Your Winter, Your Sport Summit 2022 In Berchtesgaden Wraps Up

The pandemic, the military conflicts in Ukraine and the energy crisis pose major challenges for the winter sports industry. As a cross-association and cross-state initiative, your winter. your sport. these topics and would like to discuss them with all stakeholders and develop target-oriented solutions. “SPORT MEETS WINTER – together. Consistent. Into the future.” was the motto of what is now the fourth edition of Dein Winter. your sport. Summit on 06./07. October in Berchtesgaden. The initiators German Ski Association, German Ski Instructors Association and Snowboard Germany agreed: They wanted to show possibilities and called on the industry to actively support each other.

250 participants, including sports greats such as ski stars Felix Neureuther, Viktoria Rebensburg, Hilde Gerg, Fritz Dopfer, Gerd Schönfelder as well as Ramona Hofmeister and Elias Huber from the Snowboard Germany race team, took part in the two-day event. At the AlpenCongress in Berchtesgaden, representatives from science, sport, business, politics and the media discussed important topics such as sustainability, digitization and the challenges of the current global situation. This year, the summit was divided into three thematic blocks: “Together. Consistent. Into the future.”.

At the start, Prof. Dr. Ralf Roth from the Institute for Outdoor Sport and Environmental Research at the German Sport University in Cologne gave important impulses from science with his keynote speech. "The desire to walk in the snow in winter will continue to be great," he predicts. Felix Neureuther then spoke about the benefits of the sporting activity for everyone involved, but especially for children. He emphasized the importance of children's emotional connection to nature and movement. In addition, the industry representatives discussed the connection in sport and the importance of networks.

For the “Sustainable.” topic block, Dr. Thomas Kemper (Head of Market Communication Deutsche Bahn Fernverkehr) presented the cross-border mobility platform WinterRail as a practical example. Lars Bengsch (Managing Director of dwif-Consulting) provided a further impetus on the subject of "Tourism in transition - for guests and locals". "We have to accept that changes are an integral part of our lives," was his final conclusion.

Tourism industry leaders then discussed the social, ecological and economic aspects of winter sports. Furthermore, major events and their responsibility were discussed using the example of the Berchtesgaden Snowboard World Cup.

With a trend-setting insight including concrete measures and solution approaches from his own company, Peter Schöffel started the thematic block "Into the future." with his lecture "Sustainability requires courage to change and innovation". The long-standing partner of the INTERSPORT initiative gave an outlook on the direction of sports retail: "Despite the challenging economic conditions, the mood in sports retail is still good and we are happy to take the tailwind from last winter with us," said Frank Geisler (CEO INTERSPORT). From a European point of view, a certain reluctance can be felt with regard to how the industry is developing in relation to the crises, according to Stefan Herzog (President of the Association of German & European Sports Retailers).

Your winter. your sport. With entertaining short interviews by surprise guests from sports and politics (with the members of the German Bundestag Stephan Mayer & Artur Auernhammer), Summit Night ensured a successful end to a varied day. Berchtesgaden presented itself as the perfect host.

The supporting program on the second day of the congress dealt with the future of winter sports, with association and cable car representatives discussing the financeability of winter sports in exciting panel discussions across countries.

Lorenz Beringer (Managing Director of LOBECO) gave the guests an insight into the digital transformation of (winter) sports. “Winter sports do not only take place from November to March. Digital media gives us the chance to build connections and also to transport insights and emotions in the summer,” is his conclusion. Subsequently, in two discussion rounds, solutions for winter sports and the role of the media were discussed. Among others, the former ski racer and TV expert Viktoria Rebensburg was present in the panel discussion with the focus on "media in transition".

After handing over the Your Winter. your sport. Awards 2022 to Sport-Talent e. V., the three winter sports associations were consistently satisfied with the two-day event.

http://www.deinwinterdeinsport.de/