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With mass participation events booming around the world, the ninth edition of the Mass Participation World (MPW) conference is returning to Vietnam this week.

Opening tomorrow (4th December) and running until Saturday 7th December, MPW are partnering with Sunrise Events Vietnam (SEV) to stage the event at the Global City, Ho Chi Minh City - MPW’s second successive year in the city.

In a country and region where the mass participation industry is thriving,MPW will once again, be supported by njuko. com together with MarathonFoto and Sportograf GmbH & Co. KG.

In a video presentation at last week’s Australian Mass Participation and Sporting Events Association (AMPSEA) conference, Chris Robb, Chief Executive of Mass Participation World, spoke of the rising popularity of mass participation events around the world, citing many events being full booked and over subscribed.

Citing the rise of HYROX, a relatively new entrant in the market, he noted “I heard a little while ago is they're expecting to have over 500,000 participants across their events this year.

“So, what does that bring in, in terms of opportunities? I think one of the keys here is how do we harness this going forward? How do we build a more sustainable business and an industry?

“I think fundamentally my belief is that the business model is still as challenged now as it was in 2019. I'm still hearing insights around increase in costs of staging events, challenges with staffing, recruiting and retaining staff.

“Sponsorships in some markets are down or flat, although there's a sense that maybe that is going to start increasing in 2025 as more brands see the opportunity for engagement.

“Certainly the trends that we're starting to hear in most parts of the world is more younger people participating, with the 22 to 29 age group often being spoken about often.”

Robb also referenced the rise of informal running clubs, noting “running groups and running clubs are exploding is the right way to term it all over the world.”

Robb also acknowledged climate change, stating “I hear of more and more events being impacted by the issues of storms and heat and so on.

“One fairly close to home was the Hanoi Marathon in September, which, I believe, had to be postponed by a week as a result of storms … (the change involved) a huge collaboration between all of the stakeholders there to be able to reschedule it by a week.”

Robb added “a really interesting comment that really resonated with me was that the organiser, Sunrise Events, said that they turn a sporting event into a civic event and certainly the whole city got behind them, (with) spectators on the streets being more than normal and  volunteers coming to help.

“And it made me wonder if that's maybe a bit of a tagline that we can be using on an ongoing basis.

“We have this amazing ability to put on civic events, bringing communities together.

MPW was founded in 2016 in Singapore by Robb, an industry veteran and author of Mass Participation Sports Events, with the initial purpose of facilitating connection and collaboration across the various verticals of the industry through an annual conference.

MPW has now evolved to provide a number of other services to the industry including: creating global connections across the ecosystem, consulting and advising, advocacy, research and education.

The conference will take place alongside the Techcombank Ho Chi Minh City International Marathon. 

Click here for more information on Mass Participation World in our industry Calendar.

Images: Runners at the start of the main marathon race at last weekend's Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2024 (top, credit: Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon) and Chris Robb (below).

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