“Our Sustainable Future” has been chosen as the main theme of World Sailing’s upcoming Annual Conference ©World Sailing

Sustainability has been chosen as the main theme of World Sailing’s upcoming Annual Conference at the Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira in Barcelona.

Three new forums have been introduced onto the programme for this year’s event, which is expected to be attended by around 700 delegates and is due to take place from November 5 to 13.

Each session will be held under a different name, with the first on November 7 entitled "sustainability".

World Sailing chief executive Andy Hunt is due to be one of the keynote speakers during the opening forum, along with Golf Environment Organisation chief executive Kelli Jerome.

The second forum at the Annual Conference, the largest gathering of officials within World Sailing, on November 8 will focus on Para-sailing, which has been axed from the Paralympic Games programme and will not feature at Tokyo 2020.

It is hoped they will be able to regain their place at the Games after the governing body launched a Paralympic Development Programme in June in a direct response to the sport’s exclusion from Tokyo 2020.

The World Sailing Annual Conference and General Assembly is due to take place at the Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira ©Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira
The World Sailing Annual Conference and General Assembly is due to take place at the Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira ©Hotel Renaissance Barcelona Fira

The third session will be held under the "Commercial Strategy for the Sport" banner and will include a talk from chief commercial officer Hugh Chambers.

The topics and issues raised during the forums will combine with those mentioned in the Committee and Sub Committee meetings which are staged before World Sailing’s Council gathers on November 11 and 12.

"The introduction of three new forums to World Sailing's Annual Conference is the start of a process to modernise the meeting into a professional, engaging and interactive event," Hunt said.

"Under the overarching theme of Our Sustainable Future, delegates will be able to engage, share best practice, be inspired to make positive change and make our sport more sustainable from a number of dimensions."

The General Assembly then follows the Annual Conference, with the Presidential election the main item on the agenda.

Spaniard Carlo Croce will bid for re-election but he will be challenged by former President Paul Henderson of Canada, who served in the position from 1994 to 2004, and Denmark’s Kim Andersen, the head World Sailing’s Equipment Committee.

The winner will serve a four-year term.