Imagine receiving a call asking you to organize the communications for an international ski competition—just over a year before the event begins. Imagine that there are 17 competitions in the category Freestyle, of which practically nothing is known. «Once upon a time, the ski slopes, in the afternoon, were full of moguls, which in the world of freestyle are called mogul: this first “connection” was useful for me to begin to better understand these young disciplines,” Roberto Rivola said anecdotally at the opening of the meeting organized at the beginning of last May by the Ticino Public Relations Society in collaboration with Swiss Marketing Ticino in the evocative setting of the Splash & Spa in Rivera.
The figures for the 2025 Freestyle World Championships, which took place in the second half of March in Engadin, between St. Moritz, Corviglia, and Corvatsch, are impressive: 1.800 participants, including athletes and staff, and 800 volunteers; 30 finals and 90 medals; athletes from 48 different countries; 100 visitors to the competitions and 15 to the side events; for a total budget of 22 million francs. Roberto Rivola, however, focused primarily on the event's communication aspects: 650 press articles in Switzerland and 4 in Germany; 174 hours of video footage, 67 of which were live; broadcasts in over 20 countries for 58 million viewers, plus 260 million streaming contacts. Rivola and his team, however, faced numerous challenges, especially logistical ones. Just consider the travel of the more than 300 accredited journalists, half of whom were in the photo/video departments, who had to be "distributed" across four press centers. "But the challenge within the challenge was managing the 'new world' of media, predominantly image-oriented and often closely tied to athletes—and their sponsors—with 'non-standard' needs, including filming with drones, GoPros, etc.," Rivola explained.
The meeting also reflected on the evolution of media and communication. In a concluding statement, Rivola compared the media used in 2009 in Mendrisio with those used this year in St. Moritz, where there is a greater number of "variables"—photos, videos, social and streaming platforms, and information technology—requiring "a bit of freestyle," Rivola jokingly said. Finally, the expert also shared his experience with the young people he worked with, each with their own "micro-skills." "Basic training remains essential; you can't improvise in this profession," Rivola said, also speaking of the invaluable generational transition. "There was a lot of mutual respect between us, and I found the young people's 'interpretations' interesting, especially in the social paradigm and new technologies, such as AI. I learned new things from the young people, just as they learned from my experience. For me, it was also an experience of mentoring and knowledge transfer, which in the hyper-digital age remains very important."
