Over the first week of October, the arrivals lounge of the Malta International Airport will be like the who's who hall of athletics.
Legends of the sport and world record holders like Sergei Bubka, Jonathan Edwards, Lyn Davies, Irena Szewinska and Valery Borsov will all be on their way to Malta where they will take part in the EAA's five-day European Calendar Conference.
"The Calendar Conference is the marketing part," explained MAAA president Anthony Chircop. "You will have the organisers of all important athletics meetings such as the gran prix, Golden Gala, European Cup and indoor championships who will be promoting their events among the officials of the European Athletic Associations."
The conference itself might not be important for those who aren't organising an international event but, as Chircop is at pains to stress, "it is important to European athletics in general."
Then again, there is also the "Presidents Workshop which is always important as this is where the future policies are presented, discussed and debated. Some meetings are important for some delegates but not for others. For example, we do not attend the Baltic or Northern Group meetings as these are not for us. But we attend the GSSE and Presidents Meeting."
The vote as to where this year's conference was to be held was taken two years ago when Malta beat Warsaw and Kiev in the hosting bid.
"I believe that the delegates wanted to come to Malta having heard how ideal our country is as a tourist destination," Chircop said.
This does not mean that the organisation of such an event is taken lightly.
"Let me assure you that the EAA are very strict on quality and their corporate image," Chircop added. "We had to provide detailed plans and proposals, apart from a budget, before our application was accepted and passed to the bid stage."
An added bonus for the Malta conference is that it will see the announcement of the European Athlete of the Year.
"During the conference the EAA will announce and introduce to those present the European Athletes of the Year 2007. Not only that, this year for the first time the EAA will also be announcing the Rising Star winners. These are the Under 23 Athletes of the Year 2007. This is a new award which is being introduced for the first time during that same award night."
As a side benefit, during the conference the MAAA will be looking to promote an international meet it plans to hold next May.
"We have already started talks with other associations and know that there are a few who are interested in sending athletes here," Chircop said about what would undoubtedly be an important step forward for local athletics.
"We hope that in the not too distant future we will be controlling the track facilities. So we are determined to bid for the hosting of the European Cup (second division) in Malta in June 2009."
Such projects indicate that having spent the past weeks working on this conference, has not distracted Chircop and the rest of the MAAA committee from planning the national association's future.
Chircop said: "Our plans focus around our objective to continue to improve the standard of our sport. The first thing that we will be doing is to give a meaning to the formation of three national teams: the senior, junior and youth squads.
"We also believe that we should streng-then the national team's image. In fact, we are about to change our brand name and image to Athletics Malta: a catchier word than having to say Malta Amateur Athletic Association.
"We know that we also need to strengthen our public relations and marketing department and this is an area that we are working on. Already, I believe that we made a very good decision when we decided to start issuing an electronic newsletter last month."