9Th World Leisure Expo Congress

04-18-2006 2:50 EST (0148 GMT)

CONGRESS THEME:

Leisure ...integral to social, cultural and economic development

SCOPE:

Leisure services, travel and tourism, sport, arts and culture, health and fitness, festivals, theme parks, play and free time.

SITE:

Congress events will take place within in the heart of the new World Leisure EXPO Garden, a billion dollar leisure development and the setting for the first ever World Leisure EXPO a six-month extravaganza of exhibitions, festivals, cultural performances and entertainment, from April to October, 2006.

FORMAT:

Plenary sessions with top international speakers Panels with debates on critical leisure issues Round Tables for sharing of ideas about best practices Presentations by leisure specialists from all parts of the world Workshops and training sessions Special exhibitions and performances

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS & PRESENTERS

The program will be extraordinary, not only because of its format and diversity, but also by the presence of a number of senior international leaders and specialists from the United Nations, the major international leisure and tourism organizations, the leisure industry, the leisure services community, academia and representatives from the international cities and organizers from large-scale events such as the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 2008 Olympiad (BOCOG)and 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

AND MORE ...

In addition to having ready access to the displays and events of EXPO 2006, delegates will be able to take advantage of extensive tour programs, lasting from several hours to several days. In addition, there will be daily social programs for both delegates and their accompanying persons.

Who Should Attend? Professional practitioners: Managers, program directors, Academics: University/College researchers and instructors. National Government, Provincial and Municipal policy makers and politicians National sport, leisure, health and tourism agencies Private sector Owners and Investors: Theme parks and commercial leisure sites and facilities, tour operators Representatives of the travel and leisure industry International and National NGO Representatives from the health, tourism and development sectors Students: Leisure studies, leisure and tourism management, sport and cultural studies. Persons accompanying the above

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

Context: The Congress theme, ¡°Leisure as integral to social, cultural and economic development,¡± provides an opportunity to examine the objectives, processes, contexts and consequences of leisure programming, where¡­ Social Development means enlarging access and choice Cultural Development means affirming and enriching cultural identities Economic Development means achieving sustainable and well distributed growth

Although such goals are laudable, can they be achieved? In both the developed and developing world, there are a number of forces preventing their realization. Thus we need to identify such barriers and constraints and explore how best to overcome them. The question becomes what socially and culturally situated leisure polices and practices will create liveable communities and healthy citizens?

Persons interested in participating in the debate and sharing their experience with practices and programs, ideas and research findings should submit their proposals to the Congress Program Committee using the electronic form to be posted here soon.

Source: Zhejiang Online

Related Story: