"We were 48 hours away from cancelling the [2010] event [in Dubai] because of the ash cloud," Hellman recalls in an interview with insidethegames.

In the event, with a self-imposed Thursday deadline for taking a decision looming, she says flights started again on Wednesday evening.


"We were just very, very lucky," she concludes.

"I think what we learnt is that you always have to plan for the impossible."

First held in the Spanish capital Madrid in 2003, the convention grew out of the notion that it would make sense to coordinate meetings of individual sports federations so that they took place in the same city at the same time.

It is now so much of a magnet for sports businesses, journalists and broadcasters, as well as administrators, that all manner of important decisions are taken and announced there.

The six days in Québec are expected to see:

·   The announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of which bidders in the race for the 2020 Summer Olympics (Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo) will pass to the decisive phase of the contest, which concludes in Buenos Aires in 2013;

·   The election of senior IOC member Denis Oswald's successor as President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF);

·   The signing of the official hosting agreement between the Polish city of Wrocław and the International World Games Association (IWGA) for the 2017 World Games;

and doubtless plenty more besides.


"We are a tiny team, but extremely involved in details," Hellman (pictured), a former Swedish national-level junior tennis-player, explains.

"I believe the more you know, the better you can deliver.

"We spend a lot of time with each organising committee.

"We need to learn about the city and they need to learn about the event and marry them together...

"You learn about how to work in different cities and traditions and cultures.

"When we leave each city, it feels like we are leaving a family behind."

This attention to detail, plus a willingness to innovate encapsulated in Hellman's phrase, "you never have a finished product", have driven the event organisers to adopt an original and proactive approach to ensuring that those who attend are able to capitalise on the networking opportunities the convention presents.


The Denver convention in 2009 saw a mass visit by delegates to a Colorado Avalanche ice hockey game.

It was, Hellman says, a "possibility for people to take their ties off".

She estimates that perhaps 1,200 delegates took the opportunity to do so.

Three weeks before each event, SportAccord contacts the 35 to 40 per cent of attendees who will be going to their first convention with suggestions for how to make the most of their time at the convention and an offer to field any questions.

"If newcomers come without having prepared, they could be disappointed," she says.

"When you get there, people's agendas are already full."

First-time delegates are also invited to a breakfast on the Tuesday morning of the convention.

"That also gives them the first contact; if you don't know anyone, it can be overwhelming," Hellman says.

In the run-up to the Beijing event in 2007, SportAccord capped the number of delegates at 1,500, with the importance of maintaining the quality of the networking experience in mind.

"We felt that if we became much bigger, we might be too big to be a facilitator for people to reach out to each other," Hellman says.

She remembers the Berlin convention in 2005, when it was possible to organise the entire event at one venue.

"This suddenly turned the event into a very good networking platform," she says.

"We started to get people even spending days in the elevator to meet people."


One new feature that the 1,700-1,800 people expected in picturesque, mainly francophone, Québec City (pictured) will find is a Sport Demo Zone in which athletes from international federations will be able to entertain them with displays.

"We thought it would be nice to say, 'Federations – would you like to showcase your disciplines?'" Hellman says.

"Seventeen federations have said they would like to be part of it.

"They will have a schedule."

Featured sports are expected to include bodybuilding, boules and squash.

"I think this will have a bit more of a sporting feeling," Hellman predicts.

But the innovation is also part of an attempt to encourage communication between representatives of the SportAccord Convention's main client groups.

"We say we have three groups," Hellman says.

"Sports federations, who we also see as rights-holders to about 1,000 events.

"They all need [the second group] cities and [the third] the corporate world to help them develop their events.

"I am surprised sometimes to see the lack of communications between these three areas.

"We are trying to open up the ice."


Hellman will be leaving SportAccord following the Québec convention to take up another role in the sports events business, handing over the reins to Nis Hatt (pictured), who recently joined from the pharmaceutical industry.

"I'm more someone who likes to start things up and get them to a different level," she says.

"I have been doing this for eight years. It has been a fantastic experience. I just feel it is time to move on."

Given his experience outside the sports industry, Hatt can be expected to bring more fresh ideas to the SportAccord party.

Just as long as those unpredictable Icelandic mountain gods don't interfere.

To find out more about SportAccord click here.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.