Steve Madincea, founder of public relations and sports marketing group Prism, urged prospective host cities to act in the same way as a brand name would by "constantly evolving their image" and also recommended partnering with companies to help achieve local ambitions.

He stressed the need for hosts to put into place a crisis management plan and said they should work alongside sponsors to achieve a united message in the event of a potentially damaging incident regarding the partner or an international federation.

The session was held in response to various scandals which have affected sport in recent years, including doping and corruption.

Edmonton Events’ Janelle Janis presented a case study which assessed their response to the FIFA corruption scandal, as well as the controversy over artificial turf, in the build-up to hosting matches at last year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada.

She suggested that the vocal response of Canada Soccer had allowed the host cities to distance themselves from the fall-out of the FIFA scandal, but argued further due diligence would likely be taken in future before bidding for similar events.

Janis asserted that despite the international controversy, which briefly took the focus away from Canada’s hosting of the tournament, fans were able to separate the scandal away from the action on the pitch.

As a consequence, Janis claimed the city’s image was not affected and highlighted the value of staging major events by claiming financial targets had been surpassed by 46 per cent, alongside record attendance figures.

A further case study, presented by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs’ Nicolas Bideau, aimed to highlight the benefit of using sporting events to alter the image of a city or country.

He said Switzerland House, which has been present at recent Olympic Games, has helped shape the idea that the country is "welcoming, youthful and high tech".

Following an update from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on their Agenda 2020 reform process, a presentation was given on the Global Active City Development project.

The programme, which is currently undergoing a pilot project in seven cities, provides initial analysis to assess strengths and weaknesses while encouraging cities to share best practice.