MEMOSIANS from all of the world gathered with host Marco Mazzi on Thursday, April 11th with Professor Lisa Delpy Neirotti, Ph.D, Director Sport Management Programs at George Washington University to speak about “Expanding Partnerships, Leveraging Olympism 365 to work with NGOs for mutual benefit and Sport Tourism Collaboration”.

Professor Delpy Neirotti started our session with several personal hellos to past students and tutees and encouraging all of us to familiarize ourselves with Olympism 365. According to Olympics.com, “Olympism 365 applies the Fundamental Principles of Olympism and aligns with local aid investment plans, development plans and other initiatives that are aligned with the SDGs.” or as Professor Delpy Neirotti simplified it for us: working with NGOs and Sports Programming for social good.

She discussed the project in Ethiopia, “Girls got to Run“, a program that uses sport to increase access and success in young women’s education in Ethiopia, with MEMOSIAN Yvette Michael. For Ms. Michael, the biggest take away is working with so many athletes who don’t get the same attention as the top 50 do, despite there being so many of them throughout the community.

We also had example and first-person input from Fredrick Chitangala of Zambia and Hellen De Lima of Indonesia.

Just a few of the take-aways:

• While it is great to have global campaigns, having regional campaigns and focus really increases the impact.
• Athletes are amazing ambassadors for Sport Tourism as they travel for competition and training.
• Try Cold Collaboration in your social media; tag in other organizations such as NFL athletes at a US Open Tennis event.

MEMOSIANS, enjoy the entire Coffee Break in our Facebook Group!

Please complete this short survey to indicate current engagement and interest in Olympism 365.

Have an idea for a Coffee Break or another question? Let us know!