Facilities and Operations Forum 2025

For those who are interested, Southampton Sport will be hosting a tour of the newly opened Jubilee Sport and Recreation Centre.

The tour is optional and there will be a chance to register before the event.

Location: Foyer, Murray Building 

Location: Foyer, Murray Building 

Place Partnership working for a more active community

This session will explore Sport England’s £250m investment in 80 locations across the UK to tackle inactivity through a place-based approach. It will highlight how this strategy is transforming engagement and partnership working in Southampton and Portsmouth. Additionally, the session will discuss opportunities for universities to get involved in this initiative within their local areas.

Location: Lecture Theatre, Murray Building

Workshop 1: The Digital Game Plan: 10 Steps to Streamline University Sports

This workshop will focus on the 10 reasons for universities and colleges to go digital with operations and how this will change the way you operate to become more resource efficient. 

Craig Campbell | Chief Explanation Officer | OpsPal

Location: Breakout room 1, Murray Building

Workshop 2: Life after rubber crumb: A deep dive into alternative infill options

This seminar explores environmentally sustainable alternatives to traditional rubber crumb for sports pitches. SIS Pitches discusses various infill options, including wood particles, cork, coconut, and olive pits, with expert insight into how these alternative infills have impacted the performance and usage of their sports surfaces.

Additionally, SIS Pitches highlights the use of non-infill synthetic turf systems, dry hockey turf systems, and biopolymer turf yarn innovations as a sustainable alternative to existing surfaces.

Joe Shaw | Commercial Director | SIS Pitches

Location: Breakout room 2, Murray Building

Navigating the Commercial Landscape of Sport in Higher Education: Balancing Financial Sustainability and Student Experience

In an increasingly complex and competitive environment, many universities are under more pressure than ever before to drive commercial growth whilst balancing the student experience. This session will share insights from the University of Nottingham, highlighting challenges faced, successes, and future opportunities.

Location: Lecture Theatre, Murray Building

These are member led facilitated sessions, providing an opportunity for delegates to lead on discussions. Delegates will be asked to select which network session they wish to attend prior to the forum and provide areas to discuss within the relevant themed network selected. Each session will be facilitated by a member of BUCS staff.

Session 1: Commercialisation of sport within higher education

This facilitated session will provide members with an opportunity to discuss how other institutions are balancing student needs with the need to commercialise the sporting offer.

Facilitated by Phil Steele, University of East Anglia

Location: Breakout room 1, Murray Building

Session 2: Environmental Sustainability

This session will showcase examples of best practices in how members are championing environmental sustainability within the provision of sport and physical activity at their institutions. Members will also have the opportunity to share and discuss broader initiatives that could provide valuable insights for the higher education sector.

Location: Breakout room 2, Murray Building

Session 3: Stakeholder Engagement and Accountability

This session will focus on how members can effectively work together through stakeholder engagement. Facilitated by University of Southampton staff, examples will be given on what they are doing within this area focusing on collaboration linked to their sport pass intregration. 

Facilitated by Chloe Lamming, University of Southampton

Location: Breakout room 3, Murray Building

A chance to use the new facilities at the Jubilee Sport and Recreation Centre.

Clip 'n' Climb session: 6:00 - 6:30pm

Location: Jubilee Sport and Recreation Centre

Dinner is included in the cost of a delegate ticket.

Location: Staff Social Centre, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton

A chance to use the new facilities at the Jubilee Sport and Recreation Centre.

Additional organised activities TBC.

Location: Jubilee Sport and Recreation Centre

From Groundbreaking to Grand Opening: The Jubilee Sport & Recreation Centre Story

This talk will take you through the journey of the Jubilee Sport & Recreation Centre, from concept to completion. You'll hear how collaboration with students, staff, and the local community shaped its design and ensured it met diverse needs. Key milestones, including planning approval, demolition, and the groundbreaking ceremony, will be highlighted, along with the challenges faced - such as supply chain disruptions and stakeholder concerns - and how they were overcome. Finally, we'll celebrate the centre’s completion and grand opening, marking a new era for sport and recreation at the university.

Location: Lecture Theatre, Murray Building

Workshop 1: The Build Journey: 7 Months of Operational Insights

Following the keynote presentation, join Phil and Matt as they discuss the physical opening of the Jubilee Sport & Recreation Centre. What they expected versus what actually happened - along with their key learnings and operational insights from opening onwards.

Phil Malastesta | Head of Sport & Community Services | University of Southampton

Matthew Plant | Head of Sport & Wellbeing | University of Southampton

Location: Breakout room 1, Murray Building

Workshop 2: Innovative technological solutions to enhance the customer journey

By leveraging Technogym’s cutting-edge fitness technology, the University of Southampton have been able to create personalised experiences, streamline member engagement, and offer seamless, data-driven insights. 

This presentation will cover how Technogym’s technology deliverables has empowered Southampton to elevate customer satisfaction, optimise user experience, and foster long-term loyalty.

Helen Stone | Activities and Programme Manager | University of Southampton

Conrad Betton | Sales Director | Technogym

Location: Breakout room 2, Murray Building

Location: Foyer, Murray Building  

These are member led facilitated sessions, providing an opportunity for delegates to lead on discussions. Delegates will be asked to select which network session they wish to attend prior to the forum and provide areas to discuss within the relevant themed network selected. Each session will be facilitated by a member of BUCS staff.

Session 1: Leisure Management Systems (closed session - open to BUCS members only)

An opportunity for members to discuss key learnings and challenges currently faced with their LMS system. Members will be able to get a better understanding of other systems, learn from what is working well and discuss future plans across the sector. 

Location: Breakout room 1, Murray Building

Session 2: Health and safety policies: Challenges and good practice

This network will be based on discussions linked to current health and safety policies - focusing on any challenges being faced and highlighting examples of good practice

Location: Breakout room 2, Murray Building

Session 3: Outdoor Facility Management: Challenges and learnings

An open discussion on the key challenges that are currently facing those staff responsible for the management of outdoor facility space (e.g. seasonal maintenance, safety standards, coordination with user groups etc), as well as looking at new opportunities available to outdoor spaces and local infrastructure (e.g. watersport, beaches, parks etc)

Location: Breakout room 3, Murray Building

Workshop 1: Student View: The power of working for Southampton Sport

Join Merlo, a current Adult and Child Nursing student at the University of Southampton, as she shares her experience of balancing studies, placements, and work at Southampton Sport.

Merlo embraces the challenges of juggling multiple commitments and wouldn’t have it any other way. She will be joined by Paul Linkins, Southampton Sport’s Operations Manager, to discuss the benefits - and some of the challenges - of working in sport and leisure alongside university studies.

Merlo Jewell | Final Year Student at UoS studying MSc Adult and Child Nursing | University of Southampton

Paul Linkins | Sport Operations Manager | University of Southampton

Location: Breakout room 1, Murray Building

Workshop 2: Using Software to manage physical and mental health programmes

Software providers can support Universities in proving the value of physical activity across campus life by measuring participation and effectiveness of physical activity programmes. Whether through in-house modules or integrations with niche software solutions, leisure management providers such as Legend by Xplor can help manage programmes and evidence their impact across the University.

At the end of this session, you should have some ideas of how to run programmes which could demonstrate how effective sport and physical activity can be in improving physical and mental health outcomes.

David Reid | Business Development Manager | Legend

Location: Breakout room 2, Murray Building

Beyond Blame: The Competitive Edge of Psychological Safety in Sport Facilities

In high-performing teams, mistakes aren’t punished—they’re opportunities to learn and improve. This session explores the power of psychological safety, a concept developed by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, and its critical role in workplace excellence.

We’ll break down how psychological safety works at the team level, why inclusion safety is a necessary foundation, and how individual identity shapes a person’s experience within a group. We’ll explore what BUCS is doing in this space and cover practical strategies to create a culture where employees feel safe to speak up, take risks, and innovate—leading to stronger teams and better student experiences.

Discover how embracing mistakes can create a winning environment in higher education sport facilities and operations.

Location: Lecture Theatre, Murray Building