More than 130 representatives from sports across Australia gathered in Sydney for the Australian Sports Commission’s fourth annual Participation Leaders Network (PLN) Conference.
Play Well, Australia’s Sport Participation Strategy, took centre stage at the event held last week, with national sporting organisations (NSOs) and national sporting organisations for people with disability (NSODs) keen to discuss how to embed the strategy into their day-to-day operations.
The conference’s six sessions all took their themes from Play Well. Futurist and former Australian cricketer Reanna Browne offered a compelling and practical keynote which challenged leaders to consider immediate actions that can be taken to improve the future of their organisations.
Conference attendees also heard insights from the first participants of the peer-to-peer PLN Executive Coaching Program and received progress updates on Play Well projects underway to ensure that everyone has a place in sport.
ASC Executive General Manager Sport and Community Capability Richard McInnes said the conference demonstrated how the sector is working together to create a more active Australia.
“Our participation leaders are essential to bringing Play Well to life and taking the strategy from paper to the playing fields,” he said.
“After spending a couple of days learning and collaborating, you can feel the energy and enthusiasm the network has for action in this space. They understand that having more people involved in sport and physical activity benefits the entire community.”
Disability Sports Australia CEO and PLN Executive Coaching Program participant Ayden Shaw highlighted how the network and conference has raised the collective awareness of the importance of sport participation.
“Thanks to the ASC and the work of so many in this space, participation is being recognised as being just as important and essential to the sport system as high performance,” he said.
“As we said at the conference – participation isn’t at the bottom of the funnel. It’s the whole funnel.”
