Squash will be among the attractions in March at the first ever RacquetX – a spectacular multi racket sports conference at the gigantic Miami Beach Convention Center.
RacquetX will bring together brands, leaders, experts, players and fans from tennis, pickleball, padel, squash, table tennis and many more, for what organisers are calling “a world-class festival of thought, connection, and experiential learning.”
The venue, which totals 1.4 million square feet, is set to host nine courts – four padel, three pickleball, one tennis and (unconfirmed as yet) one squash court. There will also be table tennis tables and representation from more niche pursuits such as rackets, platform tennis, pop tennis and more (badminton is a notable exception).
The conference from March 24-26, which will become an annual event, is the brainchild of events expert Robyn Duda and Argentine tech guru and entrepreneur Marco Giberti.
Duda (pictured below) told Squash Mad that squash’s shock inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Games has “further validated” the organisers’ decision to include squash in RacquetX.
She said: “Squash was always on our radar and we had a lot of interest in it. However, we’re building this thing while we’re flying it – so when the Olympic news happened, we thought, ‘Yeah – we definitely need squash!’
“It just validated that we were making the right decision and that we need to push harder for more visibility of the sport at the event.”
In Miami, businesses and consumers from across the racket sports sector will be able to network and learn from each other using a ‘Tinder-style’ app which uses AI to connect people with similar backgrounds or business objectives.
“You literally swipe left or right – it’s very addictive and intuitive,” said Duda. “It recognises the attributes as you swipe and serves you up the sort of people you’re interested in. You start to build a community in the app who have similar interests and challenges to you. We’re then able to facilitate meetings between people within those communities at the event.”
RacquetX coincides with the 2024 Miami Open tennis tournament and conference ticket holders can currently get free entry into Monday’s play. There is also an APP Pickleball tournament taking place a few halls down at the Miami Convention Center and its finals day overlaps with day one of RacquetX.
The event will be targeted at consumers and enthusiasts as much as brands and businesses. There will be exhibitions, pro players, coaches, activities, a viewing bar to watch the action and conduct meetings and presentations on everything from attracting foreign investment to using racket sports for mental health.
Historically, strategic collaboration between racket sports has been minimal, with the relationships more often characterised by tetchy rivalry. RacquetX’s intention is to foster mutual learning and capitalise on the current racket sports boom – with pickleball exploding in the US and padel in Europe (and both sports showing strong early growth outside those strongholds) and tennis profiting from a post-pandemic resurgence.
Duda explained: “As we were planning the event, I heard so much of that, ‘We don’t do that, we’re not interested, it’s not how we do things, it’s not the right time.’ But there are so many lessons out there. This industry is facing so many challenging areas and do we all have the answers within our individual sports? This is about growth and learning from each other.
“Fan engagement is a good example. Who outside of the racket sports world has mastered it and can come in to talk about that? And who has failed at it? Who can we get together to talk about how we could all do it better?”
Duda stressed that RacquetX would set a new bar for the scale and depth of its offering. There has been a need for this, in my opinion,” she said. “There have been other ‘trade shows’ but they are very niche. Nothing else ‘festivalises’ what’s happening, both on the business and consumer side, as we are going to do on such a large scale.
There is no place for the entire ecosystem, from player to maker, to come together and keep growing. The industry is experiencing explosive growth but the worst thing businesses can do is rest on their laurels and hope that it just keeps going.”