Undertake a digital transformation program.

In another room participants talked about digital transformation in the interaction with its membership but also possibilities to advance streaming, show more content from different countries and what kind of webinars and online workshops could be helpful.
 

Drive new sustainable initiatives.

Sustainable initiatives were a topic of timeliness with increasing energy prices in many hockey countries. Viesturs Koziols, who chairs the Facilities Committees, showed tools to manage energy consumptions and work with people from different areas to save costs. This can already start with the question of how many centimetres of ice thickness are really needed but also more complex topics of sustainability when building new rinks. Participants wish help to educate people, gain technical knowledge while discussing other areas of sustainability as well such as having more participation in their organization especially more female participation, think about food sustainability and active CO2 compensation.
 

Refresh the World Championship structure.

Ice hockey has a unique system with a vertically organized World Championship system with events at different levels with 58 different countries having been involved in the past few years and next season. What do these countries think about the pros and cons of the current structure? Part of the income from the top events is invested in the tournaments of different categories and levels to help develop ice hockey in these countries. Discussions were held whether the global structure is good and a fi t considering travel and the naming of the events. Also the current standard of six-team round-robin tournaments in the lower divisions and what an increase could mean considering attractiveness but also availability of facilities was a topic.

Strengthen IIHF’s global presence.

Another workshop was about strengthening the IIHF’s global presence with participants especially from outside the classic hockey regions in Europe and North America such as the growing number of member countries from Asia, the Middle East and Africa present in the room. What can be done to be stronger in these regions and should there be a focus on certain regions? It was discussed whether a centralized, global and unified way is better for the members or a more regionalized approach. The participants explained experiences with other sports that work well in their countries. It became clear that the member national associations value the connections and networking through the IIHF and to get the help within the international ice hockey family from people who genuinely care about them. A popular workshop tackled development with discussions on how ice hockey can expand globally with more hockey-playing countries, more players and better players, on which areas to focus and on the experience with the development initiatives by delegates from different countries. The goal is to provide very member national association with a clear path forward through targeted development.