The day stated with a keynote address on Finance and Media for Gender Equality in Sport, given by the head of Australia's public free-to-air TV station ABC.
Throughout the rest of the day there were 38 presentations divided into several streams.
Author of anew book on the Gay Games, Caroline Symons of Victoria University, Melbourne (winner of a 2007 FGG Legacy Award for Scholarship and Research) presented ',Come out to Play: Sexuality Sport and Social Inclusion", while Tom Waddell Award winner Dutch Lydia La Rrivera-Zijdel presented the SPART program in Ethopia, a program to empower women with disabilities through sport.
During the morning I attended the stream on Women and Leadership in Sport with reports on some very powerful and positive strategies to get more women on sporting boards. Especially good was a presentation from Amanda Bennett form Sport UK. The development programme she described lasts for three years, and uses mentors, internships and courses to enable women to develop skills and experience to take better take leadership roles in the sporting workforce. Another great presentation was by Sue Tibbals from the UK Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation
I continued to make great contacts for the FGG, for example with Karin Lofstrom from the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport, and several women from African countries attending; including Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania, Namibia, as well as women from Haiti.
The day finished with a very strong and sobering address on the issue of violence against women in sport.
I'll be presenting my talk tomorrow, and am looking forward to share our experience at the FGG and the Gay Games.
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