Last week I attended the ISPO Leaders’ Summit and the ISPO and The International Running Expo in Amsterdam. The overriding thought was that the outdoor industry knows what many of the challenges are. The hard part is staying committed to solving them.
The opening session at the Summit set the tone. We heard that around 80% of adolescents worldwide are not meeting recommended levels of physical activity. Updated figures are due shortly, but expectations are that the picture won’t look dramatically different. It’s a bit of a sobering statistic, particularly for anyone who believes in the power of sport and the outdoors to improve lives.
As a trustee of Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership (SASP) it wasn’t news to me that there is a large group of people that we still need to get more active (side note: ‘more active’ can mean so many different things to different people but that’s a whole other blog!). While there is much that governments, governing bodies and national organisations can do, some of the most meaningful change happens much closer to home. That’s what we see through SASP’s work. Real progress comes from understanding local barriers, listening to communities and creating opportunities that genuinely work for the people they’re designed to serve.
That theme of listening came up repeatedly throughout the Summit. There was no shortage of discussion around participation, circularity, culture change and leadership. Different topics on the surface but linked by a common thread – none of them can be solved quickly.
One of the standout sessions for me was a panel discussion on leading with courage through change, which featured UEFA Vice President, Laura McAllister. She spoke with brilliant honesty, intelligence and humour on being the first female representative on the UEFA board, the realities of creating lasting change and the importance of engaging younger generations in shaping the future.
Too often we decide what people need without properly asking them. If we want more young people participating in sport, spending time outdoors and embracing active lifestyles, we need to listen more and assume less.
For years, marketing and communications have too often been viewed as functions that come into play once the strategy has been decided. We are seeing a shift in this (hurrah!) but more marketing leads need to find themselves a seat at the table in the C Suite.
The challenge facing the outdoor industry is not simply creating better products, programmes or initiatives. It’s helping more people see themselves as participants and that’s a communications challenge. It’s why marketing leaders should have a seat at that top table. Not because they create wonderful creative campaigns, but because they bring audience insight, behavioural understanding and a grounded perspective on what motivates people and what puts them off.
Too often, as an industry, we end up speaking to people who are already active, already outdoors and already engaged. If we genuinely want to expand participation, we need to spend less time talking to ourselves and more time understanding those who don’t currently see the outdoors or sport being for them.
Away from the conference sessions, there was also a noticeable optimism around the Expos themselves. The halls felt busy, the conversations positive and the outlook more ambitious than many might expect given the wider economic backdrop. The addition of the Leaders Summit felt like a really valuable evolution of the Expo, bringing together strategic discussions (with some incredible speakers) alongside the commercial opportunities that ISPO is known for.
The ISPO Impact Foundation Awards reinforced that sense of momentum. Many of the projects recognised may not make headlines far beyond our sector, but collectively they demonstrate an industry investing in participation, inclusion and environmental regeneration in practical ways.
Yes, there was some frustration at the pace of progress, but there was no sense of resignation. Instead, there was a shared determination to keep moving forward, project by project, conversation by conversation and partnership by partnership.
If there was one message I took from ISPO, it’s that meaningful change rarely happens quickly. But when passionate people are prepared to collaborate, challenge thinking and stay focused on a common goal, progress follows. If you want to discuss how we might be able to support your brand on this journey, please reach out: hello@adpr.co.uk.