Driving Activity Economy Cymru and Scotland
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Driving Activity Economy Cymru and Scotland
Two innovative collaborations delivered through conferences with lead-in and follow-up webinars
Driving economic recovery,
improving health & wellbeing
Two innovative collaborations, delivered through conferences with lead-in and follow-up webinars designed to develop genuine partnerships between private businesses, social enterprises, charities and public sector bodies engaged in Scotland’s and Wales’s active economies, respectively.
Our objective is to facilitate collaboration, debate, learning and connections to shape system-wide and nation-wide solutions
.
We also believe that this post-COVID-19 period is the time and a huge opportunity to encourage change and innovation to help facilitate an exciting future for the activity economies in Wales and Scotland.
What is the Activity Economy?
Today, the £ Billion global activity economy incorporates such as sport, active recreation, health & wellness, and the technology, tourism and media related to those areas.
Through the activity economy, thousands of people are powering the economic and social prosperity of the community.
Whether it’s the thousands of people attending the Cardiff or the Inverness Half Marathons every year with the subsequent impact on the local economy, the impact on those providing short-term lodging for travellers, cyclists and ramblers or the impact on the local economy of arts, culture or food festivals, or the 250.000 social runners across Wales, or the thousands of spectators at the Melrose Sevens Rugby, these are all interlinked.


Melrose Sevens has been attracting thousands of visitors to the Borders since 1883
Cardiff Half Marathon attracts 25,000 runners and tens of thousands of visitors


Ramblers being active in beautiful Wales
The social enterprise Eat Sleep Ride provides riding lessons, hacking and trekking across the beautiful Scottish Borders.

During lockdown the She Runs: Cardiff ran their first virtual event, raising £2,833 or Cardiff Women’s Aid!
Whereas, Silicon Valley is a leader in technology and London in financial services – Wales and Scotland possess the natural resources – the people, environment and enterprise – to be global leaders in the activity economy.
But being a global leader rarely happens by accident. It happens from planning and a commitment to pursuing that plan. Now, more than ever does the sector in Wales and Scotland need to pull together, innovate and collaborate.
The key sectors within the Activity Economy are organised sports, active recreation, active travel, infrastructure, tourism, arts & culture, education and health & wellbeing.
Powering the Activity Economy together
For too long, the activity economy and its players have simply been a sum of its parts. The result is that the ecosystem that supports an active Wales and Scotland is fragmented.
We are proposing that we should focus on collaboration and connecting the diverse players to enable them to review, reflect and learn how they should together more efficiently as a system today and in the future.

This innovative collaboration is an attempt to encourage people Iín Wales to become more active, in all sorts of ways, to enable the communities and drive the economy forward, in this post-COVID-19 period of the ‘new normal’.
Kickstarting The Activity Economies in Scotland and Wales after the pandemic whilst improving the population’s health and wellbeing
The coronavirus crisis has presented us with challenges and changes to all aspects of our lives and the way that the providers within the Activity Economy will be operating in the future.
A key question is how the new ‘normal’ going to look like and how you will respond.
Will the way that we enjoy being active, in all sorts of ways, be changing and, if so how can we adapt to that? We are already experiencing many changes in people’s behaviour in the way we exercise (or not) and we are also seeing many great examples of community spirit, some of them, but perhaps not enough, coming from community sport.
Many providers within the activity economy are in danger of not playing a big enough role in people’s lives right now and are not at the front of people’s minds. When all this is over and people’s habits have changed those who were visible during the crisis will have a much bigger chance of regaining, or even improving, their reputation and standing in their communities.
Interested in learning more about these two projects in Wales and Scotland? Want to talk to us about running a similar collaboration where you are?
Then get in touch on +44 (0) 1423 326 660 or email svend@smnuk.com
The way forward
We are proposing setting up innovative collaborations, initially in Wales and Scotland which will help bring together all the players within the Activity Economy and drive a better partnership, increase the profile, improve skills and create synergies between the different players.
Project Kickstart Driving Activity Economy Cymru and Scotland
How to deliver enterprising live experiences in the new ‘normal’ world
A one-day conference, supported by interactive webinars on innovative solutions to drive our Activity Economy forward
Strategies, policies, experiences, real stories and successes to be told,
lessons to be learnt, ideas and experiences to be shared.
Three lead-in webinars
To introduce participants to the Project Kickstart approach they will be invited to participate in three one-hour long webinars which are designed to help them think and act in a new way where they maximise their opportunities for innovation, change and action.
Project Kickstart – Connecting, enabling and driving
The Activity Economy
How to deliver enterprising live experiences in the new ‘normal’ world
A one-day conference, supported by interactive webinars on innovative solutions to drive the Activity Economy forward
Strategies, policies, experiences, real stories and successes to be told,
lessons to be learnt, ideas and experiences to be shared.
This webinar will cover to be more user-focused demonstrate empathy and finding innovations and solutions that respond to human needs and user feedback.
We will focus on how to step into the user’s shoes and building genuine empathy for your target audience – we call it listening to people’s lives.
The webinar will also cover how to pool a diverse variety of perspectives and ideas; this is what leads to innovation! How to collaborate with others including bodies and people from outside your normal network and sphere – creating shared value.
This webinar will cover how to turn your best ideas into prototypes, testing them, and making changes based on user feedback. You must be prepared to repeat certain steps in the process as you uncover flaws and shortcomings in the early versions of your proposed solution.
The main objective for these lead-in webinars is to help participants be more open ready for the conference.
Three Follow-up Webinars
Over the three months following on delegates will be invited to participate in three follow-up webinars where they learn more, listen to other people’s experiences and stay motivated on their journey.
Want to learn more about the Actvivity Econnomy collaboration, then get in touch.
Over the three months following on delegates will be invited to participate in three follow-up webinars where they learn more, listen to other people’s experiences and stay motivated on their journey.
Interested in learning more about these two projects in Wales and Scotland? Want to talk to us about running a similar collaboration where you are?
Then get in touch on +44 (0) 1423 326 660 or email svend@smnuk.com