11 Nov 2026
Aspire Academy brought colleagues together on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, for the second edition of its employee forum, Aspire Inspire II, held at the Olympia Auditorium Hall, FPC. This year’s theme was “Innovation in Every Experience.”
This year’s forum theme formed part of the celebrations of Aspire Academy’s contribution to Aspire Zone Foundation receiving the Leadership in Institutional Transformation Award at the Qatar Government Excellence Award, recognising the teams, achievements and innovations behind this milestone.
The opening remarks from the Academy’s Director General, Ivan Bravo, urged all staff to embrace new ideas, no matter how small or big, as they all have the potential to have an impact.
He also highlighted how quickly technology is evolving and the importance of staying current while ensuring there is still a human element to all that we do, so our work remains relevant to our key goals.
"We're not going to simply be musicians anymore; instead, we will be directors of an orchestra, who are capable of guiding each of the musicians on how to navigate, how to perform," he said.
"How we use the tools available to us will dictate whether our outcome is a positive one or one that innovates and helps or not."
"We must not lose the ability to be creative thinkers, the ability to connect with people, the way you do in daily conversations, the way you pause and reflect before you do things."
"Please think of innovation as something that will empower us to continue to help the boys succeed, to represent Qatar at the highest level, and to connect on a human level."
Another key point in the Director General’s remarks was that for real innovation to be effective, our use of technology needs to be relevant to its users.
"Figure out the premise, figure out the goal, and then ask the right questions. And then all this computational machine can do the heavy lifting for us," he urged.
"We must spend the time to understand whether it serves a purpose, a goal, and whether it's easy to read, to understand, to relate to somebody."
"Sometimes innovation is also being able or willing to say no to something, so we're not distracted with a million things that people can't even read, or it's just too heavy."
After Mr Bravo’s address, representatives from various teams across Aspire Academy had the opportunity to highlight key recent innovations, the people behind them, and the impact they have had.
Football Performance Coordinator, Daniele Bonano, presented on behalf of the Football Performance and Science Department; Academic Excellence Lead, Khalid Yassin, represented the Education and Student Affairs Department; Sara Mohamed T A AlHamadi from the Human Resources Department spoke on behalf of Corporate Services; and the Sports Department prepared a video for attendees.
The forum also featured a question-and-answer session with a panel from the different departments and looked ahead to the next chapter of employee-led innovation across Aspire Academy, reinforcing its journey of institutional excellence.
The first Aspire Inspire Forum was held in November 2024 as part of Aspire Academy's 20th-anniversary celebrations.
Now a regular event, the forum aims to strengthen collaboration, recognise departmental achievements, and encourage knowledge exchange among employees.