At the International Hockey Forum (WORLD HOCKEY FORUM/WHF), to be held in Moscow on December, 14-15, 2017, the leading world experts will discuss strategies for the further development of one of the most popular sports. The opening ceremony will be attended by the Minister of Sport of Russia, Pavel Kolobkov, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), René Fasel, the president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) Arkady Rotenberg, president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) Vladislav Tretiak, chairman of the Board of directors, KHL Gennady Timchenko and other officials.

The Forum’s business programme will open a professional dialogue on the most pressing issues on the agenda in the hockey community. Invited to participate in the discussion:

Teemu Selänne (Finland), owner of “Maurice Richard Trophy”, participant of six Olympic Games

Mats Näslund (Sweden), Olympic champion, Stanley Cup, World Cup winner

Tom Rennie (Canada), President of Hockey Federation of Canada

Shoichi Tomita (Japan), President of the Asian Ice Hockey Federation

One of the central events of WHF-2017 will be a panel discussion on “Strategies and methods to increase the popularity of international ice hockey competitions”. His report will be submitted by the first Vice president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, Roman Rotenberg. The discussion on the topic will also involve:

Henrik Bach Nielsen (Denmark), president of the Danish Hockey Union

Tom Rennie (Canada), President, Hockey Federation of Canada

Igor Larionov (Russia), Olympic champion, Stanley Cup, World Cup owner

Sergei Goncharov (Belarus), head of the Judicial Committee of IIHF

Franz Reindl (Germany), member of the IIHF Council, director of the Committee World Cup-2017

Dmitry Chernyshenko (Russia), President of KHL

In addition, two more relevant conversations will be held on the first day of the forum. The first will focus on research on the priority factors that today affect the development of ice hockey in the global world. Scientists from leading universities in the world are to share in their research findings: professor John Nauright of the University of North Texas (USA), Professor Dan Mason of the University of Alberta (Canada), Professor Guillaume Bode of the University of Lyon 1 (France), Dr. Uri Buckman of the University of Malmö (Sweden) and others.

Another important first day discussion is “Hockey, television, internet: new opportunities for cooperation and the growing popularity of international competitions.” The starting point of the dialogue will be the report of the Executive Director of “Infront Sports & Media”, Bruno Marti (Switzerland). He will analyze the main trends in the interaction of television, Internet resources, social networks and breakthrough technologies with examples of the World Cup hockey and other major international tournaments. The discussion will be joined by:

Stephen Norris (Canada), international consultant on efficiency and development

Igor Larionov (Russia), Olympic champion, Stanley Cup, World Cup owner

Dmitry Sergeyev (Russia), deputy general director of Rambler&Co (Russia)

Pavel Pautov (Russia), CEO of TV Brics (Russia)

Christoph Mauer (Switzerland), vice president of “Infront Sports & Media”

Vasily Kiknadze (Russia), CEO of the “New project” company

How to conquer the Asian market the phenomenon of modern Chinese ice hockey will be discussed by scientists and practitioners on the second day of the International Ice Hockey Forum. In particular, the head coach of the “Kunlun Red Star” Mike Keenan and the president of the same club, Billy Ngkok, as well as the first vice president of FHR Roman Rotenberg, the president of the Asian Hockey Federation Shoichi Tomita, the chairman of the Asian IIHF committee Thomas Wu, Professor Liu Dongfeng from the School of Management and Economics of the University of Sports of Shanghai and Professor Young Hung Kim of the University of North Texas.

In addition, the second day of WHF-2017 will be devoted to discussing issues related to the search for and development of young hockey talents. The coaching seminar and discussions on this topic will be attended by:

Vladimir Yurzinov-Art. (Russia), Honored Coach of the USSR and Russia

Pavel Bure, president of the League of Legends

Tom Rennie (Canada), President of Hockey Federation of Canada

Mike Keenan, coach, owner of Stanley Cup

Yari Kurri (Finland), general manager HC “Jokerit”, champion winner of the Stanley Cup, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame

Alexei Morozov (Russia), managing director of IHL

and the other.

Also on this day, we will have a presentation by startups, offering the hockey industry innovative solutions and new products. Their projects will be presented by: CEO of the Speech Technology Centre Dmitry Dyrmovskij, director-general of Iceberg Alexander Martynov, CEO of the new project company Vasily Kiknadze and deputy CEO of the JSC NEC Neva Communication Systems” Mikhail Efimov.

Recall that the forum is organized by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) and the International Ice HOCKEY FEDERATION/IIHF, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Sport.

The operator of the event in 2017 will again be the “Rotex” company, with more than 10 years of experience in organizing international exhibitions, not only in the Russian Federation but also in the CIS and European countries. 

The partners of WHF-2017 are the Top Fisio, the VTB Ice Palace, the Ice Hockey Museum, the MDGs, the Iceberg/NEC, the SMP Insurance, the PTNK (PromTechnaComplekt), TechProfSport, MKR Media, Sport Concept/CMM, UnderArmour, VitaWin.