Leibnitz Convention

XX IOF CONGRESS HELD IN AUSTRIA
The XX IOF Congress and General Assembly was held at Leibnitz, Austria, on 31 July - 5 August 2000.
41 member countries from five continents participated in the Congress week activities and attended the 20th IOF General Assembly held on 4 August. Sue Harvey (GBR) was re-elected President of the IOF.
The General Assembly approved Council's strategy paper 'IOF Elite Events - a concept for development', decided to introduce a World Championship in sprint orienteering and agreed on the criteria for introduction of a World Championship in Trail Orienteering.
A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN SPRINT ORIENTEERING TO BE INTRODUCED
After a lengthy and lively discussion the delegates of the 41 IOF member federations represented at the General Assembly decided to introduce a World Championship in sprint orienteering. The championship shall be held every second year and, if technically possibly, it may start already in 2001.
The further details were left to be worked out within the IOF. At its meeting held the day after the General Assembly, Council decided on the first steps to be taken in order to realise the decision in relation to the sprint distance. The Finnish Orienteering Federation has been asked to look into the possibilities of including a sprint race in the programme of the 2001 World Orienteering Championships.
The Swiss organisers of the World Orienteering Championships in 2003 have already agreed to include the sprint in the programme, and also Japan, the host nation of the 2005 WOC, has declared its willingness to put on a sprint race.
The Leibnitz Convention:
EVENT QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AND ORIENTEERING ON TV AND INTERNET
Event quality improvement was the main theme of the Presidents' Conference held in conjunction with the World Orienteering Championships in 1999. At the seminar held on the day preceding the XX IOF General Assembly, this topic was discussed more in detail under the heading "Event quality improvement and orienteering on TV and Internet".
Fast, exciting, compact - those were the three key elements emphasised by Björn Persson, Sweden, who gave an appreciated introduction to the theme. The introduction was followed by a lively discussion and the delegates agreed to gather around a statement, "The Leibnitz Convention", expressing their expectation that the measures included in this document shall be considered by all future organisers of IOF events. The Convention was unanimously adopted by the 41 member federations attending the General Assembly.

"WE, THE MEMBERS OF THE IOF, attending the 20th IOF General Assembly in Leibnitz, Austria, on the 4 August 2000, hereby declare that
It is of decisive importance to raise the profile of the sport to further the spread of orienteering to more people and new areas, and to get orienteering into the Olympic Games. The main vehicles to achieve this are:
to organise attractive and exciting orienteering events which are of high quality for competitors, officials, media, spectators, sponsors, and external partners
to make IOF events attractive for TV and Internet
We shall aim to:
- increase the visibility of our sport by organising our events closer to where people are
- make our event centres more attractive by giving increased attention to the design and quality of installations
- improve the event centre atmosphere, and the excitement, by having both start and finish at the centre
- increase television and other media coverage by ensuring that our events provide more and better opportunities for producing thrilling sports programmes
- improve media service by better catering for the needs of media representatives (in terms of communication facilities, access to runners at start/finish and in the forest, continuous intermediate time information, food and beverages, etc)
- pay more attention to promoting our sponsors and external partners in connection with our IOF events
We, the Members of the IOF, expect that these measures shall be considered by all future organisers of IOF events."