INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MEETING
14th International Standards Meeting (ISM)
The leading annual event for anyone involved in standards setting and the delivery of qualifications and certifications in fitness.
The International Standards Meeting (ISM) is EuropeActive’s main event for training providers, employers, practitioners and other key stakeholders in the fitness and physical activity educational Sector. It has become one of the most important education-focused events in Europe with the goal of ensuring high, comparable and standardised training of fitness professionals, resulting in happy and healthy people across Europe.
This 14th edition of the ISM will be held in the emblematic Meliá Castilla Hotel, an oasis of serenity and refinement in the centre of Madrid. Over 7000 m2 conference spaces, it has 29 meeting rooms and an auditorium with a capacity of 511 people.
Why Madrid? The Spanish capital has been proclaimed best global meetings destination in 2022 at the World Travel Awards. The safety of the city, the excellent transport connections and its diverse cultural and leisure offer, makes Madrid one of the best cities in the world for organising meetings and conferences.
Madrid is a cosmopolitan city that combines the most modern infrastructures and the status of financial centre with an impressive cultural and artistic heritage, a legacy of centuries of exciting history. It has extensive and beautifully maintained parks and gardens, such as the Retiro Park, which offers locals and visitors the chance to relax and enjoy the nature.
The ISM this year takes place in the European Year of Skills, a European Commission initiative targeted at addressing skills gaps and skills mismatches. As the ISM focuses on Standards and skills development within the fitness and physical activity Sector, the Year of Skills is central to the Commissions skills strategy to support skills-related activities and events across Europe.
Skills have always been high on the EU agenda but are now more important than ever. ‘Europe is running out of skilled people’ (Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, 2023), with many industries including hospitality, care, health and our own fitness and physical activity Sector struggling to fill job vacancies. While there are still some issues with unemployment skills shortages are now the central issue and are becoming endemic in Europe.
The Commission has invested massively in skills but change needs to happen close to the ground, through what Margaritis Schinas (European Commission Vice President for Promoting our European Way of Life) describes as ‘a de-Brusselised skills revolution for all of Europe’. It is, therefore, the role and responsibility of all sectors to find sector-specific solutions. The EuropeActive educational Standards and the International Standards Meeting will lie at the heart of fitness and physical activity Sector skills solutions.
So, if you would like to be involved in shaping skills policy in the European fitness and physical activity Sector, please join us for this year’s 14th International Standards Meeting, in beautiful Madrid. In keeping with the European Year of Skills and, to promote the value and visibility of skills, this year’s prestigious event will focus on skills and workforce development and the Standards that will drive this development.
Join us in Madrid and let’s Make Skills Count!