Presentations, and panel discussions from ITTF senior staff at the forum ranged from the new ITTF Strategic Plan to the future of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships, fan engagement, professionalising National Associations and High Performance.

The forum had the goal of bringing together the expertise across Latin America and learning from each other’s experiences to developing table tennis across all facets including commercial, high performance, and good governance.

President of the Latin American Table Tennis Union Juan Vila was pleased with how the forum unfolded:

“The ITTF – ULTM Forum has been a success, one big opportunity for all the officials from the Latin America and Caribbean region, who could share and debate together with the ITTF, and generate ideas for the future of table tennis within the continent. One of our main objectives was to be able to acquire each part of the ITTF Strategic Plan, and aim to make it the platform for the Continental Plan. We have the horizon more clear, ideas better conceived; now we have to work together to achieve the big goals we have proposed at the Forum. Thanks to the ITTF for their fine-tuned decision.”

The Latin American Table Tennis. For All. For Life. forum was the second one held after the successful hosting of Europe’s version of the forum last month. The forum’s will take place on every continent over the next 6-12 months with the goal of educating the continents and national associations on ITTF’s activities and sharing the experience of ITTF’s success. As well as to listen to the concerns of all our members and debate some of the new ideas with them.

ITTF CEO Steve Dainton outlined the importance of the first Latin American forum held in San Jose, especially following the big changes announced at the Liebherr 2018 World Team Tennis Championships in Halmstad:

“After Halmstad where many new and relatively large changes were made by the ITTF, it was important for those who wanted to discuss further could. We were so pleased that at our second forum we had so many associations and a lot of positive and high-level discussions. We learnt a lot about our Latin American colleagues’ challenges and how the ITTF can better assist them to achieve their goals. We were so pleased that the Latin America region were very positive with the new direction of the ITTF.”

The next Table Tennis. For All. For Life. forum is going to be held in Mauritius on 3-4 September during the African Table Tennis Championships.