Wu Zhipan delivering the opening speech

PKU Executive Vice President Wu Zhipan delivered the opening speech in the forum. Keynote speeches were given by Feng Jianzhong, vice president of Chinese Olympics Committee, Professor Vince Gennaro, director of the Graduate Sports Management Program at Columbia University, Li Ning, founder and chairman of Li-Ning Company limited, Olympic champion and Guanghua alumnus, Zhang Wei, director of the Sports Industry Office at International Cooperation Center (ICC) of National Development and Reform Commission, Sheng Xitai, founder of Angel Plus and Guanghua alumnus .
 

Experts from various fields participated in the round table discussion. The forum was hosted by Professor Zhao Longkai.
 
To overcome the shortage of talents: Guanghua and Columbia University offer double degree for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Sports Management
 
As Wu Zhipan mentioned during his opening speech, physical education is an indispensable part of education. PKU, as the birthplace of modern higher education, has always been attaching great importance to physical education and sportsmanship.
 
Sport is more than an industry, but a spirit as well. Wu hoped that this forum could remind PKU students and staffs that they should keep a habit of exercise and spend at least an hour outside the classroom or laboratory on a daily basis. This would improve their health, keep a good mood, reduce stress, bring about higher spirits and strengthen willpower.
 
China’s sports industry is still at its early stage and then what is significant in the whole picture for this particular stage? Feng Jianzhong gave his own opinions: we should make policies practical ; we should let standard create profits and increase the speed of standardization; we should take foreign experience andstudy domestic situation to create our own path; we should meet the need of the majority and consider sports industries of all levels. Feng specialized that talents shortage is the bottleneck and professional talents are deadly needed.
 
As the host of this forum, Guanghua is already on its way of overcoming talents bottleneck. It is known that Guanghua MBA Program has signed a cooperation agreement with Master of Sports Management Program at Columbia University. Sports Management Program at Columbia University is one of the best around the globe and is also the only program to include courses of global sports management, sports analyzing and digital sports.
 
“Guanghua has the responsibility to train talents who are experts at both management and sports for sports industry”, said Dean Cai Hongbin. Internationalization is what Guanghua is always persisting. By taking advantage of qualified resources, we build a platform for in-depth cooperation with leading universities and institutions around the world. In the future, Guanghua will enhance powerful consociation with qualified sports resources in a global scale, including Europe, North America, and have further discussion on cutting-edge topics to provide all-rounded, multi-layered talent supply and intellectual support for sports industry.
 
Professor Jason Wingard, dean of the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, expressed his honor of having Guanghua as an overseas partner and hoped the association of two universities could have excellent market-oriented outcomes. Professor Vince Gennaro said in his keynote, “Digital technology, globalization as well as explosion of data and information are changing the way in which sports industry develops. We hope that by associating with Guanghua, we can come up with innovative and world-leading mode of sports management and contribute to the development of China’s sports industry.”
 
To promote the development of sports industry, the government, the market and the academic circles have to push together
 
From Li Ning’s point of view, with the development of national urbanization and increase of family income, participative experiences may greatly increase consumer demand. Li indicated in his keynote speech that sports may become a driving force of economic growth. As a representative for enterprises, he is greatly concerned about what role the government will play in this process and how they will support the development of sports industry.
 
Zhang Wei had her own reflections on the role of government. She said that government should devolve authority, emphasize administration and provide sufficient service. Besides state-owned capital, it is vital that social capital is involved and make their profits.On behalf of the investment circles, Sheng Xitai was optimistic about the investment opportunity of sports industry, “Entrepreneurial opportunities for sports industry are everywhere in the society”, he said. He then gave five main points during the development of sports industry in his speech.

 
Roundtable discussion

During the two roundtable discussions the honored guests had further discussions on policy and market opportunity. They generally believed that government and market should push together to promote the development of industry. The policy induces a slackened mechanism and let the market play its role. In addition, there is no specific business or profit model by now, everyone is exploring and both government and capitalneed more patience.

China’s sports industry is at its early stage of commercialization and industrialization, facing all kinds of difficulties. What should the academic circles do to fulfill its social responsibility? During his conclusion speech, Mao Dawei said, Guanghua had the closest relation withtheindustry, however a single college or university couldn’t provide enough talents for the entire industry.But by joint effort, we could draw the attention of more elites and get them involved. Besides the cooperation with universities and institutions, Guanghua would also gather power and resources through alumni network and accomplish pragmatic work for the development of China’s sports industry.
 
Written by: Li Guannan
Edited by: Choisum Kwok
Source: PKU News (Chinese)