Overview of where we came from and where we are going, and the progress towards a common open-data calendar for the sport. How have things gone after the first year managing European events with it?
Below is the agenda for AthTech21. The agenda is "built by the participants" - we hope many of you will give full or mini-presentations on the themes, and tell us what is happening in your country or with your products. It should therefore develop in detail rapidly. Please email athtech@opentrack.run if you have something to share, and we will add you here!
We also have extensive space for workshops and small meetings the days before and after the main meeting
You can view the agenda from our last data conference Athtech18 here.
Available for hackathons and workshops. Zadar University is offering a co-working hub adjacent to the conference hall, and dormitory accommodation, for anyone who wants to work in Zadar.
Available for hackathons and workshops, as above.
Companies presenting at AthTech are welcome to organise training events, workshops and presentations.
| 09:00-09:15 |
Practical Introductions
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| 09:15-10:15 |
Keynote 1: The international governing bodies
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| 10:15-10:30 | Coffee Break | |
| 10:30-11:30 |
Progress towards a single athletics calendar and database
Overview of where we came from and where we are going, and the progress towards a common open-data calendar for the sport. How have things gone after the first year managing European events with it? The drive to a common data standard to allow calendar events to be passed between systems; an overview of tools and techniques to work with calendars; what becomes possible? Presenting event-level data from the calendar to allow search by date, location and desired event parameters. Humotion's progress towards a common database for all athletics venues, and how we can bring this together Tokyo 2020 has shown that, more and more often the question “where can I qualify for the Olympic Games” is being asked. In other sports it is one which can be easily answered but in Athletics, this is still very much open-ended. Time has come for World Athletics to address this important matter and, consequently, take an active and leading role in determining a centralised global calendar of rule compliant competitions at all levels. |
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| 11:30-12:30 | Brunch and Networking | |
| 12:30-13:45 |
Premium athletics with grass-roots budgets
Synopsis to be provided The student-run University of Birmingham athletic club put on 3 extremely successful open meetings this summer, with hundreds of competitors and many elite, and a good presence on social media - all are financiall self sustaining. This talk will cover some of the key things that make an open meeting work. Don's firm has been providing photofinish and chip timing services to over 80 meetings each summer in the London area, for many years.
The BMAF has more than 6000 members and has a vibrant circuit of well-run competitions - all financially self sustaining. There's a similar picture across Europe. We'll look at how it works, how it can be promoted and the good it brings to the test of the sport.
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Calendar Seminar - World Athletics Tokyo 2020 has shown that, more and more often the question “where can I qualify for the Olympic Games” is being asked. In other sports it is one which can be easily answered but in Athletics, this is still very much open-ended. Time has come for World Athletics to address this important matter and, consequently, take an active and leading role in determining a centralised global calendar of rule compliant competitions at all levels. |
| 13:45-14:00 | Break | |
| 14:00-15:30 |
Live Broadcast and Streaming
High-end athletics events can afford to bring in professional livestream production companies to cover their meetings, but there is an increasing demand for live media coverage of smaller scale events too.
How we enable all clubs in The Netherlands and Belgium to provide professional videographics for their livestream at no additional costs and almost no extra volunteers. |
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| 15:30-16:00 |
Introductions from Service Companies Chair: Nicolas Launois, European Athletics Companies at AthTech will have a strict 5 minutes to introduce themselves and what they offer the athletics world ahead of the technology demonstrations. Companies include Opentrack, Humotion, Seltec, Trackmeetings.info, Athletics.app and Atletica.me If you want to introduce yourselves, get in touch to request a slot. |
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| 16:00-16:15 | End of formal proceedings; stroll to stadium or stay at university | |
| 16:30-18:30 |
Vendor technology demonstrations (at University) Street food, breakout rooms available (until as late as you want). OpenTrack will be demonstrating their competition management system; and holding an annual feedback meeting for their customers at AthTech. Humotion will demonstrate their solution to capture and record training activities and results. Trackmeetings.info will demonstrate how their tool is used for searching for competitions and creating your personal 'favourites' list. Seltec is available to demo their system, in wide use in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Athletics.app will demonstrate the cloud based competition management software and how it is used to increase the fan engagement in The Netherlands and Belgium. Atletica.me will demonstrate their social platform presenting athlete profiles and results. Expert users will be demonstrating FinishLynx in case anyone wants to learn more about PhotoFinish systems. |
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| Evening | Dinner provided for EA Delegates at Hotel Kolovare; plus numerous informal dining options in the Old Town and seafront | |
| 09:00-09:15 |
Wake-up call and overview of the day!
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| 09:15-10:15 |
Keynote 2: Digital Visions - the view from National Federations Panel session with speakers from many countries, presenting briefly on their technology successes and problems, along with a moderated discussion and questions from the floor. Full talks from Netherlands and Germany, brief news from Norway, Bosnia and we hope many more! Synthesis at the end - Common needs and areas to collaborate. |
| 10:30-11:00 | GDPR - The Age of Data Protection
How is technology evolving in response to changes in data protection? Markus Knipp, European Athletics' Data Protection Officer, provides an insight into this evolving field. |
| 11:00-12:00 |
Brunch & networking. Breakout rooms available. |
| 12:00-13:15 |
The Future of Communicating with Fans We'll try to draw together everything that's making the sport more enjoyable and compelling for athletes and fans. After three presentations, we'll have a general panel discussion on what works, and the use of Social Media. How some quick thinking created a craze that united and invigorated the sport in the UK during the pandemic From small club competitions to events with gold status, they all have the same problem - how to make athletics easier for spectators to consume. On the one hand, on-site at the competition venue. On the other hand, to bring the sport closer to people at their home and on their mobile devices Brief look at how Athletics.app has changed Belgium in less than 1 year, during and after COVID-19. From a full-paper solution to a full online solution, increasing fan engagement. If you have a story to tell or something to show - please get in touch and prepare a slide or two if needed, and we'll fit you in here! |
| 13:15-13:30 | Break |
| 13:30-14:30 |
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) - Monetising the Magic Moments Non-Fungible Tokens are perhaps the biggest new thing in sports marketing in 2021. Well established in the arts, NFTs are allowing professional sports like the NBA to capture the moment and monetize it, letting fans own a slice of the memories. We will explore how this might apply to athletics, with two expert organisations speaking. Zagreb-based startup Endemic is a platform connecting established artists and the real-world art with the newly growing NFT market. Ideas will be presented to help sport generate new revenue streams through NFTs |
| 14:30-15:00 | Break |
| 15:00-15:45 |
Standardising and improving Records Management Every level of the sport keeps its records - national, age group (junior and masters), regional, club, meeting records. Can we improve the collection through a central, democratic Open Data records facility, which each 'owner' self-manages? Could this help small countries gather rankings better? Could it help meetings to be run with less effort? Would it help "tell better stories", identifying when records are broken? If it's desirable, how could it cover or spread its operating costs? |
| 15:45-16:15 |
Stories behind the statistics
Presenting a roundup of good data visualisations and ways to tell the stories - both race day and historical
We'll invite anyone to submit links to good and novel presentations of information, so we can quickly see many. Maybe even build a presentation as we go! So start gathering links to cool stuff! |
| 16:15-16:30 |
Closing Remarks and Thank You!
Any final matters - and thoughts on AthTech 2022! |
| 16:45 onwards | Room available for in-depth networking and breakout rooms |
| 17:00-19:30 | OpenTrack Masters Gala & EAP Meeting
Head down to the stadium for live athletics action, and even compete yourself! (Or relax at the beach, old town and bars - we won't judge you!) |
| 20:00 onwards |
Dinner on the seafront - Dva Ribara |
Available for meetings and workshops as needed
| 09:00-10:00 |
World Athletics technical workshop
For anyone who wants to know about interacting in detail with World Athletics - athlete IDs, sending results etc Venue TBC - probably at Hotel Kolovare |
If you have any ideas or suggestions, or would like to get in touch about delivering a seminar/workshop yourself, please email us at athtech@opentrack.run.