The in-person event was organised by the Sports Diplomacy Alliance.

The forum was arranged in partnership with The British Council, The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the UK Government’s GREAT campaign and the Griffith Asia Institute.

Organisers said the event featured talks, discussions and networking opportunities, with participants coming from diplomatic, sports, trade, and academic sectors.

Sports Diplomacy Alliance co-founder Dr Sarah Kelly said the event included discussions on women in sport diplomacy, sports diplomacy strategy and sports tech diplomacy.

The inaugural event was billed an as an opportunity to examine how sport can be used to build relations between Australia and the United Kingdom in the build-up to the Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

The Gabba, the venue for the event, will be the central venue at Brisbane 2032.

George Brandis, Australian High Commissioner to the UK, was among the speakers at the event.

Britain’s four-time Olympic sailing gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie and Australia’s three-time Paralympic paracanoe champion Curtis McGrath were athlete speakers at the event.

Loughborough University London’s Professor James Skinner also participated.

Professor Skinner focused on the strategic use of sports innovation and technology in diplomacy and discussed how the UK and Australia can better leverage their strengths in this sector.

"The sportstech sector is becoming central to building diplomatic relations to leverage and build better trade relations more broadly for the UK and Australia," he said.

"This forum provides a great platform to explore how strategies help enhance these possibilities in the sport industry."

Jo Freeman, Consul General for Queensland and Northern Territory and Director of Trade for Australia and New Zealand at the UK's Department for International Trade, featured as a panellist in the discussion.

Laurie Malone, Founder and chief executive of VALD Human Measurement Technologies, also contributed to the sports tech discussion.