The partnership between XLeisure—which brings together the two B2B events ForumClub and ForumPiscine—and City Vision, the community that accelerates the smart transformation of local areas with over 7,000 representatives from public administrations (mayors and council members), companies, SMEs, startups, research centers, and associations, is based on a shared vision of the future and innovation. City Vision’s goal is to facilitate the exchange of experiences, needs, and solutions among stakeholders to make Italian cities greener, more innovative, and more livable. Through its collaboration with XLeisure, the focus is on spaces for sports, aquatic activities, and wellness—both indoor and outdoor.

Mayors Take Center Stage

The “City Vision Sport & Life” project thus kicks off the partnership season, bringing one of the first stops of City Vision’s 2027 roadshow to BolognaFiere—for ForumClub and ForumPiscine_XLeisure—from February 10 to 12. This marks a thematically new direction for City Vision, which—for the first time—will apply the innovative and cutting-edge format that distinguishes its events to the world of swimming, sports, and outdoor facilities: directly engaging public decision-makers (mayors, council members, and executives) in a series of debates and discussions over the course of the three days, to address needs and challenges, as well as solutions and best practices, within the context of strategies for indoor and outdoor sports and aquatic facilities.

These spaces are characterized by a complex underlying contradiction: on the one hand, they are key hubs within the urban fabric, designed to meet the community’s needs for sports and wellness, serving as places for socialization and inclusion and acting as a bulwark against social marginalization; on the other hand, they are largely outdated facilities, sometimes unable to fulfill their primary function, and often no longer capable of meeting the minimum standards for safe use, let alone being economically and energetically sustainable.

Governance and Sustainability: From Today’s Best Practices to Tomorrow’s Solutions

Dynamic events will be organized in conference rooms and exhibition spaces, alternating between discussions and inspirational ideas to rediscover swimming pools and sports facilities as the beating heart of local communities, and panel discussions where these facilities take center stage in a clear-eyed analytical examination: direct comparisons between mayors of communities that vary in size and geography, to explore the complexity of sports facility governance.

From the burden of routine maintenance to efficiency strategies, mayors, council members, and technical staff from the participating municipalities will discuss daily challenges and opportunities to transform municipal swimming pools and facilities into sustainable assets: opportunities for administrators to exchange ideas and share best practices and concrete solutions for communities that are increasingly sports-oriented, inclusive, and sustainable. The discussion will be complemented by networking opportunities with experts and companies to explore, firsthand, the technological innovations and solutions that will guide the management of facilities in the future.