The 2018-2024 ITTF Strategic Plan has already delivered positive changes and supported the table tennis community as it faced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This situation highlights the needs for International Sports Federations to have robust plans going forward to navigate such crisis and I am convinced this has been the case in our Federation,” said James Morris, ITTF Executive Vice President.

Unanimously endorsed at the 2018 ITTF Annual General Meeting, the 2018-2024 ITTF Strategic Plan focuses on five strategic priority areas – Organisation & Governance, High Performance & Development, International Events, Promotion and Revenue.

“We have come a long way since releasing the ITTF’s first ever Strategic plan,” said Steve Dainton, ITTF Group CEO, before Michael Brown, ITTF Group CEO, presented some of the highlights.

Organisation & Governance

• All Continental Federation agreements to be combined, with the vision to have a unified approach towards the growth and development of table tennis worldwide by 2021.
• Ensure an equitable process in which the campaigning for elected positions meets higher standards, involving a stricter nomination process, as well as providing a platform to ensure a smooth transition when there is a change in leadership.

High Performance & Development

• Further enhanced a more diversified, and targeted, portfolio of programs and activities to support National Associations through ITTF development activities
• Through the use of technology have adapted to providing training and education opportunities for athletes, coaches, and other stakeholders globally

International Events

• Introducing a more clear and understandable competition calendar for the future to help build an ongoing dialogue with fans for better engagement
• The introduction of World Table Tennis and the new event series has helped to create in-demand events that appeal to host cities and countries, which are now starting to convert to hosting fees

Promotion

• The new partnership in place between WTT and IMG will improve the production level and consistency for international events providing greater promotion for table tennis
• World Table Tennis Day was converted to World Table Tennis At Home Day for 2020, and saw representation from over 75% of National Associations participating in activities on the day

Revenue

• Significant work undertaken towards the launch of new event products, and new partnership opportunities from 2021 onwards
• Continued efforts to further diversify revenue streams, to reduce overall risk with ongoing pandemic climate

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to have a major impact on our lives even until today, it became clear the Strategic Plan needed to be updated, as Steve Dainton explains:

“We need to make a review and restructure of the Strategic plan. A restructure that would fit better the current realities. The reality of operating during a pandemic, a crisis that has caused us to scale down during the period, but also the reality of some of the bold plans we had in place for both WTT and the Foundation coming fully to life.”

“It was always meant to be a ‘living and breathing’ document. Not a document set in stone.  With such massive internal and external changes in the past two years, it is time to reshape it.

“Moreover, a new Executive Committee will be elected soon. They also need to be heavily involved in any new plan. We will present this to them for their feedback but also to further seek more feedback from the ITTF membership and key stakeholders of our sport in the next months.

“The plan to eventually present you something reshaped for the 2022 AGM.”

With more than 100 online attendees from Member Associations and the global table tennis community, the presentation concluded with live exchanges and discussions between the participants who were eager to contribute.

Watch the full presentation here

The Annual General Meeting of the International Table Tennis Federation will be held on 24 November 2021, on the occasion of the 2021 ITTF World Championship Finals in Houston, Texas. Prior to it, the ITTF Group is hosting a series of videoconferences from 18 October to 15 November, featuring presentations for the global Table Tennis community. Delegates registered officially for the 2021 Annual General Meeting will be receiving the invitations for each of the videoconferences. The schedule of the 2021 ITTF AGM Videoconferences series is available here.

For further information, please contact: [email protected]