The Official Tracy Mattes Website

United Nations World Tourism Organization ST-EP Foundation Presents 2008 Beijing Sport, Tourism & Development Forum

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Tracy's trip to the Beijing Olympic Games wasn't all about sport events, athletes and golden moments. As a Special Representative of the United Nations and an advocate fighting to end the human rights atrocities in Darfur, Tracy organized the 2008 Beijing Sport, Tourism & Development Forum . The event, hosted by the UNWTO ST-EP Foundation took place at the historic Prince Jun Palace. The purpose of the Forum was to bring together the full spectrum of leaders in Sport, Tourism and Development to create strategic partnerships among these organizations in support of common goals and efforts.

Wilfried Lemke, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Sport for Development & Peace led a panel of 20 prominent leaders on the round table. Tracy and Mr. Giovanni di Cola of the International Labor Office acted as moderators of the panel. The panel of 20 included HRH Prince Feisal bin-Al Hussein of Jordan, ANOCA President General Lassana Palenfo, World Olympians Association President & Olympic Legend Dick Fosbury, UNDP Resident Coordinator for China, Khalid Malik, UNWTO ST-EP Chairman Ambassador Dho Young Shim, Joel Bouzou of Monaco's Peace & Sport, Pentland Chairman Stephen Rubin and Sporting Goods to Go President Don Porter.

Panelists

Dho Young Shim	Chairperson, United Nations World Tourism Org. ST-EP Foundation
Wilfried Lemke	Special Advisor, United Nations Sport for Development and Peace
Khalid Malik	United Nations Resident Coordinator in China, UNDP Resident Representative
General Lassana Palenfo	President, of ANOCA
HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein	President, Jordan Olympic Committee, Generations for Peace
Dick Fosbury	President, World Olympians Association
Tracy Mattes	Special Representative, United Nations World Tourism Org. ST-EP Foundation
Toni Khoury	IOC Executive Board Member
Rick Antonson	President, & CEO Tourism Vancouver
Oh Ji Chul	President, Korean National Tourism Org.
Don Porter	President, International Softball Federation
Majid Charkhasht	Olympic Peace Messenger, Iran
Stephen Rubin	Chairman, Pentland Group Ltd.
Giovanni di Cola	International Labor Office
Joel Bouzou	President, Peace & Sport
Keir Radnedge	Sports Features Communications Inc.
Lisa Delpy	George Washington University
Dr. Marc Daniel Gutekunst	CEO ATLANTA DITC
Richard T. Jordan	World Harmony Foundation


ANOCA President General Lassana Palenfo, UN Special Rep Tracy Mattes, UN ST-EP Chairman Ambassador Dho Young-Shim & Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Sport, Development & Peace, Wilfried Lemke	WOA Lawyer Josh Henson, Atlanta DITC Chairman Dr. Marc Daniel Gutekunst, President & CEO Tourism Vancouver Rick Anniston, WOA President Dick Fosbury, UN Special Rep Tracy Mattes & HRH Prince Feisal bin-Al Hussein of Jordan


Dick Fosbury & HRH Prince Feisal	The 2008 Beijing Sport, Peace & Development Forum

Fosbury discussed the important role of Olympians as effective messengers. "Olympians are the greatest ambassadors of goodwill in the world of sports, especially the youth of today."

HRH Prince Feisal discussed how his global campaign Generations for Peace is helping youth from areas in conflict to find common ground and peaceful goals through sports.

Tracy, who is also a member of Team Darfur, addressed the need for finding urgent aid for millions of displaced refugees and the ability of sport to improve the lives of kids in refugee camps.

Malik followed up with a call for similar aid and recovery programs to areas where natural disasters strike, citing May's devastating earthquake in the Sichuan province of China.

The Forum was followed by a cocktail and dinner for 150 high profile guests including National Olympic Committee Presidents, IOC members, UN officials and Heads of State.


Ambassador Dho Young shim, Tracy Mattes & Stephen Rubin	The Panelists listen to HRH Prince Feisal of Jordan

This was the 2nd Olympic Sport, Tourism & Development Forum. The first one was held at the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006. Tracy says "the Olympic Games is a great venue to be able to get the leaders of these industries all together in one place and really be able to focus on creating concrete plans that can be built upon and followed up on every two years. At other times of the year, these leaders have so much going on and their schudules are so full, that it's often difficult to get all of them together in one place at one time. The Olympics takes care of that for us. We have taken advantage of this great opportunity. It has proven to be very successful and we will continue the tradtion." Tracy has already began the planning of the next Sport,Tourism & Development Forums for the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

Following the success of the Sport, Tourism & Development Forum, On August 17th, Tracy and Dick Fosbury were invited to the United Nations Headquarters in Beijing for a meeting and special Press Event with Mr. Wilfried Lemke, special advisor to the UN Secretary General on Sport, Development & Peace. The event also included Mr. Khalid Malik, the UNDP Ambassador to China. Mr. Lemke was representing UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon at the Olympic Games in Beijing, since Mr. Ban was personally unable to attend due to other UN obligations. More than 60 accredited members of the press took part in the event. Dick Fosbury talked about the power of the Olympics to bring about change in the world.


Tracy Mattes & Wilfried Lemke at the UN Headquarters in Beijing, China	Tracy Mattes, Khalid Malik, & Dick Fosbury at the UN Headquarters in Beijing


Tracy Mattes & UNDP Ambassador Khalid Malik at UN Headquarters in Beijing	Dick Fosbury, Tracy Mattes & Wilfried Lemke at UN Headquarters in Beijing