In a few days time the 4th World Youth Hockey Promoters Festival will start. From 27 April until 3 May about 40 National Hockey Promoters will meet in Victoria, Canada on the occasion of the WorldHockey Olympic Qualifier. The participants will follow a range of youth leadership workshops and make their own hockey promotional presentation.

The aim of the World Youth Hockey Promoters Festival is to create hockey development awareness among young people (who are our future coaches, managers, umpires, technical officials or administrators), to promote hockey as a global sport played around the world and, last but not least, to give Youth a Voice and therefore retain them longer.  

The participants, who are in the age group 15-21, will come from all over the world: Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Malawi, Mexico, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, USA and Wales. 

In Victoria the Promoters will enter an international competition, presenting their project or program to the hockey world. The creator of the most outstanding contribution will earn the title “WorldHockey Promoter 2008”.

The Festival will be hosted by the University of Victoria and is organized by the FIH in close cooperation with Field Hockey Canada. Participants will stay with host families and will come to the university each day to learn about coaching, umpiring, event management, communication and administration. Daily Festival reports will be published on the FIH website and the special WorldHockey Olympic Qualifier website.

Previous World Youth Hockey Promoters Festivals were held in Hobart (2001), Amstelveen (2003) and Santiago de Chile (2005).