Things Are About To Get Innovative
Next week kicks off a festival of Innovation as the Beyond Sport Summit & Awards welcomes to London some of the most inventive, inspirational and influentual organisations, teams, leagues, brands, speakers and delegates from across the world to explore how tech and innovation can be used to push the boundaries in the sport for social change arena.
Hosted at Here East at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 18- 20th October, guests will enjoy three days of creative insight, out of the box thinking and original content.
Day one kicks off with Beyond Boundaries, presented by Jaguar Land Rover, exploring how innovation and technology in sport is driving access, awareness and employability for those with disabilities. Vicki Austin from London Legacy Development Corporation, Lindsay Games from Sport England, Freya Levy, a GB U23 Wheelchair Basketballer and Invictus Competitors JJ Chalmers, Greg Prout, Luke Darlington will join other experts in this space to showcase the latest developments in disability sport, highlighting best practice and attempting to map out the next steps to ensure all sports are accessible for all to enjoy.
The second day presents Sport Start-Ups in partnership with London Sport, an interactiv morning profiling an exciteing selection of start-up organisation in the sports sector. The session will give an insight into the fast-moving area of the vibrant London start-up scene with live pitches, panels and demos.
The afternoon will give delegates a chance to experience and visit on-the-ground programmes around London that are using sport and technology in innovative ways to address social and economic issues across the community. Visits will have delegates testing out Fulham FC Foundation’s new fitness campaign, fanActive, where other delegates will visit the Chigwell Riding Trust to learn how technology and horse riding are further advancing therapeutic development for those with disabilities.
The day will conclude with a celebration of 42 official Shortlisted organisations and announcement of the Beyond Sport Awards winners, supported by Comic Relief. With this year being no exception, we were amazed by the number and quality entries, with over 250 entries from across 50 countries, we are proud to promote, support and reward all the Shortlisted organisations’ stand out work.
In particular, we are excited to be awarding a new award this year, Best New Innovation Beyond Sport Award that reflects the theme of this year - #BeyondInnovation. The Award celebrates a new organisation, or an existing one, that has developed a specific innovation or innovative programming that has produced sustainable change.
The final day of the Summit will see the debut of the Innovation Hub at the Beyond Sport Summit, which will have attendees engaging across different zones – each zone provides stimulating and exciting sessions on sport, technology and social cause. Areas include: the Soapbox, Generation Gateway, Winners Corner, On Pitch, Inventive Programming, Fundraising Row and Creative Measurement and will be led organisations such as The Change Foundation, Women Win, Makerble and City Foundation.
Additionally, at specially scheduled times throughout the day, industry experts will be taking the Soapbox Stage at the centre of the Hub to host inspirational talks and debates. This will include the likes of Clair Cockerton, Chairwomen of ENTIQ, James Barclay from Panasonic Jaguar Racing and Simon Green, Head of BT Sport. And Khalida Popal, former captain of the Afghan’s Women National Football Team and founder of Girl Power Organization and Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon to discussing policy and diplomacy, and personal experiences with sport in the Middle East.
To find out more about the Beyond Sport Summit or to attend the Innovation Hub click here.