2024 - the year for making data connections
The movement of relevant and up-to-date information, within a joined up digital network of organisations, is critical to finding the step change our industry has been seeking for so long. Better, faster decisions and unlocking of additional funding and revenue streams.
For sport bodies, making meaningful connections with tiers of government, commercial sponsors and wider stakeholders is vital to getting the right offer, into the right place, at the right time to grow club-level participation and membership.
For recreation operators and providers, connecting both on the local government client-side and also on the supplier side (relevant infrastructure, delivery programs, retail etc.) is critical to sustainability, as margins continue to be squeezed.
For local government, it’s about accountability, accountability, accountability – and finding cost savings! Being able to connect with those providers who offer best value when it comes to activating priority communities (facilities, spaces and places). Evidencing need and then impact with accurate, consistent and credible information, which is quick, easy and low cost to access.
We all need to make connections. Yet, to-date, a large number of organisations have possessed, but failed to unlock, the real value of their number one connection-making asset – their data. And alongside data on participation, contextual data drawn down ‘from above’, which can supplement, transform and supercharge participation data. Data when transformed into this meaningful intelligence can raise awareness, spark conversations and influence decisions.
And it’s 2024, so this intelligence doesn’t solely need to sit on a shelf within an annual plan or strategy, or on a set of Powerpoint slides – it can do the running for you across a connected digital network. Your data can remotely open doors, redirect budgets and unlock additional funding and key decisions. All without you lifting a pen, joining a Zoom call, or writing a 100-page feasibility study or grant application.
Through 2024 the world’s eyes will be on the Paris Olympics, then they will quickly shift to asking questions about legacy, value for money, and the population’s physical activity and health, and how easily it is for ALL types of people to access relevant physical activity opportunities. They will ask about when a step change will eventually come, or will we continue to collectively drift with preventative health issues on the continual rise.
Strategic + Commercial connections
So what’s needed to make connections, especially in the B2B space:
- Common objectives (recognising shared needs, outcomes and impacts)
- Common audiences
- Common timing
- Common principles on ‘how things should be done’
Data can provide a clear narrative for points 1-3, and even point 4 when it comes to evidencing what’s working, what’s not, and therefore what should come next. And data structured in the right way can help the most relevant and impactful connections filter to the top. Match-making between planners, funders and delivery organisations made easy!
There are two main types of connections that we believe need to be achieved:
- Strategic connections can be seen as enablers, both financial and non-financial. In this industry it’s often tiers of government, who provide and maintain the infrastructure required to achieve the objectives of sport and recreation (the common objective being more people active and healthy). Local government also maintains many broader responsibilities across departments which may not have traditionally viewed community sport and physical activity as being relevant to them. However, with more holistic approaches to addressing societal challenges becoming the norm across the public sector, departments such as Public Health, Environment, Highways & Transport, Community Safety, Community Development, and Economic Development are all growing into key strategic partners for those focused on helping communities to live well through being active. There are other strategic enablers within the ‘system’, such as local health partners who are increasingly seeing physical activity as a means to prevent ill-health, as well as a non-medicalised and sustainable part of the treatment of ill-health. Local and regional strategic leadership organisations, such as Active Partnerships in England and RSTs in NZ, provide much of the impetus to drive collaboration in order to address inequalities. In addition, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector often provides the places and spaces to be active, as well as the human capacity required to inspire, engage and animate the communities they serve.
- Commercial connections within community sport and recreation have never been fully realised – or even come close! This is unlike professional sports and events, where there are clear data models and platforms for valuing digital assets and connecting brand sponsors to fans in secure and controlled ways. Yet when it comes to passion and sentiment, the lifeblood of commercial sponsorship, this is often greatest within those who participate in sport and recreation, and their own activity journeys, health outcomes and personal or team successes. Yet to date community participation, despite it being data rich and therefore having significant inherent value, has been digitally disconnected and inaccessible to those who wish to partner. Even retail has sat largely outside of the participation ‘bubble’ i.e. between those with the data (sport and recreation) and retailers such as JD Sport (UK), Rebel Sport (Australia), or Sport Chek (Canada). Knowing someone has just joined a gym, about to start swim lessons, or will be lining up for pre-season football training next week, has significant value to these commercial partners, value that could be shared back into sport and recreation – but there remains a digital disconnect. This has meant significant additional revenue streams, revenue that can fund new participation opportunities, and make organisations less reliant on public support, has never really been achieved.
Facilitating strategic and commercial connections at ActiveXchange
For Sports and Recreation, your data already powers a dedicated ActiveXchange data intelligence platform, which helps you to focus your own resources on priority areas, and related enabling partnerships. This level of focus saves your team time and cost. Right offer, right place, right time to get and keep your communities active.
Key elements of this data intelligence also feed into local government platform accounts, bringing planners and commissioners closer to those that administer and deliver. Singing off the same up to date ‘hymn sheet’ means the right organisation is at the right table, at the right time.
Transforming data into Social Value and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) metrics (ActiveXchange’s new Community Reach module goes live next month), helps evidence you current and potential impact, and again has the ability for these community metrics to automatically feed into local government partner accounts, enhancing the strength, success and longevity of partnerships.
In terms of commercial, through 2024 we will be running pilots in several of our regions to support Sports and Recreation to leverage their data, and to better connect with new types of partners and sponsors. In an Olympic year this has the potential to unlock significant new revenue streams in a secure and transparent way, enabling relevant brands to better directly influence and support the growth of active communities (through partnerships with data owners – the Sport and Recreation organisation). The aim is to give visibility on the potential of Sport and Recreations’ current digital assets and communities, enabling relevant connections to form. Connections that will ultimately help add value to existing memberships and open up and sustain participation opportunities for all types of residents.
ActiveXchange
Making the data driven connections behind our active, healthy and thriving communities.
ActiveXchange is focused on supporting our customers to realise the following:
- The power of a network in harnessing collective data intelligence;
- The power of a network in the movement of data intelligence to align decisions and support collaboration.
ActiveXchange is a multi-award winning data intelligence company with offices in the UK, Australia and North America, that partners with a global network of organisations to provide the sports, recreation and physical activity ecosystem, including central and local government, with unprecedented access to information to make more informed planning, funding and operational decisions. Through our suite of data intelligence products and community partnerships we are helping millions of people to live more active and healthy lives, and with this achieve social and commercial returns for our customers.
High impact data intelligence (including the application of AI) needs up to date and relevant data, data that is often fragmented and locked in silos. ActiveXchange creates these cross-community data connections, from both within and above, providing the tools and partnerships to enable and encourage this data movement. ActiveXchange then provides the platform that informs and connects those that plan, invest and operate, linking these communities into a global data intelligence network.
This creates more data driven, active, healthy and connected local communities.
Globally.
