The 2021 AGM videoconferences series gave World Table Tennis (WTT) the opportunity to show to the Member Associations (MAs) that, despite all the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasted no time to lay the groundwork for a large and detailed calendar of events in 2022.
“It was a challenging 2021 but we believe we will have a bright 2022,” said Matt Pound, WTT Managing Director.
Not only the commercial arm of the ITTF successfully delivered the first-ever WTT events in Macau and Doha, it also made dramatic progress in other business areas with new sponsorship and broadcast deals, the launch of a new website and mobile app, and the steady growth of its social media fanbase.
“We are on the right track,” said Steve Dainton, ITTF Group CEO and WTT Director. “When you do things professionally with support from reputed persons and companies, when you are transparent and open about your plans and when you work really, really hard to try and achieve the goals, then usually things will come out well in the end. This is where I believe we are at now, ready again to achieve and deliver on the objectives, strategies, and reasons why we set up WTT in the first place.”
“To the stage where – now other sports are copying us. We need to work together and start competing with the other sports properties who are developing fast and not waiting for us to get our act together.”
“It’s now our time to shine in the competitive world of sports business.”
With the start of the WTT Feeder Series next year, the ‘pyramid of events’ is also coming together. Along with the WTT Series and the WTT Youth Series, WTT creates a pathway that showcases the journey of a player from day one to World No. 1 through the ITTF Table Tennis World Rankings.
In recognition of increased interest from potential hosts, WTT recently appointed The Sports Consultancy to support the organisation as it continues its host city recruitment process for top tier events.
“Once the pandemic subsides, we can kickstart various plans in the pipeline and slowly expand our sports property to power its growth around the world,” WTT Council Chair Liu Guoliang.
WTT has also made tremendous efforts to improve its IT platforms and to make better use and increase the value of its data.
MAs can now access an archive database with more than 14,000 hours of content, where coaches, players, and referees can download and review matches for free. WTT team also implemented a new content management system and ranking engine, and is now preparing for an the future WTT API Portal.
Watch the full presentation of the World Table Tennis here
The Annual General Meeting of the International Table Tennis Federation will be held on 24 November 2021, on the occasion of the 2021 ITTF World Championship Finals in Houston, Texas. Prior to it, the ITTF Group is hosting a series of videoconferences from 18 October to 15 November, featuring presentations for the global Table Tennis community. Delegates registered officially for the 2021 Annual General Meeting will be receiving the invitations for each of the videoconferences. The schedule of the 2021 ITTF AGM Videoconferences series is available here.
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