MISM’s Study Trip to Barcelona – November, 2010
By Arie Verburg, Student International Master of Sport Management 2010/2011
Now the dust has cleared it’s time to reflect on this years International Master of Sport Management study trip to Barcelona. A different timing than previous years’ providing better weather, a chance to meet our fellow Spanish students and last but not least, to meet our visionairy founding father: Johan Cruijff.
Most students had scheduled their flights for Thursday morning, so at 6am with sleepy eyes students checked in at Schiphol Airport and wandered off to the designated gate. After an easy flight and quick baggage pick up the group arrived at the hotel where they were soon shipped to the Johan Cruyff Institute in Barcelona. After a quick but well received lunch the students were welcomed by the International Director Todd Beane (www.toddbeane.com) and the Catalan Director Natalia Gonzalbo. Todd Beane started the learning cycle by emphasising that the upcoming days were about finding one’s true self through the framework of Inquiry, Discovery and Communication.
The first guest speaker of the day was Toni Jorba, responsible for the transportation of athletes, teams and officials during the 20th European Championship Athletics in Barcelona 2010. He explained the magnitude of such a large sports event and how it was organised and budgetted for. Great stuff!
Next stop was Camp Nou, the imposing stadium of FC Barcelona. After a guided tour and lot’s of pictures the students were invited to learn about its Foundation. He taught the students that the FC Barcelona is “more than a club in the world” as it “uses sport as an educative and social integrative tool to establish its programs in Catalonia and foreign countries”. This ended the first long day and gave space to have a joint tapas dinner.
The second day the students came back to the Institute not knowing that this would become a very impressive and humble day fully covering the subject of Management & Leadership. The morning kicked off with a session with Todd Beane and Johan Cruijff! After this exciting learning experience the students were given a few moments to take photographs with Johan. The overall excitement turned quickly into silence and awe when Valenti Giro came to talk about his K2 expedition where his team climbed the extraordinairy Magic Line, but lost a team mate in the process. An inspiring session about leadership, commitment and trust. After lunch the stage was set for Todd to talk about Alignment & Balance and how it can lead to Position & Purpose. With his inspirational words the day ended and the student found their ways into the city for dinner and drinks.
The third day was all about Facility Management. It started with an introduction at the Instititute, given by Xavier Trias who took us to the Olympic Stadium and Palau San Jordi afterwards. Xavier guided us through these facilities and pointed out how it’s managed and marketed for any type of event, and how this could benefit the city of Barcelona.
After a nice pizza lunch at the Institute it was the Dutch director Ruud Polet who taught the students about managing different generations. Due to his magnificant and longstanding experience in management and leadership he was able to trigger the Generaton X and Y students to interact, which made this session very lively and well received. This ended the final class room day and introduced a excellent night of food and drinks in the centre of Barcelona.
The fourth and final day arrived and due to sunny weather last session was planned at one of the beaches of Barcelona. Energy Management was programmed and after a long night of socialising in bars this could have been a tough nut to crack for Gijs Groeneveld who facilitated the session. However, after four days of intense learning this session turned out to be an impressive experience that each student and professor would remember for a long time. Todd’s framework came to an excellent conclusion!
On behalf of the students I would like to thank all who participated in organising the great event!!
