Visit Sarasota County lands World Sailing Annual Conference and the Yacht Racing Forum for 2018
SARASOTA, Fla. (November 17, 2016) – World Sailing (WS), the world governing body for the sport of sailing, awarded Sarasota County the 2018 World Sailing Annual Conference at their annual conference in Barcelona, Spain on November 13, 2016. This is the first time the event will be held in the United States. Sarasota will host the annual conference November 2-11, 2018. The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and, for the first time in 2018, the Yacht Racing Forum will both also be held at the same time and location as the WS conference. The Yacht Racing Forum is the leading annual conference for the business of sailing and yacht racing and covers professional events such as the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Series.
“We are thrilled to be furthering Sarasota’s footprint in the international sports arena,” says Robert Wells, Director Sports at the Sarasota County Sports Commission. “In addition to the room nights and economic impact generated by this event, the Sports Commission hopes to use this event as a catalyst for future major sailing events in Sarasota County.”
The WS annual conference is the most important annual gathering of the WS’s decision makers and is held over a seven day period with more than 400 participants from around the world in attendance. This year’s conference in Barcelona had more than 100 countries represented. The annual conference is expected to generate more than 1,000 room nights in Sarasota County.
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