When I am writing this, I am at the Abu Dhabi international airport. I thought it was time to write a post about the EASM (European Association of Sport Management) conference where I went from the 7th till the 10th of September.
On Wednesday morning I took a flight to Madrid and in the afternoon I went to a workshop about publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Editors of peer reviewed journals gave a lot of tips to publish and went through the do's and dont's when publishing. Lots of things to think about when you want to publish... and not an easy thing :-(
On Wednesday night we went to the opening ceremony in one of the parks in Madrid. Not very special... Food was average and drinks were finished early. So we went to a nice Spanish restaurant with the collegues of the VUB to eat some Tapas! Good food!
On Thursday there were presentations all day. I had to present in the last block of the day. My presentation about the elite sport policy factors that influence international tennis success went well! Good presentation and on time. I had some difficulties answering the questions... but it was a good learning experience.
On Thursday night there was a dinner organised in the lounges of the football stadium of Real Madrid: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. First we had the chance to visit the stadium and then there was a reception in the lounges.
With the VUB collegues
After the reception in the lounges, we went out for dinner again with a group. Very good tapas again!
On Friday there were a lot of presentations again about sport policy and the organisation of elite sport systems and there was also a forum about tennis and sponsorship in tennis. On Friday evening, we went out for dinner in the city centre with a whole group of researchers who are involved in the SPLISS (sport policy factors leading to international sporting success) study.
On Saturday there were presentations again from 9am till 5pm. I talked with some interesting people who can also help me finding the contacts of tennis experts in their country! So I did some networking!
On Saturday evening I went to the football Real Madrid - Getafe with the VUB collegues! The end score was 4-2 so we saw lots of goals. However, the game was not outstanding.... but I saw Christiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas and Ozil!
It was a very good but also very exhausting conference in Madrid. Presentations every day from 9am or 10am till 5pm and sometimes 6pm. Then we took over the Spanish habits and we had dinner around 10pm. So very busy!
I booked my flight back to Belgium on Sunday evening so I had one day to visit Madrid. I am very happy that I did this because otherwise I would have seen nothing from the city itself! I went to the tourist information centre and I wanted to take the sightseeing bus... unfortunately this bus was not riding on Sunday as it was also the final stage of the Vuelta. So I asked for a nice walk that includes all the highlights of Madrid! It was worth it!
Palacio De Cibeles
Final stage Vuelta
(unfortunately I missed as I had to take my plane!)
Puerta Del Sol - Bear and the Madroño Tree, heraldic symbol of Madrid
Puerta Del Sol
Plaze de Mayor
Plaza De Mayor
Catedral de La Mudena
Plaze de la Armeria & Palacio Real
Place D'Espana
Monumento a cervantes
Me on the streets of the Vuelta
So that was in a nutshell my time at Mardid!
I am on my way back to Australia which means more posts will follow in the near future!
Adios!
Cheers!
Jessie
