FOILING SPORT CONGRESS 2026

PROGRAMME

July 1st and 2nd, 2026

Malcesine, Lake Garda – Italy

July 1st

Day one

09:45 am
Opening & registration
10:00 am
Welcome & opening remarks
Speaker
Luca Rizzotti, Founder – The Foiling Organization
10:05 am
Panel 1 – Before the Conflict: Building a Calendar That Plans Rather Than Records

The global foiling calendar is shaped by decisions made in isolation — events lock dates, classes confirm championships, circuits announce seasons, and the overlaps emerge after the fact. This panel asks whether a shared planning window is possible: a structured early-engagement process where the major stakeholders coordinate upstream, before athlete pools are split and commercial conflicts become public. What would it take, who would need to commit, and what role can a neutral hub play when the parties around the table have competing interests?

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Jervis Tilley, President – Waszp International Class Association (WICA)
Tom Hartman, Tour Manager – SFT
10:35 am
Panel 2 – The Foiling Athlete in 2026: Contracts, Digital Twins, and the Value of a Professional Career
What do professional foiling athletes actually sign, what do they give up, and what are they worth? Prize money structures, image rights, minimum professional standards — and the emerging question of the AI double: who owns an athlete’s performance data and their digital twin when AI systems can model and replicate it?
Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Jana Germani, Strategist – Redbull Italy SailGP
Ryan Littlechild, Sailor, North Sails Representative
Francesco Di Biase, Executive Advisor – DHTA
11:15 am
Coffee break
11:30 am
Panel 3 – Format, Spectacle, and the Race for Relevance

Foiling offers more racing formats than any comparable water sport. This panel asks whether that diversity is an asset or a liability — and whether the sport needs a flagship format to be legible to broadcasters, sponsors, and new audiences. A strategic conversation about what competitive foiling looks like to someone encountering it for the first time.

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Tim Hancock, Olympic Vision Project Lead – World Sailing
Michele Marchesini, RD – FIV
Ole Sartori, Executive and Finance Manager – AC Team Germany
12:10 pm
Panel 4 – Foiling Beyond Competition: Destinations, Communities, and the Social Contract

What does a foiling ecosystem give back to the places it inhabits? Malcesine and Pensacola as working examples of the destination co-investment model — what each city and region gains in media exposure, tourism, and long-term positioning. Alongside: para foiling pathways, junior access infrastructure, and what genuine inclusivity requires in a technically demanding and expensive sport.

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Alan McMillan, Past Commodore – Gulf Yachting Association
Colin Ralph, Director of Operations – Amaala Yacht Club
Tom Herbert-Evans, Head Of Community – SailGP
12:40 pm
Lunch
2:30 pm
Panel 5 – The Peak of Italian Foiling

Italy is living a golden moment in foiling: Olympic gold, a leading America’s Cup challenger, a SailGP team, and Ferrari Hypersail bringing industrial ambition to the sport. This panel gathers the protagonists behind that rise to ask what is really driving it, and what it would take to turn a golden moment into a lasting place at the front of world foiling.

Moderator
Luca Rizzotti, Founder – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Ambrogio Beccaria, Skipper – Allagrande Mapei Racing
Francesca Clapcich, Skipper – 11th Hour Racing
Jana Germani, Strategist – Red Bull Italy SailGP
Enrico Voltolini, Project Leader – Ferrari Hypersail
Francesco Pretagostini, Control System and Energy Manager – Ferrari Hypersail
Daniele Savoldi, Technical Project Leader – Persico Marine
3:15 pm
Panel 6 – Who Tells the Foiling Story?
Foiling Media Congress Launch

Foiling produces exceptional visual content that reaches a fraction of comparable action sport audiences. The panel names why — fragmented rights, no shared narrative, platform strategy gaps — and formally introduces the Foiling Media Congress: a dedicated annual gathering of media professionals, rights holders, and content creators across the foiling ecosystem.

Moderator
Viola Devoti, Marketing Executive – America's Cup & Social Media Manager – We Are Foiling
Speakers
Ed Russo, Director – SOF Hyères
Andy Rice, Writer and Podcaster – The Foil, The Athletic, New York Times
Richard Moore, Head of Media & Communications
4:00 pm
Closing remarks Day 1

July 2nd

Day 2

9:45 am
Opening & welcome coffee
10:00 am
Panel 7 – The Knowledge Game: Coaching, Performance Intelligence, and How Foiling Expertise Travels

Elite foiling knowledge is siloed by class and circuit, rarely transferred across disciplines, and almost never institutionalized. The panel asks what a shared coaching framework would look like — certification, cross-discipline methodology, structured knowledge exchange — and puts top coaches in the room with a direct question: what do you know that the rest of the sport needs?

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Ray Davies, Coach – Emirates Team New Zealand
Giulia Conti, Head of Performance – We Are Foiling
Doug Wake, Marketing and Events Director – Vakaros
10:40 am
Panel 8 – The Sponsor's Perspective: What Foiling Actually Has to Sell

What does a brand or institutional partner actually evaluate when considering foiling? This panel gives the floor to the buyer — reach, image, innovation narrative, data access — and makes room for uncomfortable answers, including from partners who have considered foiling investments and decided against them.

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Adriano Guido Lualdi, Head of Global Brand Experience & Partnerships – Alfa Romeo
Julian Jesson, North Shore Risk Limited Representative
Scott Over, Commercial Director – We Are Foiling
11:20 am
Coffee break
11:30 am
Panel 9 – One Sport, Many Masters: Toward a Shared Governance Framework

Foiling spans Olympic classes, professional circuits, recreational categories, offshore, and human-powered disciplines — each answering to different bodies or none. The panel examines the cost of that fragmentation in athlete welfare, commercial credibility, and institutional voice, and asks what a shared governance architecture would need to look like to earn the trust of those already governing their own corners of the sport.

Moderator
Greta Eline Poclen, Head of Science – The Foiling Organization
Speakers
Jorgen Vogt, CEO / Secretary General – SFT and GFA
Chris Museler, Freelance Journalist, Foiling Expert
Scott Over, Commercial Director – We Are Foiling