educational tool. Under the leadership of Marius Vizer and his team, you have all the capacities to make judo big on TV but also in the society. The society needs the values you are promoting."
Mrs. Nadia Comaneci declared: "I also discovered judo quite late and every time I come to a judo event I simply feel happy. I have the feeling that I am in my family."
Mr. René Jaggi brought all his expertise to the audience: "Judo has to open to new public and we must not be afraid of changes… There are changes to be made that won’t affect the values of judo but will make it ready to enter a new era. Judo has the chance to have a great leader with a vision and passionate people working for the development of the sport throughout the planet. Let's build on that."
Several IJF EC members were also present and activily participated in all the debates: Jean-Luc Rougé, IJF General Secretary - Vladimir Barta, IJF Head Sports Director - Daniel Lascau, IJF Sports Director - Yasuhiro Yamashita, Development Director - Jose Rodriguez, Development Director - Mohamed Meridja, Education and Coaching Director - Armen Bagdasarov, IJF Sport Director.
During the two days, TV experts (Pedro Lasuen, Euronews - Alan Abrahamson, 3WireSport), IJF staff and consultants presented the different sectors which are directly or indirectly affected by Marketing and media. From top level to grassroots level everyone agreed that the IJF and judo have everything in their possession to bring the sport in an other dimension which will help all the judo actors from international to local level.