Crowned "Lausanne Olympic capital" in 1994 due to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) holding residence in the city, as well as a host of International Federations, Lausanne provides the perfect opportunity to bring together these federations and a number of other sporting businesses in an effort to create a "cluster" which will bring all these organisations together, they claim.

Anna Hellman, managing director of Além International Management who is working with Lausanne during this project, believes the "cluster" will allow each company within the sports movement in the Swiss city to share their knowledge, experience and know-how to each of the other organisations.

"The city is called the Lausanne Olympic capital but they've never really done anything around it and they've never done anything both for the region and for the sports movements," said Hellman.

"And with having the IOC and the International Federations in the area there is an unofficial cluster from the economic world through the IOC federations to the private sector also.

"Because you have a lot of companies moving to the area, you also have areas like Nestlé and other companies that are there who are very much involved in perhaps the health side and the nutrition side but it goes into the sports movement.

"So now with everything bubbling under the surface - and I spent two months last year meeting about 100 people in the area both local and international - what we would like to do is get more of an official cluster, because there is so much knowledge and experience and know-how in the area and it's kind of sad for people not to know it's in place."

Lausanne wants to bring together all the sports federations and other sports entities to share knowledge and experience, and encourage innovation across both the city and Switzerland ©Getty Images


The project will work as a kind of Chamber of Commerce of Sport in Lausanne, providing opportunities for each of the related entities to better communicate and share their expertise, both globally and locally.

Although a relatively small city with a population of under 150,000, Lausanne is already a hotbed of knowledge and innovation, with many highly successful organisations, such as Nestlé and Fortune 500 companies joined by the likes of the IOC and sports federations.

The main role of the "cluster", which awaits a new name, is to serve as a facilitator, connecting and communicating with the diverse sports initiatives and related organisations already existing in the area, to ensure better cooperation, encourage innovation and become the catalyst for positive and creative social change within the international sports movement.

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