I arrived tonight in Vancouver, B.C., for the FIFA/CONCACAF Conference on the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany 2011. After looking through my brochure, I’m excited to see that many coaches, instructors and staff from FIFA projects I’ve worked on previously, and many of my fellow Americans, will be here.

The quote in our schedule from President Sepp Blatter states:

This conference will be a fantastic opportunity to bring the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 to the member associations of the CONCACAF region. The programme will analyse the performance of the participating teams and more specifically the CONCACAF ones. It will also provide a great platform for discussing the future of women’s football in the region at member association level.

After peeking my head into the Grand Ballroom earlier today to see the incredible set-up, I’m really looking forward to an inspiring weekend. I’ll do my best to post updates here on my blog, but Twitter will be real-time so follow me there if you’d like. (Fair warning: I’m not sure how much I’ll actually be able to tweet given the nature of the conference, but I’ll do my best. I’m also hoping I’ll still get the hotel Wi-Fi over there.)

Follow @vandey01

Here’s tomorrow’s schedule, Thursday, January 26, 2012:

9:00am Opening Ceremony
– Chuck Blazer (CONCACAF)
– Jill Fracisco (CONCACAF)
– Dominique Maestracci (CSA)
– Annette Wildgoose (Sport Canada)

10:00am Introduction
– Thierry Regenass (FIFA)

10:15am Review of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011
– April Heinrichs (USA)
– Vera Pauw (Netherlands)
– Anne Noe (Belgium)
– Sylvie Beliveau (Canada)

1:00pm The World Champions
– Eji Ueda (Japan)
– Hiroyuki Horino (Japan)

4:00pm Analysis of Physical Condition at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011
– Michel Ritschard (Switzerland)

4:45pm Injuries and Injury Prevention / F-MARC studies
– Cathy Campbell (Canada)

Evening
Official Dinner