The Congress through the eyes of the German Olympic Academy

Source: German Olympic Academy (website article)

The German Olympic Academy (DOA), together with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the EOA, acted as hosts for the four-day event. Numerous other tasks were involved in organising the congress. The German Olympic Academy Media Team lets you catch a glimpse behind the scenes from four different vantage points.

Monday’s review – the volunteer

Tobias Kray has been part of the DOA team in various capacities for over two years. Initially starting as an intern in the events and public relations department, he is now a working student. At the EOA Congress, he provided support in several areas: On Monday, the official start of the event, numerous delegates had to be brought from Frankfurt Airport to the hotel – here Tobias Kray helped the organising team. In addition, he created graphics for public relations, which were used on Twitter to report on the lectures on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s review – the online editor

As Communications Manager, Peter Fegers is responsible for DOA’s public relations. He also accompanied the EOA Congress via social media by creating daily posts for the Instagram series “About Yesterday” and tweets from the conference day. In this way, he provided an insight into the intensive exchange between delegates and guest speakers on current challenges facing the Olympic movement.

Wednesday’s review – the delegates

Chair Prof. Dr. Gudrun Doll-Tepper and Director Dr. Gerald Fritz accompanied the Congress as official representatives of the DOA. On Monday evening, they attended the opening ceremony at Schloss Biebrich together with Lenka Dienstbach-Wech, another DOA board member. On Tuesday, they interacted with other Academies at the conference. Their central role, however, happened on Wednesday. Representing the DOA, Gudrun Doll-Tepper and Gerald Fritz took part in the General Assembly at Deutsche Bank Park, the stadium of Eintracht Frankfurt. Here they elected the new EOA Board around President Prof. Dr. Manfred Lämmer, DOA Vice-Chairman, and voted, among other things, on the EOA’s new strategy until 2030.

Thursday’s review – the workshop facilitators

At the end of the congress, a series of workshops awaited the delegates. Wiebke Arndt, DOA Events Manager, and Peter Fegers were in charge of the workshops. In a joint presentation, they first introduced the DOA’s portfolio of tasks, which ranges from events, public relations and educational materials to international cooperation and the Olympic legacy.

Afterwards, they both moderated topic-specific discussion rounds. In the “Events” workshop, Wiebke Arndt spoke about formats such as the German Olympic Youth Camp, the role of digital events and possible networking of the National Olympic Academies (NOAs). In the “PR & Marketing” workshop, Peter Fegers discussed communication strategies with the participants and looked at current challenges – for example, how the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk affects the public relations work of the Academies.

Standing together for the Olympic Movement

Four exciting days and intensive discussions with more than 50 delegates from NOAs from 25 countries lie behind the DOA. Especially in stormy times, in which the Olympic Movement finds itself according to the motto of the conference day, togetherness is elementary, as Prof. Dr. Gudrun Doll-Tepper states: “Despite the dramatic developments of recent times, it is very important to focus on positive events of cooperation. This is especially true for our EOA family, where we meet in the spirit of fair play, friendship and solidarity and work together to promote Olympic values, philosophy and ideals.”