FIBA World Basketball Summit 2018 held in Xi’an, China

The inaugural FIBA World Basketball Summit was successfully held at the Westin Xi’an in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China on October 3 and 4 during Golden Week (October 1 to 7) here in China. 

This is the first of three events that have been agreed to be held in Xi’an over the next three years (2018-2020). Back in April 2018, a press conference was held in the Forbidden City in Beijing, announcing that the city of Xi’an would organize the first FIBA World Basketball Summit and the next two events as well. After five months of preparation, the event was successfully delivered in Xi’an last week. 

Chinese Basketball Association, Shaanxi Sports Bureau and Xi’an Municipal People’s Government co-organized the event while Shannxi Basketball and Volleyball Administration Center, Shannxi Basketball Association and Xi’an Municipal Sports Bureau held the event with CW-Sports delivering the event. 

More than 200 people from the industry attended the event, including high profile leaders and speakers such as FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, CBA Chairman Yao Ming, Wasserman Media Group Chairman & CEO and LA2028 Chairman Casey Wasserman, Tencent Vice President Caitlyn Chen, Infront President and CEO & Persident and Vice-Chairman Wanda Sports Group Philippe Blatter, and Beijing Sport University Chairman and Party Secretary Cao Weidong plus many others. 

Discussions were carried out around the following keywords/sections: Federations, Brands, FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, China, Leagues and Clubs, Media, Society and Future. 

The partners of the inaugural event are: Official Strategic Partner Merry Flooring, Xifeng Liquor and Shaanxi Traffic Radio FM 916; Official Partners Beijing Enterprises Group, Yanjing Beer, Harvest Wine and Ganten; Official Supplier Shaping Master, Yiqifei.com and Sinofn; Official Media Partners Tencent Sports, Silk Road of China and Yutang Sports. 

The Secretary General of FIBA, Patrick Baumann, said in his keynote speech, that this event and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 signals the start of a long journey in developing basketball in China and around the world. 

The vision of the summit is to build a world basketball future together. The aims are the following as stated by the summit’s official WeChat account: 

1. Bring together all stakeholders from the international basketball industry;

2. Succeed in creating a must-attend event for all those with key roles within the global basketball eco-system; 

3. Create an annual platform to promote events (e.g. the World Cup, NBA league), activities and interests. 

It is up to now one of the first pioneering events of its kind organized by one International Federation to promote one sport discipline.  

To view more photos, click here. To view a few selected photos, click here.  

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick