The inaugural AIMS Asia-Pacific Conference was held on 12-13 June in Penang, Malaysia at the St-Giles Wembley Hotel.

Hosted by the Penang Bridge Half Marathon, this was the first such conference ever staged in Asia and Oceania.
 
Race organisers from as far afield as Australia, Japan and Sri Lanka attended as well as some from outside the region including keynote speaker Carlo Capalbo of the Prague Marathon,

He spoke about the concept behind the 'Running Mall' (more) which has operated in the Czech capital for the last two years. The programme continued with presentations on social media strategy (more) for races and what factors must be put in place to facilitate a world record breaking race (more).

Attendees divided into two groups for discussion on how to attract runners to their events from increasingly far away rather than just the neighbouring countries and re-formed to compare findings.

A final session addressed the successful strategy behind two formerly elite-only Japanese races – Tokyo Marathon (more) and Nagoya Women's Marathon (more) – to reinvent themselves as mass participation events
 
Regional conferences have previously been held in Africa and South America. The next is planned for Capetown in September 2015.

WORLD CONGRESS IN 2016

The next World Congress of AIMS will be in South America, hosted by the Quito Ultimas Noticias 15km in the Ecuadorean capital on 2-4 June 2016.

AIMSworldrunning.org