It’s six months on from the 2017 Annual General Meeting, and ITTF is moving forward with their goals and vision of a new era for the federation.

Looking to ensure a clear path and direction, the ITTF has contracted an industry leading company to conduct a strategic plan. All table tennis stakeholders will be invited to contribute to and have a hand in determining the long-term direction of the ITTF. This will be carried out in parallel to the promised constitution review, which is already in its initial stages. These measures will guarantee a more modern organisation driving us forward.

With these changes in mind, the ITTF are slowly implementing a new staff structure and will continue to do so well into 2018. With the restructuring and new programs in the pipeline, ITTF is now on the lookout for staff that fit the new vision of the organisation. Those interested are encouraged to check out the current openings on the new job opportunities page on our website.

This progressive vision is already bearing fruit on the frontline of ITTF events. The prize money for the Men’s and Women’s World Cups will be increasing in 2018, as well as the overall prize money of the 2018 World Tour. The process for the 2019 World Tour will start in the coming weeks and the ITTF has been working harder with the continents to ensure that the calendar is confirmed as early as possible, enabling all stakeholders to have adequate time to plan their events around the ITTF’s calendar.

The positive outlook for future events has been further cemented with the improved public bid process for the 2020 World Table Tennis Championships bringing immediate dividends. For the first time in recent memory the ITTF received three bids, from three continents. This is not only a result of the improved bid process, but also a credit to the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, which was a perfect showcase of what the event can bring to the city and country in terms of promotion and tourism revenue.

ITTF will also be announcing over the next few weeks several new partnership deals with new global brands from different parts of the world. It is an exciting time as new avenues for marketing and income open up, including the new format of table tennis, TTX, which is getting closer to release.

We are also excited to announce that we will soon launch an ITTF Foundation. The goal is to focus more attention towards ITTF’s corporate social responsibility, resulting in our social table tennis activities and budgets to be bigger than ever before. The ITTF Foundation will be led by the current ITTF Development Director, Mr. Leandro Olvech. In turn this will see a shift in the Development Program led by Polona Cehovin towards more High-Performance initiatives. A primary target will be aiming to have regional training centres by 2020.

And lastly, as ITTF is constantly looking to make our services more user friendly, we will be announcing in the next two weeks the company creating the new results management system. Admittedly, this has not been a perfect transition due to a lack full co-operation from our former IT providers which has caused delays in restoring databases. However, once this step is complete it will take ITTF’s IT and event systems to the next level, providing an infinitely better user experience.

This is just the beginning of the new era of ITTF. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements coming soon.