British Fencing to be the first national fencing federation to officially support Italian Fencing’s Initiative

The Italian Fencing Federation (FIS) has launched an initiative to promote our sport worldwide with a social media campaign to advertise fencing flashmobs all over the globe on 7^th September 2014.

Fencers, fencing clubs, schools who provide fencing are all encouraged to stage a flashmob in your village, town or city in a popular or well known venue.  You can then post photos and videos to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram stating your location using the hashtag #fencingmob and send them to the [email protected].  By using this hashtag the Italian Fencing Federation’s media team will collect all of the images and videos and post them to a dedicated Facebook album.

British Fencing is keen to take advantage of this generous offer of promotion and ask all clubs and coaches to consider taking part in this event.  As we have strict laws on wielding weapons in public places we suggest that you contact facilities managers at the venues of your choice to ensure that the appropriate measures are put in place to make the most of your flashmob.  We are happy to support any involvement in this campaign with a letter of confirmation regarding the event signed by our CEO.

Speaking about the initiative, Georgina Usher said; “We are honoured to be one of the first official supporters of this Italian Fencing initiative.  British Fencing is committed to being at the forefront of the use of social media to promote fencing.  The Greatest Fencing Flashmob in the World is the first of it’s kind and I look forward to seeing clubs from Great Britain featuring heavily on the day.”

Our President, Hilary Philbin added; “I am delighted that British Fencing is the first official supporter of Italian Fencing’s innovative idea.  A worldwide social media campaign is a great promotional activity for everyone from the smallest club to the largest, within British Fencing and all other national federations of the FIE.”

In response, President of Italian Fencing, Giorgio Scarso, said; “”We are delighted that British Fencing has accepted our invitation to participate in this unprecedented worldwide initiative.  It is a great opportunity to promote the sport of fencing but also and especially to launch a new way to envision the rapport between federations.  We are adversaries on the piste but off it we work very closely together to spread and promote fencing globally.  I hope that our cooperation will encourage other federations to build stronger relationships via social media.  Good luck and congratulations to British Fencing for being the first national federation to officially join Italian Fencing in what will be the greatest fencing flashmob in the world.”

To find out more about this global fencing initiative visit the official Facebook event page.  We will be providing more information and guidance soon.