YACHT RACING FORUM - NEWSLETTER | | | Dear Yacht Racing Industry Professionals and Sailing Fans, The Yacht Racing Forum will take place in just over two weeks and it promises to be a great event, with the sports’ leading personalities, teams, venues and brands from all over the world, an interesting conference programme and a fun social calendar. Please find below some detailed and practical information about the Forum, access to Bilbao, sustainability guidelines and much more. We look forward to welcoming you to Bilbao. The Yacht Racing Forum organizing team
PS: It's not too late to join the event! | | A Great Programme & Excellent Speakers | | | 14 conferences, 22 presentations, 87 speakers: the programme is intense, exciting and promising.
Our speakers include the sports’ leading personalities, top business promoters, Olympic champions, America’s Cup sailors, Volvo Ocean Race competitors, marketing experts, designers, engineers…
The event will feature the sports’ greatest sailing events and venues, highlight technical solutions aimed at improving performance, reliability or safety.
Some great names among so many: Peter Harken, Ken Read, Dee Caffari, Kim Andersen, Max Sirena, Juan Kouyoumdjian, Stephanie Nadin, Stan Honey, Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, Johan Salén, Gianguido Girotti… The who’s who of yacht racing worldwide ! | | | We are trying to produce a clean event with the support of our sustainability partner 11th Hour Racing. Please join our effort to reduce our carbon footprint and follow our recommendations. No single use plastic • This is a must: we are skipping single-use plastic throughout the event and kindly ask you to do the same. Help us by not bringing in any single-use plastic. • Bring your REUSABLE water bottle, coffee cup and straw. Public Transport Use public transport whenever possible • The city centre is well connected by public transport. There are buses throughout the day, as well as a suburb. The timetable is available here. • Bus transfer from Bilbao International Airport costs 3,00 €, and the travel time to the hotel Melia & Conference Centre is 20 min. • Transfer to the gala evening reception will be by coach only. Our buses will be leaving the Euskalduna Conference Centre at 6:30 and 7:00 PM, and then driving back to the hotel after diner. Offset your carbon footprint; it’s as easy as remembering where you are traveling to and from - check out the Ocean Foundation's carbon calculator to learn more. And by the way: remember that if you are coming from Europe, train is an option. You will lower your environmental impact while enjoying the scenery. | |  | | Copyright Joel Pett | | | It is important to be sustainable, and to be transparent about our actions. 11th Hour Racing have helped us develop Sustainability Guidelines for the venues, that include recommendations on catering, waste management, composting, recycling etc… We have been discussing those at length with our Host in Bilbao, and worked hard at improving the event carbon footprint. Guidelines have also been prepared for our exhibitors, suggesting they don’t wrap their exhibits in plastic, use reusable materials, avoid offering junk presents to delegates etc… Those guidelines are a precious tool to help us organise a sustainable event. Last but not least, we have decided not to print the Event Programme this year, and to make it available online. You will soon be able to download it on the event website and app. As for the delegate badges, no more silly & useless plastic folders. This used to be common practice, but why?... Anyway, that's history now. | | A special and generous offer from our partner Zhik | | | Our official clothes partner Zhik, will once again offer a welcome gift to to all YRF delegates.
On top of this, Zhik offers a special 20% discount to YRF delegates. Visit the Zhik website, make your choice and use the following promo code: YRFDEAL19 This generous offer is valid until December 26. Happy Christmas! | | When students meet industry leaders: an extraordinary opportunity ! | | | For the first time, some of the best students involved in academic research on sails & foils will be invited to present their research on stage, in front of the industry leaders. Chaired by Dr Ignazio Maria Viola, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, this session will reassemble six top level students. Ignazio Maria Viola is one of the world-leading academic researchers on the fluid mechanics of sailing yachts. He has published more than 150 articles in scientific journals and conference proceedings, for which he was awarded two Medals of Distinction and a Medal of Exceptional Merit by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He gave more than 30 invited talks including at Stanford, Caltech, Cambridge, EPFL, etc. | | An intense social programme | | | One of the main objectives of the Yacht Racing Forum - beyond the business opportunities it offers - is to allow its participants to share a good time and network. Sunday 24, 7:30 PM, Hotel Melia Bilbao - Informal welcome drink provided by Atlantik Events and Heineken. Monday 25, 7:30 PM, Olatua Bizkaia Passengers Maritime Station, Official Yacht Racing Forum Evening Reception. Guest of honour: Peter Harken. The Mirabaud Sailing Video Award prize giving ceremony will also take place on this occasion. Tuesday 26, 7:30 PM - Maritime Museum of Bilbao (right next to the conference venue). Post-Event Drinks Reception provided by GAC Pindar | |
You can also secure your room at the hotel Melia Bilbao, with a preferential rate : | | |
