In his keynote speech that kicked off Stadia & Arena 2009 in Prague, John Barrow from Populous placed the industry at a crossroads: "an opportunity to think about what we've done and what we will do in the future." His message was that the sports architect must design in a legacy mode to even the most iconic venue.



John Coxeter-Smith, a partner at Davis Langdon, echoed the theme of sustainable development with a call to arms: "Increasingly our business leaders will be judged on performance against this agenda. Are we capable of meeting the challenge?"



Barrow's colleague and Olympic Stadium designer Rod Sheard took the audience behind the scenes in fascinating detail at Wimbledon Centre Court and at Stadium Island in London 2012's Olympic Park. Sheard described the decision-making processes behind the roof engineering of both buildings, behind the concept of having no spectator facilities in the Olympic Stadium, and behind what will be an unusual look and feel...you had to be there.



Sport+Markt outlined how Polish and Ukrainian stadiums need business plans to realise their potential after Euro 2012. Listening to AEG's expertise in realising value from every aspect of a venue and to Ungerboeck about how technology can help were both good places to start. Mich Sauers from Global Spectrum added his expert analysis of the events that will attract audiences in the future.



Other practitioners speaking over the two days included Chris Lioen, Commercial and Marketing Director at RSC Anderlecht, who entertained with his explanation of Belgian politics, while explaining how to increase revenues, and John Beattie from Arsenal, introducing the renewed trade association ESSMA.