The IACS congress gathers more than 120 international researchers in communication and sport.

Barcelona and the UAB have been the chosen setting for the association's first conference outside North American territory.

A total number of 127 researchers from 19 countries have participated in person in the first conference of the International Association of Sport Communication (IACS) outside North American territory. A total of 29 sessions and 110 communications and 5 debate panels around communication and sport. The contributions have brought a multidisciplinary view to research in this area. The results of research on the history of sports communication, the perspective of gender, ethnicity and national identity and mental health in sports content, the production of informative content, the management of social media or crisis communication, the management and education of sports agents or the role of fans in the production of content have been presented. Contributions have also covered topics such as biometric aspects in the analysis of sports media consumption or educational experiences in communication and sport.

The opening session of the conference took place at Casa Convalescència and included the interventions of the members of the organizing committee Emilio Fernández Peña, director of the UAB Sports Research Institute, Andrew C. Billings, Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at the University of Alabama, and Karen Hartman, executive director of the International Association of Sport Communication (IACS). Attendees learned and exchanged opinions from the representatives of two international sports organisations, Robert Roxburgh, deputy director of communication of the International Olympic Committee and Txemi Terés, director of corporate communication of FC Barcelona.

The IACS Summit is the only conference aimed at communication researchers interested in exploring sport from a critical, methodological, theoretical and multidisciplinary perspective, which has become a benchmark in the United States. The conference is promoted by IACS, an international association dedicated to the practice, training and study of sport as a communicative phenomenon.

The UAB has a long history in communication and sports studies, in particular the aspects linked to communication and the Olympic Games. The UAB Sports Research Institute brings together research staff from the UAB who work on aspects related to communication and Sport from a multidisciplinary perspective: genre, fiction, social networks, sponsorship, marketing, branding, etc.