FIBA U17W - Lithuania organisers share experience with U17 Women hosts from Netherlands

KAUNAS (2012 FIBA U17 World Championships for Men and Women) - Organisers of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship welcomed their counterparts from Amsterdam to Lithuania in order to share experience and tips on how to optimally execute the organisation of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women later this summer (16-27 August).

“It was very nice to meet representatives of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) from the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. We hope that their visit here was productive,  said Paulius Motiejunas, Executive Director of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LBBF) and Championship Director at the U17 Worlds in Kaunas.

“Our LOC was happy to help with some knowledge transfer and we hope that this will be useful for the Dutch LOC to deliver a great tournament.”

Patrick Kathmann, the LOC event manager of the U17 Worlds Women, was in Kaunas for two days as part of a three-member delegation watching the men’s U17 Worlds event and getting ideas on how his team could best prepare for the tournament which runs in Amsterdam from 17 to 26 August 2012.

“We have never organised a youth basketball World Championship before in the Netherlands. So we need to see things live,” said Kathmann.

“We are taking notes for our benefit. We have seen a lot of good things that we can use in the Netherlands. The Lithuanians are very experienced in organising tournaments.”

The Lithuanians most recently hosted EuroBasket 2011 as well as the U18 European Championship in 2010 and U16 European Championship in 2009.

They have another big event to look forward to as the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women will take place there too.

Kathmann said he and his team have learned so much in so many different areas including transportation planning, hospitality and meals for teams and officials, the accreditation process or the setup of the arena.

“We took a lot of pictures. Pictures give you the image of what’s happening – away from on the court,” he explained.

“How is the IT working? Why is a printer there? Why are the announcers here and the disc jockey there? All of this gives us new ideas and helps us to make a better tournament.”

Kathmann said besides implementing the things he learned from Kaunas, the next big thing for the organisers is to find volunteers for the event and continue efforts to bring in more fans for the games.

You can follow their work and preparations by visiting the official 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women event website.

FIBA