Diary from Barcelona Day 6: Thanks Spain – off to Mexico!

BARCELONA, June 7, 2014 – The 49th Congress of the International Ski Federation (FIS) ended yesterday with a gala dinner. It was an interesting and exciting few days for “Peter Riedel Sports Technology.”

The notebook is full of notes from conversations with representatives of national associations, organizers, decision-makers of the FIS, competitors, and so on. I would like to thank all of them for the friendly, pleasant discussions and conversations – it was simply wonderful to be able to sit at a big FIS family table! Gracias!

The previous day was marked by the FIS General Assembly. Reflections, prospects, elections, budget discussions – the program was extensive. I found the Italians’ recap of the 2013 Nordic World Championship particularly successful. They presented themselves as chefs and introduced the ‘menu’ of the World Championship. One of the last pictures was: ‘... and who is going to pay the bill now?’ For a moment the room fell silent. What? Are there demands coming? Then Secretary General Angelo Corradini and his team laughed: ‘Don’t worry, because of our loyal sponsors everything has already been settled!’ Phew…

I won’t miss hotel life in the near future – I’ve spent almost the entire last week between these walls. I may soon miss the delicious tapas, but the Ore Mountain region also offers culinary specialties!

And then the work continues. By the way, work! “Spanish with Peter” comes to a conclusion today, to work is to do it right, trabajar.

Spanish is also the official language in Mexico, by the way. In Cancun in 2016 the anniversary congress of the International Ski Federation will be held. Perhaps we will revive “Spanish with Peter” then. Until then, many thanks for participating and please continue to follow my ventures and stories on Facebook or Twitter!