The EuroHockey Institute hosted its latest Technical Delegates (TD) Conference in Brussels from 7–9 November, bringing together 15 leading officials from across Europe for a weekend of collaboration, learning and exchange of best practice.
Building on the success of the event held two years ago, the 2025 edition has now become a key fixture in the Institute’s calendar, designed to support the continued development of Europe’s top officials.
The technical delegate’s role is the highest officiating position in EuroHockey competitions, ensuring that every event is conducted in accordance with the relevant rules of hockey and tournament regulations.
The conference programme combined practical workshops, leadership discussions, and technical updates — reflecting the broad range of skills required in modern event management.
Following a welcome dinner and networking evening on Friday, participants began Saturday with an opening session led by Magda Nazaret and Sonja-Annabell Schwede, focusing on expectations and introductions. This was followed by a Tournament Reflection Workshop, encouraging delegates to share their recent experiences and identify key learnings.
The morning continued with sessions led by Pierre-Philippe Van Besien on marking umpire managers before Muriel Peché and Eric Pirenne – bringing their vast experience as Belgian team managers – guided a practical discussion on team management.
Leadership workshop
In the afternoon, there was a leadership workshop, followed by Elisabeth Fürst’s marking discussion and an important update on competitions information from EuroHockey staff David Voskamp and Gráinne Corry. The day closed with a wrap-up session and a second evening of networking.
Sunday’s focus turned to communication and decision-making, starting with a workshop on delivering feedback and concluding with a deep dive into disciplinary hearings, led by Christian Deckenbrock and Rogier Warris, with 10 real scenarios discussed.
The programme was intentionally designed for TDs at all stages of their officiating journey, allowing those with extensive experience to mentor newer colleagues and share insights “from top to bottom”.
For Christian – a participant in the course who was also recently elected to the EuroHockey board – he hailed the value of the weekend, saying: “The TD Conference is above all about exchange and shared experience.
“It helps us to align our approaches across Europe and to give new TDs guidance and confidence for their roles. Even the experienced ones gain new insights from the broad range of topics covered — the time really flew by thanks to the open discussions and the strong sense of community.”
As with all EuroHockey Institute events, the TD Conference was supported by a EuroHockey committee — in this case, the EuroHockey Officials Committee.
The EuroHockey Institute extends its gratitude to the committee, and especially to Sonja-Annabell Schwede, for their invaluable support in organising and delivering this year’s TD Conference.
For Sonja’s part, she extended her gratitude to the EuroHockey staff Cameron Findler and Gráinne Corry for all their preparation work before and during the event to make it run smoothly.
She added: “My thanks go to all the speakers who prepared their presentations with such passion and gave us all valuable input. The most valuable aspect of such a TD group is the opportunity to meet and share experiences and learnings.
“We had developed a common goal to become more aligned within our tasks as TDs. We were able to achieve this in some sessions, while in others we realised that we would have to make individual decisions.
“We had a great atmosphere and lively participation from all attendees, which enabled us to make the event a success together.“
