The Stadia & Arena conference and exhibition tool place in June in Rome, Italy. The Central Park Hotel in the hills above Vatican City was the attractive venue for stadium, arena and convention centre managers to share experience and lastest industry thinking.

The International flavour of the conference was established by keynote speaker denise marsh, CEO of singapore Indoor Stadium (pictured below). It became clear from the figures - 24 billion on new sport and entertainment projects in the next three years in Japan, Austrailia and China - that the 'dragon economies' are serious about building best of breed facilities. The new singapore stadium, for example will have a roof and hard floor, with turf modules for team support. Marsh described clearly the economic drivers interesting governments and private investors, including tourism and gambling.

A team Researching sustainable practices for the London Olympic Games, reported to the conference on their findings about the most enviromentally friendly ways of building and operating. Conference delegates benefited from thought provoking speeches about food and beverage by Jonathan Tribe (Delaware North Companies) - we often feel more like a banker than a caterer - Chris Bigelow - the days of pie, a pint and a piss are over. Continuing the focus on commercial exploitation Jasmine Geerinckx (Barco) and Gareth Moore (Sport+Markt) described case studies and possible scenarios for the exploitation of LED's in venues and venue naming rights.