Tuesday

Conference registration will take place in Oculus Atrium with a network lunch available for delegates on arrival.

Location: Oculus Atrium, Oculus Building

Official conference opening including a welcome address from Will Roberts, incoming Chief Executive Officer at BUCS

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus Building

A University of Warwick alumni, Lisa will touch on the memorable moments of her career so far, including her CEO roles at Volleyball England,  British Basketball and her current role at Sport and Recreation Alliance. She will also highlight her journey into international sport, such as her role as Technical Director at the International Volleyball Federation, despite not having any prior knowledge or experience as a Technical Director. Lisa will also touch her on experiences as a LGBT+ figure in sport.

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus building

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. Innovative access contol solutions to improve usage data control

Delivered by Anthony Davies and David Reid, Business Development Managers at Legend

How confident are you that your usage data is collecting participation rates across all your facilities and user groups? Legend will introduce the Smart Tile solution with examples of how we have worked with other universities to create an innovative solution to fill in the gaps in usage data.

Target audience: Anyone with an involvement with leisure management systems, access control, monitoring participation rates or data analysts.

Location: Oculus Building

2. Driving positive culture change

Delivered by Matthew Tansley, Director of Sport and Physical Wellbeing at University of Gloucestershire

A safe space to network and continue the discussion from last year's Conference on how to drive positive culture change and deal with negative behaviour. The session will include update on the outcomes of the work done in this area, and hear from individuals who are willing to share their experiences in dealing with this.  

Target audience: Open to all, but would benefit Institution Administrators

Location: Oculus Building

3. Building a health and wellbeing programme: Lessons learned and impact made - A university case study

Delivered by Laura Edwards, Performance, Workforce and Wellness Manager at King's College London

This session will look at King's College London's initiatives for students that are focused on improving health and wellbeing levels through engagement, education and empowerment. 

Target audience: Sport Development teams, Health and Wellbeing teams, Fitness Leads

Location: Oculus Building

4. The future of BUCS Play and Competition Management

Delivered by Josh Hegarty, Chief Commercial Officer at Playwaze

This session will explain the current projects being undertaken by BUCS and Playwaze to improve the BUCS Play competition management system for students and institution administrators.  

It will summarise the work done to audit the platform during the 2023/24 season, explain the main challenges faced, and the measures being undertaken to improve the system for all users. 

Target audience: IAs and any university staff who use the BUCS Play platform 

Location: Oculus Building

5. Safeguarding in Physical Activity and Sport. How to manage a safeguarding disclosure

Delivered by Kate Peckham, Senior Partnership Manager and (TBC) Safeguarding Lead at UK Coaching 

In this breakout we will discuss ‘What is your Duty to Care for your students?’ We will explore scenarios of managing a safeguarding concern and discuss how to positively develop and improve Coach behaviours.

Target Audience: Workforce leads, DOS, Head Coaches, Club Captains, programme managers

Location: Oculus Building

A 30 minute refreshment break

Location: Oculus Atrium

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. BUCS Competition Landscape Review

Delivered by Neal Kington, BUCS National Competition Manager

Based around the BUCS Competition Landscape Review published to the membership in May, and completed throughout June, the BUCS Competitions and Performance Team will present on all findings and key themes highlighted within that review.

The membership will then be guided through our expected ext steps for the BUCS League and Knockout programme alongside a number of case studies from institutions around none traditional BUCS activity that is currently taking place across the sector.  

Target audience: If you are a Institution Administrator (IA), Sport and Fixtures Coordinator, Sport Development Manager, or anyone involved in delivering your weekly BUCS League and Knockout programmes, then this session might interest you. 

Location: Oculus Building

2. How to use sport to build communities and create a sense of belonging: A university case study

Delivered by Hilary Lissenden, Assistant Chief Operating Officer at Sport & Active Campus, University of East London

This session will look at how University of East London has worked with internal departments to inform their programmes to attract 'non sporty' students and how they demonstrate the impact of sport and physical activity programmes to support wider strategic objectives.

Target audience: Sport Development teams, Community and Engagement roles, Health and Wellbeing teams

Location: Oculus Building

3. York Sport Union Challenge Week: Supporting clubs to self-fund

Delivered by Zac Sheppard, Opportunities Manager and Tanisha Jain, Sports Officer at University of York Student's Union

University of York Student's Union will showcase Challenge Week, where they worked with sport union clubs to fundraise over £40,000. By collaborating with the university's alumni office and encouraging creative activities, they were able to attract over 500 donors, supporting clubs to fundraise to achieve their goals rather than relying on grant funding

Target audience: Staff and sabbatical officers working with student sport clubs

Location: Oculus Building

4. Maximising impact of performance monitoring in a university

Delivered by Sam Boyes, Business Development Manager at Catapult

A closer look at how a University has implemented Catapult with real cross-department collaboration to enhance student experience, optimise performance outputs and benefit teaching practices.

Target audience: Directors of Sport, Performance Analysts, Coaches, anyone who works in sport science

Location: Oculus Building

5. Working collaboratively to engage a wider audience with BUCS Sport

Delivered by Jack Hodgetts, Digital Engagement Manager at BUCS

This session will look at how BUCS and universities can work collaboratively to raise the profile of our competitions and events programmes.  

It will explore how both BUCS and universities are marketing sport digitally through social media and live stream and how to improve the student sporting experience. 

Target audience: Those involved in the marketing and promotion of university sport across the digital space 

Location: Oculus Building

Location: Scarman Patio

The Social Sports Evening will be held at Cryfield Pavilion and the Sport and Wellness Hub.

Sport sessions will be confirmed closer to the time.

Food and drink will be served at Cryfield Pavilion from 7pm onwards.