Sports Summit Madrid will take place on June 17 and 18 at IFEMA Madrid, with the support of the Community of Madrid and the Madrid City Council.
Madrid — The Community of Madrid’s stand at FITUR hosted the official presentation of Sports Summit Madrid 2026, organized in partnership with MADCUP. The event was the perfect place to once again highlight the city of Madrid and the Community of Madrid as a strategic and benchmark location for hosting major sporting events.
The presentation was moderated by Pablo Parra, journalist at MARCA, and featured speeches by Luis Martín Izquierdo, Deputy Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport of the Community of Madrid; María Benzal, Commercial and Institutional Relations Director of MADCUP; Pepe Ortiz, CEO of MADCUP and Sports Summit Madrid; Alberto Tomé, Director General of Sports of the Community of Madrid; Santiago Amaro, Director General of Youth and Sports of the Regional Government of Extremadura; Sonia Cea, Councillor and Delegate Head of the Sports Department of the Madrid City Council; and Enrique Sánchez, Director General of Sports of Castilla y León.
Pepe Ortiz, CEO of MADCUP and Sports Summit Madrid, presented the evolution and outlook of SSM, a project with a solid growth backed by the excellent results achieved in the 2025 edition. That edition brought together 306 brands, 140 exhibitors and more than 8,000 visitors over two intense days, confirming strong sector interest and the need for professional forums of this nature.
The next edition of SSM will be held on June 17 and 18 in Hall 5 at IFEMA Madrid and is already showing highly significant figures several months ahead of the event. Currently, more than 50 of the exhibition space has been booked, with over 1,500 square meters already confirmed. Meanwhile, the conference program -structured across three auditoriums of varying capacities- has reached 70 occupancy, reflecting strong interest and the robustness of the content program. Its international reach is also noteworthy, with more than 30 of participating companies coming from foreign markets.
The SSM content program will be structured around strategic cross-cutting themes, including sports tourism as a driver of territorial development and international attraction; fitness, health and wellness as investments in quality of life; artificial intelligence and technology applied to sport as vectors of innovation and performance enhancement; physical activity, infrastructure and equipment as tools for social transformation; the role of federations and clubs as the backbone of the sports ecosystem; and investment, financing and sports rights, which are essential for the professionalization and sustainability of the sector.
In this context, SSM strengthens its experiential offering through strategic partnerships with leading organizations, including Hexagon Cup, a flagship project in professional padel; FNEID National Federation of Sports Facilities Entrepreneurs; FEMP Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces; and Sport Life Ibérica, thereby expanding its institutional, business and media reach.
SSM will also host the regional finals of STEM Racing, the world’s largest STEM competition supported by Formula 1, which aims to bring together 300 teams with international participation and more than 1,000 students, following the more than 600 participants recorded in 2025.
The event concluded with an institutional roundtable featuring Alberto Tomé, Director General of Sports of the Community of Madrid; Santiago Amaro, Director General of Youth and Sports of the Regional Government of Extremadura; Sonia Cea, Councillor and Delegate Head of the Sports Department of the Madrid City Council; and Enrique Sánchez, Director General of Sports of Castilla y León.
During the discussion, participants agreed on the importance of events of this kind as spaces for networking, recognition and impact generation for Spain’s autonomous communities. Sonia Cea highlighted the Madrid City Council’s support for the growth of these initiatives and noted that MADCUP’s success is the result of the rigorous and sustained work of its entire team, consolidating it as a successful model aligned with the values of sport and beneficial to the city of Madrid. Alberto Tomé, for his part, emphasized the role of sport as a true school of life and pointed to the MADCUP and SSM projects as examples of institutional collaboration and synergy between public administrations and the private sector.
Finally, Santiago Amaro, together with Enrique Sánchez, Director General of Sports of Castilla y León, underscored the relevance of these forums for other autonomous communities as ideal platforms for visibility, knowledge exchange and the search for shared solutions, contributing to the strengthening of the sports ecosystem and projecting a unified vision that reinforces Spain’s position as a benchmark country in the field of sport.
The event held at FITUR once again highlighted the commitment of institutions and organizers to the development of sport as a social, economic and territorial driver, consolidating Madrid as a meeting point for the sport of today and the future.
More information: www.sportssummitmadrid.com
