This year, and from the 20 October to the 12 November, the World Leisure Expo and Forum has a more international feel gathering exhibitors and speakers from all over the globe. The four main spotlights include the Third World Leisure Expo, the World Summit Forum on Leisure Development, the Leisure Festival for Citizens and the Route of Leisure Experience Demonstration Area.
Specially, the Third World Leisure Forum “Leisure: Better Life”, in its two-day program on the 20 and 21 October, reflected how a large variety of outstanding international scholars and professionals, with different backgrounds coming from different parts of the world, can cover topics related to the leisure field. The Third World Leisure Forum started with an impressive Opening Ceremony set up, and welcome words from distinguished guests like the Mayor of Hangzhou, Xu Liyi and the Chairman of WLO, Dr. Roger Coles. The Opening Ceremony was followed by the World Innovation Prize Award Ceremony presented by Dr. Cristina Ortega Nuere, WLO Chief Operating Officer, and closed with inspiring keynote presentations by Dr. Roger Coles (WLO Chairman), Mr. Song Rui (Director of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Tourism Research Center) and Mr. Dou Wenyu (Vice President, Business School of City University of Hong Kong). The forum followed with presentations and parallel sessions connected to topics such as: leisure education, leisure and sustainability, leisure and happiness, digital leisure and innovation, community leisure and sports participation… and many more.
Furthermore, The WLO Board of Directors took this opportunity to hold its annual meeting in Hangzhou on the 22 October. With a very intense agenda, the Board Members went through the revision of the progress, projects and actions delivered during the last year. The chairs of the different committees – Membership, Youth Ambassadors, Research and Knowledge Transference, Board organization and Governance, Educational services and Communication – had the opportunity to report on the work done. In general terms, Board members expressed their satisfaction with the transformation of WLO over the past couple of years, with greater orientation towards establishing synergies within and beyond WLO network, as well as for a more communicative and transparent action.
