Congress: 50 years of martial arts and municipalities

On Wednesday 27 May, the Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit (VA, the Dutch Martial Arts Authority) is organising a congress in Amsterdam on the theme "50 years of martial arts and municipalities".

The congress focuses on cooperation between the martial arts sector and municipalities. The meeting will be of interest to, among others, civil servants working on permits, sport, public order and safety, to police staff and safety experts, but also to promoters, gym owners, officials and representatives of sports federations. Registration is open!

How have martial arts developed over the past decades? How do we jointly arrive at good and safe martial arts events? What can the Vechtsportautoriteit do for promoters and civil servants in the permit application process? How can martial arts gyms, promoters and municipalities work together on social objectives, such as getting hard-to-reach groups to be physically active? We will discuss these and other questions with everyone involved.

With contributions from, among others, Anneke van Zanen-Nieberg (chair of NOC*NSF, the Dutch Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation), André de Jeu (director of Vereniging Sport en Gemeenten, the association for sport and municipalities), Peter van Veen (director of Sport at the municipality of The Hague) and promoters, gym owners, pioneers and prominent figures from the martial arts world. With sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren we will look back on 50 years of martial arts events.

The congress takes place on Wednesday 27 May from 12:00 to 16:30 at the Jaap Edenhal in Amsterdam. A historic venue: exactly fifty years ago, the first kickboxing event in the Netherlands was held here. We will also mark that groundbreaking occasion.

Due to the limited number of places, registration has now closed.