The Second World Hockey Forum ended. We express gratitude to all the delegates, speakers, partners for their participation and interest in a professional dialogue!

This year more than 500 delegates from 21 countries took part in the forum, and more than 200 media representatives covered the event.

Arkady Rotenberg Chairman of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RIHF), started World Hockey Forum officially. The opening ceremony was also attended by Chairman of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Rene Fasel, Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov, Chairman of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretiak, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Affairs Mikhail Degtyarev.

The vector for the professional conversation was plotted by the flagship discussion of the forum, “Review of the Key Problems of Hockey Development in the Global World”, in which First Vice President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation Roman Rotenberg was the main speaker. He mentioned that modern hockey has 230 million active fans all over the world and shouldn’t be limited to development within one league. That’s why the decision of the NHL concerning the non-participation of its players in the Olympic Games is unwise. The responsibility for the promotion of hockey, in general, and for raising the status of such an important tournament as the World Cup, in particular, should be taken by the top-ranked hockey federations.

At the meeting, Chairman of the RIHF Vladislav Tretiak discussed the need for raising the credibility of the World Cup as a calling card of hockey. It is important to improve the visual appeal of the game, attracting more fans to the stadium, in order to promote hockey. At the same time, it is important not to focus only on favorites for gold medals, providing teams and clubs from new hockey countries with the opportunity to develop.

In his turn, Chairman of the IIHF Rene Fasel suggested the creation of a strong pan-European league to be a prerequisite for the development of hockey in Europe. Fulfillment of this task will enable to stop the drain of the best players to North America and will give a new impulse to promotion of this sport.

The Olympic champion, Stanley Cup winner Mats Näslund, Chief Executive Officer of the Hockey Canada Tom Renney and Chairman of the Asian Hockey Federation Shoichi Tomita also took part in the discussion of the topic. The moderator of the discussion was the international consultant on efficiency and development, Stephen Norris.

The follow-up to the forum was the panel discussion “Strategies and Methods of Increasing Popularity of International Ice Hockey Competitions”, which was held by the commentator of the Channel One Viktor Gusev. Chairman of the Danish Ice Hockey Association Henrik Bach Nielsen, Chief Executive Officer of the Hockey Canada Tom Renney, Chairman of the IIHF Judging Committee Sergei Goncharov, the IIHF Council Member Franz Reindl, the Olympic champion, the Stanley Cup winner Igor Larionov participated in the discussion.

Within the framework of the main topic of the event, the discussion “Strategies of Development and Promotion of Hockey in Asia” is worth noting individually, as a meaningful conversation about the ways of modern hockey development is nowadays impossible without analyzing the Asian experience. Chairman of the Asian Hockey Federation Shoichi Tomita, Chairman of HC Kunlun Red Star Billy Ngoc, Dean of School of Management and Economics of Shanghai University of Sport Liu Dongfeng, Professor Yang Hong Kim and other experts took part in the conversation. At the meeting, the global program of hockey support in China, the development of children’s and women’s hockey in Asia, aspects of cooperation with the top-ranked hockey countries and much more issues were discussed.

The academic panel “Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Development of Hockey in the Global World: Studies of Various Scientific Schools” was held as a part of WHF. It was moderated by Deputy Director of Sport Management Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University Sergey Altukhov.

By tradition, the WHF program was extensively devoted to the discussion of work with young hockey talents. Panel discussions “Management, Training and Development of Young Hockey Talents” and “How to Get Children Involved in Hockey? From Multimedia Products to Showing Personal Example” dealt with this issue. Professor of Brock University Julie Stevens, Member of the IIHF Council Peter Briza, Honored Coach of the USSR and Russia Vladimir Yurzinov, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Hockey Canada Tom Renney took part in the first meeting. Participants of the second discussion were as follows: Deputy Director of Gennady and Elena Timchenko Foundation Igor Baradachev, Managing Director of the JHL Alexei Morozov, General Manager of HC Jokerit, five-time Stanley Cup winner Jari Kurri and Chairman of the IIHF Women’s Committee Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer.

Speaking about the training of young hockey players, it is necessary to start out from the individuality of the athlete because outstanding players are the ones who develop hockey in any country. This opinion was expressed during the discussion by the legendary coach Vladimir Yurzinov. In her report, Professor Julie Stevens from Canada spoke about the method of interactive psychological follow-up of young athletes, which forms a stable interest in hockey and develops personal qualities. In his turn, Igor Baradachev shared the experience of Gennady and Elena Timchenko Foundation as regards the support of children’s hockey in Russia, the implementation of social and cultural charity programs.

Arrangers of WНF-2017: Russian Ice hockey Federation (RIHF) and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) with support from the Russian Ministry of Sports.

Operator of WНF-2017: Rotex Company that has more than 10 years of experience in arranging international exhibitions in Russia, as well as in the CIS countries and Europe.

Partners of WНF-2017: Top Fisio, VTB Ice Palace, Hockey Museum, MDG, Iceberg/NEC, Strakhovanie SBS, PTNK R&D Company (PromTekhnaKomploekt), TekhProfSport, MKR Media, Sport Concept/CCM, Uder Armour, Vita Win.