2021 Winter Sports Expo Opening in Beijing

Pooling Premium Resources in Global Ice and Snow Industry

Boosting Grand Opening of Beijing Winter Olympics 

Cai Qi and Chen Jining Visited the Exhibition Center

Bach and Samaranch Sent Congratulations Letter and Speech

BEIJING, Sept. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 3^rd Sept., the city of Beijing witnessed the grand opening of the 2021 World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo (hereinafter referred to as WWSE). Officials came to visit the exhibition center including Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, President of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG); Chen Jining, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Mayor of Beijing and Executive President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG).

President of the International Olympic Committee Mr. Thomas Bach sent a letter of congratulation on the successful opening of the WWSE. Juan Antonio Samaranch, member of the International Olympic Committee, Chair of the Coordination Commission for the 2022 Beijing Olympics delivered video speech to send his congratulations on the opening of WWSE.

WWSE was co-organized by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA) and International Data Group (IDG), co-sponsored by Beijing Olympic City Development Promotion Center and IDG World Expo Ltd since 2016. Today, after 6 years of exploration and development, this grand occasion has shown ever growing global impact and industry penetration.

Over the past 6 years, WWSE has been consistent with the mission of "connect with international winter sports resources, promote the development of China's winter sports industry". This WWSE once again pooled global elites and premium resources in the ice and snow industry, stepped up in promoting winter sports, further explored new opportunities for the development of the ice and snow industry, in a bid to give a comprehensive boost to the upcoming Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. The exposition area of this WWSE is 20,000 m², including 8 main sections, 12 categories, over 20 forums and side events, with Italy as the country of honor to give full play to its strength as a major power in winter sports, all in a bid to promote a further upgrade to global exchanges in the ice and snow industry. This Expo also attracted 500⁺ brands from 20⁺ countries for exposition, over 260 speakers and 10,000⁺ representatives from professional institutions to jointly unleash the "charm of ice and snow industry" via four main sections namely exposition presentation, theme forum, industry connection-building and special events, giving a perfect demonstration of the theme "the power of ice and snow."

2021 WWSE continued to be held in conjunction with 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). By leveraging CIFTIS as an important platform, the Expo will present to the world a grand occasion for the ice and snow industry featuring high-level of internationalization, professionalism and authority, as well as public engagement.

Officials from Beijing Visited Exhibition Center

On 3^rd Sept., officials including Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, President of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG); Chen Jining, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Mayor of Beijing and Executive President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG); Zhang Yankun, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee visited 2021 WWSE to observe the exposition sites of BOCOG, Chinese Olympic Committee and Italy national exhibition delegation, and fully acknowledged the preparations for WWSE.

Bach's Letter of Congratulation and Samaranch's Video Speech at Opening Ceremony and Main Forum

In the morning of 3^rd Sept., the Opening Ceremony and Main Forum of 2021 World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo commenced. Executive Vice President of BODA Liu Jingmin hosted this ceremony and BOCOG Vice President and Secretary-General Han Zirong delivered a speech.

In the letter of congratulation from President of the International Olympic Committee Mr. Thomas Bach that was read out during the ceremony, Bach expressed his congratulations and gratitude to the organizer and wished the 2021 WWSE a great success. He also believed that the whole winter sports industry coming together in this WWSE demonstrates an important step of China in starting a new chapter of its great sports history. In a few months, Beijing will even start a new chapter of world's sports history by becoming the first city to have held both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Guided by the spirits of peace, solidarity and friendship, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will become a great opportunity to bring the world together. The whole Olympic family are attentively looking forward to this global celebration of human diversification and solidarity. 

A video speech by Juan Antonio Samaranch, member of the International Olympic Committee, Chair of the Coordination Commission for the 2022 Beijing Olympics was played at the Ceremony. In his speech, Samaranch acknowledged BOCOG's brilliant preparation and how they overcame various hardships amid the global pandemic of COVID. Beijing Olympic heritage and promotion of sustainability bore amazing fruits, with the reconstruction of Beijing Shougang Park as a great example. The Olympics not only boosted Beijing's infrastructure construction, but also significantly improved the economic development and people's living standards, and at the same time led 300 million Chinese people to engage in winter sports. These are great stories of success and there's confidence that BOCOG will do a great job and Beijing will deliver an excellent Winter Olympic Games.

As expressed in the speech by BOCOG Vice President and Secretary-General Han Zirong, this WWSE inherited the theme "power of ice and snow" and at the same time introduced CIFTIS exposition themed sports service. Based on this more open and high-level platform of CIFTIS, WWSE will undoubtedly unleash greater vitality. Thus, there's aspiration that all sectors of the community will leverage the opportunity of jointly preparing for the Winter Olympics and the platform of joining in WWSE, conduct in-depth communication and cooperation under the theme of seeking co-development, promote popularization of winter sports, and make contributions to the win-win development in the global ice and snow industry. Many other guests delivered speeches on-site or online, including Mario Giro, Vice Minister of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Johan Eliasch, President of the International Ski Federation (FIS); Ivo Ferriani, IOC member, President of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF), member of the Coordination Commission for the 2022 Beijing Olympics; Jan Dijkema, President of the International Skating Union (ISU); Kate Caithness, President of the World Curling Federation (WCF), member of the Coordination Commission for the 2022 Beijing Olympics; Olle Dahlin, President of the International Biathlon Union; Karl Stoss, IOC member, President of the Austrian Olympic Committee; Günther Platter, Governor of Tyrol in Austria; Vladimír Tomšík, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to China; Michael Berger, Head of the Beijing Representative Office of the Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Austrian Embassy in China, Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in China; Wang Lu, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Jilin Municipal Committee and Mayor of Jilin; Yang Xiangxi, Deputy Mayor of Yulin in Shaanxi Province; Wang Ku, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the Changbai Mountain Conservation and Development zone in Jilin Province, etc.

In the main forum, guests had a wonderful roundtable dialogue on the theme "Ice and Snow Industry's Impact Bursting Beyond its Realm When Empowered by the Winter Olympics", where they dig deep into the approach to grasp the opportunity of Winter Olympics, push the impact of ice and snow industry beyond its realm, explore a new path for breakthroughs in the ice and snow industry development. Vice President of ADG Zhang Li shared the latest data and core insights in the 2021 Research Report on the Development of China's Ice and Snow Industry. Xu Yuchang, Board Chairman and President of China Economic Information Service (CEIS) released 2021 China Ice and Snow Tourism Index and interpreted the change in trends behind the data.

Italy as the country of honor for 2021 Winter Sports Expo

2021 WWSE invited a major power in winter sports Italy as the country of honor. At the end of last year, WWSE signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Italy to enhance cooperation on winter sports related industries between the two countries, and Italy becoming the country of honor of this WWSE is also part of the cooperation agreement. After 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy will hold the next Winter Olympics in 2026, which is Italy's third time hosting Winter Olympics. Italy not only accumulated a wealth of experience for holding major sports events, but also incubated a well-established ice and snow industry. Italy's national pavilion in this WWSE has "Italy in the Hills" as the main theme, with an area of around 500 m², including 22 booths for Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT), Veneto and 20 Italian enterprises.

Besides the main forum, parallel forums and special events are also held at the 2021 WWSE from 3^rd to 5^th Sept., including Olympic City Development Forum, Sports Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest, Popularization of Winter Sports among Youth Forum, Ice and Snow Industry Trend Forum, Ice and Snow Tourism Development Tourism, Winter Sports Education Forum, Ski Resorts Operation and Management Forum, Venue Design and Construction Forum, Ice and Snow Industry Marketing Forum, Science and Technology in Winter Olympics Forum, etc.

This WWSE also held "City of Rime, Paradise of Skiing, Northern Riverside City of Jilin" Roadshow, Italy Roadshow, GISS (Get Into Snow Sports) 2021 Strategy Launch Event, "2021 Leading International Winter Sports Brand" Awards, etc.

Deeper International Integration
Panoramic View of Cutting-Edge Ice and Snow Industry

In the exposition area of BOCOG, the audience had a direct view of what's been achieved in the preparation work including venue construction, event operation through digital means such as large screen and touchscreen, creating a lively Winter Olympics atmosphere that elevates the audience's expectation for the Olympics. Themed "From Tokyo to Beijing", Chinese Olympic Committee's pavilion demonstrated how the Chinese national team prepares for the Winter Olympics. Olympian Zhang Dan and her teammate led the event to a climax with a beautiful and smooth figure skating performance, and later they interacted with the audience, patiently answered their questions for skating technics, introduced fun facts about figure skating, and shared her own stories about skating to allow more people know about and become more familiar with winter sports. In Yanqing pavilion, AI autonomous interview robots, motion capture system for Winter Olympic sports games and other technologies stunned the audience. In Shijingshan pavilion, interaction with the audience in the form of Winter Olympics blessing stamps showed their aspiration for this grand event. As the official city upgrade service partner of 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Shougang served as a great example of combining Olympic sports and city development, reutilization of industrial heritage and revitalization of industrial zone.

"Internationalization" is one of the three highlights of this WWSE as international participation is over 60%, enhancing the merge of global ice and snow industry resources. As the country of honor for 2021 WWSE, Italy led over 20 institutions and enterprises to present, in the form of national exhibition delegation, their winter sports gears, ice and snow technology equipment, winter tourism resources and many more. Italy is known as a major power in winter sports, with advanced winter sports infrastructure and long tradition for winter sports. By holding the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo and 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, Italy accumulated valuable Olympic heritage and experience for large sports events. In 2026, the Winter Olympics will come back to Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. With the Olympics as our connecter, China and Italy will further share experience and assets of Winter Olympics for a better interaction and inheriting. And with WWSE as a platform, China and Italy will have a broader future for communication and cooperation in the ice and snow industry.

In addition, Austria, Japan, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Belarus and other countries comprehensively showcased their national image for trade in services and advantage in ice and snow industry resources in areas of industry service, sports equipment, gear manufacturing, ice and snow culture, ice and snow tourism, etc.

Over the past 6 years, WWSE continued to provide a better platform to present China's strength in ice and snow industry and to promote the development of China's ice and snow economy. In this Expo, regional exhibition delegations from Jilin, Heilongjiang, Changbai Mountain, Yulin, Altay gave a full display of the achievements in development of ice and snow economy. Changbai Mountain's pavilion stunned the audience with its bridge-shaped slide design as its main scene, and its vivid display of "pool in the sky of Changbai Mountain" on LED screen, all presenting top resources for ice and snow tourism and winter sports. In Altay' pavilion, singing and dancing performances with distinct ethnic features and fur skiing illustration attracted a huge crowd of attention, while presenting the time-honored tradition of winter sports in Altay and important progress in building a key area for developing ice and snow tourism economy.

Numerous renowned enterprises from home and abroad delivered a close-up experience of the cutting-edge ice and snow industry in the world and the vitality of ice and snow economy with expositions in a variety of media and forms. TechnoAlpin displayed their model of ice and snow equipment specially used for large winter sports events, creating a real-life snowing experience that led the audience into a country of snow. In AST's pavilion, an international-standard ice rink constructed in just 48 hours is a full demonstration of its hardcore technology, and experience and performances on ice in a variety of forms were widely applauded by the audience. TRUE Sports, a sports gear brand with a hundred-year history presented its latest ice hockey gears, a perfect demonstration of its rigorous workmanship. Moreover, famous brands such as Doppelmayr, Wintersteiger, HEAD, Snow51, EUROJOY, Sunac Ice & Snow, Shangxue Sports all showcased their latest exploration and achievements in their pavilions.

In the era of intelligence, the philosophy of technology empowering ice and snow industry innovation is widely acknowledged in the industry. This WWSE also pooled the most cutting-edge ice and snow technology and the greatest innovation achievements, exploring more possibility for the development of ice and snow industry when empowered by technology. In the exposition area for ice and snow technology, smart sports venue, magic-like ice and snow technology, sports event broadcasting technology, wearable devices for winter sports fully unleashed the imagination of ice and snow technology. The exposition area for indoor skiing technology allowed the audience to embrace the charm of indoor ski parks and the joy of elevating winter sports experience with technology.

An Upgraded Interaction Experience
Diversified Side Events Spark Enthusiasm for Ice and Snow

The 2021 WWSE held diversified side events from the dimensions of promoting the ice and snow industry upgrade and popularization of winter sports culture. Events such as Ice and Snow Fashion Show and Ice and Snow Procurement Festival offered the exhibiting enterprises a platform to showcase their achievements and explore business opportunities, while at the same time opened a window for the public to learn about the latest updates in ice and snow industry. The public stage specially set in the venue of this WWSE serves as a highly efficient marketing approach for the enterprises participating in the Expo to approach consumers by introducing new products and launching their latest achievements. Contests and awards that are held alongside brought the impact of premium enterprises beyond the ice and snow industry, attracted more attention from other industries and more premium resources.

In response to the "300 million people engaging in winter sports" initiative, this WWSE created an ice and snow entertainment feast featuring great audience engagement with a variety of theme activities and innovative interaction experience. Winter Sports Gear Procurement Festival offered winter sports lovers an avant-garde and cool experience of sports products and very appealing shopping benefits. The Ice and Snow Outdoors Fashion Show presented a real feast for the audience's eyes with its edgy design and splendid runway; real-ice show venue, parent-kid interaction, on-ice experience, VR skiing and many other activities brought unique funs of interaction, which are significant for sparking the public's enthusiasm for winter sports and popularizing the philosophy of winter sports. 

Premium Resources Gathered to Lead High Quality Development of Ice and Snow Economy

It's always been the philosophy of WWSE to pool global premium resources from the ice and snow industry, create a stage for international institutions and enterprises in the ice and snow industry to launch and demonstrate, and offer a platform for communication and connection. In a global perspective, the Expo continues to enhance our connection and interaction with countries of strength in winter sports, introduce advanced winter sports philosophy and technology from abroad, promote ice and snow economy development in China at provincial and municipal level, and accelerate the integration into a new development landscape featuring mutually promoting double cycle at home and abroad. In another perspective, the Expo will also continue to organize a series of activities including industry research, awards, innovation and entrepreneurship contests, enabling practical connections among industries, and exploring more opportunities during communication and merging. 2021 Research Report on the Development of China's Ice and Snow Industry provided brainpower support for China's policymaking in ice and snow industry, and valid reference for the development of institutions and enterprises in the ice and snow industry. "2021 Leading International Winter Sports Brand" Awards includes Top 10 Ski Resorts Award, Popular Winter Tourist Destination of the Year, International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Brand Award, providing opportunities for great brands and premium projects in the global ice and snow industry to stand out. "Sports Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest" will discover ice and snow innovation projects around the globe, and explore a valid approach for the merge of the internet and mobile with the ice and snow industry.

To further gather premium resources from home and overseas, this WWSE leveraged modern IT approaches and created "WWSE on cloud", attracted well-known international brands and premium procurers from China and abroad, combined with WWSE online platform to hold "cloud exposition", "cloud connection-building", "cloud negotiation", "cloud signing" and other year-long routine online connection events, and promote the signing and implementation of 2021 ice and snow industry key projects.

Building on 6 years of accumulation, this WWSE promoted communication in the global ice and snow industry with a loftier landscape, wider vision and more diversified forms, and brought a robust boost to the popularization of winter sports in China and establishing a double cycle development landscape at home and abroad in the ice and snow industry. During the final sprint before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, WWSE served as a window and connector to pool global powers in the ice and snow industry and gave a comprehensive boost to a successful Winter Olympics, so that more people will know about and become more familiar with winter sports, contributing to the great goal of "300 million people engaging in winter sports" coming true.

SOURCE IDG World Expo