Bhubaneswar, Jan 16: Giving sports development a whole new dimension in Odisha, the Xavier Emlyon Business School (XEBS) in collaboration with Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha, is proud to announce SPORT IT 2020, the first ever sports and innovation festival of India, to be held in the sports capital of India on January 18-19, 2020. 

To be held under the auspices of XEBS-Ahluwalia Centre of Excellence for Sports Management, a unique collaboration between Xavier University, Bhubaneswar, emlyon business school, France, Department of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha and KJS Ahluwalia Group, SPORT IT 2020, will be a unique Indo-French collaboration and first of its kind in the country.  

Talking about the initiative, Minister for Sports and Youth Services, Tusharkanti Behera, said, “With SPORT IT 2020, we wanted to create an inclusive platform that would not only  celebrate sports innovation and entrepreneurship but also involve sportspersons, sports start-ups, high performance centres as well as students in a significant way.”

It will encourage the participants from the Sports fraternity, to meet, exchange knowledge, and learn from one another, he added.

The festival has three components – a ‘Sports Hackathon’ which is being organised in association with Start-up Odisha and Sports Unlimitech, the biggest sports and innovation festival in Europe, at XIMB with participation of 10 French students as well.

Sports Unlimitech has agreed to sponsor the winning team of the hackathon to Lyon in September for the second edition of their festival while Start-Up Odisha has offered pre-incubation and mentoring support.

After Bhubaneswar, the hackathon will be held in Lyon, Paris, Casablanca, Shanghai and Doha – the other centers of emlyon business school. Fédéric Michalak, former France Rugby Captain, and CEO of Sports Unlimitech will be on screen from France to officially kick off the hackathon.