Thursday

Location: Oculus Atrium

Ben O’Connell, Director of Sport at Cardiff Metropolitan University and creator of the SportH.E podcast will host a panel conversation with:

• Sam Bell-Minogue, Director of Delivery at BUCS
• Katy Storie, Director of Sport at Newcastle University
• Kate Cox Head of Physical Activity & Sport at Sheffield Hallam University
• Jo Emmett, Head of Performance Programmes at Loughborough University

We’ll get to hear about their career journeys, the challenges they’ve faced and how they have overcome them. As well as exploring their advice and guidance for future female leaders and male allies alike.

The panel conversation will be recorded live and available to listen as a podcast on streaming platforms post-Conference.

Location: Oculus Building, main lecture theatre

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. Club administration and facilitation within the University Sport sector

Delivered by Neal Kington, National Competitions Manager at BUCS

A collaborative forum with member input around the variety of sport delivery across institutions. We will aim to provide practical insight and case studies based on the differing models that are being employed by our members.  

Target audience: If you are a Head of Sport, in a Club Development role, Students / Athletic Union Administrator, or in any way involved in the relationship between SUs / AUs and Sport Departments, then this session might interest you. 

Location: Oculus Building

2. Student participation programmes and delivering something with nothing: A university case study

Delivered by Eve Thompson, Fitness Officer and Kevin Walker, Health, Fitness & Wellbeing Officer at the University of Stirling

With budgets being squeezed, a session for sharing non-traditional ideas for getting the inactive, active. Sessions based on campus and away from any Sports Facilities, and with limited resources. 

Target audience: Any university staff directly responsible for the delivery of participation programmes that target inactive students

Location: Oculus Building

3. Senior Managers Network meeting

Agenda to be confirmed closer to the time.

Location: Oculus Building

4. Sabbatical Officer Network meeting

Chaired by Ella Williams, Activities and Opportunity Officer at Leeds University Union and BUCS Student Director

First Sabbatical Officer network meeting of the new term. Come along to network and meet your fellow SABBs, plus hear from Ella on how to get the most out of your time as a SABB.

Target audience: Sabbatical Officers, both new and re-elected officers.

Location: Oculus Building

5. Executing best practice for promoting wellness, physical activity and training for performance sport in the Higher Education sector

Delivered by Technogym

This session, curated by Technogym, will highlight the key success factors of promoting wellness journeys on campus. Featuring a 'best practice' panel from several UK universities, this panel format session will be both informative and interactive providing insights and tangible takeaways.

Target audience: Heads of Sport, Wellness and Physical Activity staff, Performance staff.

Location: Oculus Building

30 minute refreshment break.

Location: Oculus Atrium

Ali will remind us of the importance of a clear and unifying purpose in our organisations, and as a collective. She will bring valuable insights from sport in schools to give us a line of sight into the experiences of the students we will be serving in the future, and as a result will challenge us to think about what we are trying to achieve and why. 

Building on this Ali will explain why both reclaiming and re-imagining sport in education from schools, through colleges, and into higher education is both necessary and exciting. Finally, drawing on the strategy she is leading at the Youth Sport Trust, Ali will encourage us to think about our role in building belonging through our work and the importance of inspiring changemakers.

Location: Oculus Building, main lecture theatre.

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. Building a Sport System

Delivered by Cardiff Metropolitan University

Last year Cardiff Met University launched their new university strategy and sport was included as a strategic priority for the first time. Team members will present on how they are building and modelling their sport system to deliver now and for the future. By no means, ‘the’ answer, we will discuss how we have considered different questions and how we aim to build a system and model that can be operationalised by each sport.

Target audience: Heads of Sport and Sport Leads

Location: Oculus Building

2. Intramural Sport Development at a non-campus university

Delivered by Dan Matthews, BUCS National Football Development Manager

This session will explore the insight gathered through the football IMS initiatives and include a university case study into learnings around how to develop an intramural sports programme at a non-campus university.

Target audience: University staff members responsible for IMS / participation based football/futsal programmes. Anyone interested in starting or growing IMS provision at their institution.

Location: Oculus Building

3. Building a Performance Programme from scratch

Delivered by Sid Fletcher, Sports and Participation Manager - University of Huddersfield

Sid has enjoyed an extensive 25-year career to date in sport leading on 2012 Olympic Legacy funding programmes and holding senior leadership roles at Suffolk, Chichester, Essex, & Manchester Universities as well as being a TASS Delivery Site Manager at multiple institutions. Sid has been heading up the ActiveHud service at the University of Huddersfield since 2021.  

In this session Sid will draw upon his experiences in leading Competitive and Elite Sport programming across a range of institutions, and how these experiences are developing the current University of Huddersfield offer. Insights will focus on defining a performance sport offer, securing funding & resource from senior management, identifying and developing student-athlete supply chain relationship's,  and demonstrating return on investment. 

Target audience: Competition / performance practioners and leads

Location: Oculus Building

4. Competitive Excellence. Community Growth. Commercial Success. How Esports adds value to your university.

Delivered by Alex Coulsdon, Managing Director at NSE, additonal panellists to be announced

Do you know where your university ranks in the British University Esports Championship? How can esports and gaming participation at university benefit the students? How does esports help your sports department, plus your admissions, careers and other university departments? Learn more from those who are making this happen and ask any questions. No esports knowledge (or even personal interest!) required.

Target audience: Director of Sports, Activity Leads, Student Union Staff

Location: Oculus Building

5.  Beyond the Cycle: Womens Gym Experiences During Menstruation

Delivered by Gemma Hanson, Applied Sciences with Social Policy Student at University of Sheffield

In health and exercise research, women's experiences are often neglected, and most existing literature is scientific and male-centric. Therefore Gemma's dissertation aimed to bridge this gap by emphasising women's experiences at the gym. She undertook six semi-structured interviews with six students at the University of Sheffield. The overall aim was to identify ways in which we can support women and their experiences with menstruation at the university gym.

Gemma won 'Best Poster' in the dissemination of research at Sheffield Method Institute (University of Sheffield).

Target audience: Sabbatical Officers, Health & Fitness Staff & Gym Members

Location: Oculus Building

A 30 minute refreshment break.

Location: Oculus Atrium

Retired GB track and field athlete, Anika Onuora joins us for our 'In Conversation With' session, hosted by Sky Sports presenter Gail Davies.

Anyika will speak about her experience as a GB athlete, where she won Olympic, Commonwealth and European medals competing in 100m, 200m, 400m, 4 x 100m relay and 4 x 400 relay. 

Anyika is a Malaria No More UK Ambassador, having contracted the disease 10 months before qualifying for the Rio 2016 and winning a bronze medal. Since retiring from athletics, Anyika has written her own book; "My Hidden Race" and works at EY as a Senior People Consultant.

Location: Oculus Building, main lecture theatre

Closing comments 

Location: Oculus Building, main lecture theatre

The annual BUCS Awards dinner, hosted by Sky Sports presenter Gail Davies.

Location: Panorama Suite, Rootes Building

The Awards afterparty will take place at The Copper Rooms 2, in Warwick Student's Union from 10.30pm until 2.00am.