2018 World Hockey Forum. Day one

Between the 13th and 14th of December, the 2018 World Hockey Forum is being held in Moscow. The event is being held with the support of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.

IIHF president Rene Fasel, president of the Russian Olympic committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov, head of the Russian Federation State Duma committee for physical culture, sport, tourism and youth Mikhail Degtyarev, chairman of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation board Arkady Rotenberg and Russian Ice Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak participated in the opening ceremony.

In his speech, Russian Ice Hockey Federation board chairman Arkady Rotenberg pointed out that it's become a great tradition to hold this event while the Channel One Cup, the second stage of the Euro Hockey Tour, is ongoing in Moscow. He thanked everyone at the forum for their participation and their readiness to discuss current problems in the sport. For his part, IIHF president Rene Fasel noted that this forum is a great opportunity for the ice hockey family to meet in a friendly atmosphere and talk about important trends in world ice hockey.

The central topic of the plenary session was the new generation of managers in sporting management. The panelists discussed the key qualities, knowledge and skills that a sports manager should have, before touching upon the issue of creating successful brands in a modern, competitive environment while analysing the experience of implementing the National Hockey Development Program. The revelant reports were presented by first RIHF vice-president Roman Rotenberg. He presented the Red Machine National Hockey Development Program, which was introduced in Russia in 2018, and spoke about the practice of using marketing tools to popularise ice hockey and respond to the challenges which the modern sporting world poses to ice hockey management.