Sport, Exercise and Health Innovation Conference

9 - 9.15am: Opening

Brian Whittle MSP (Shadow Minister for Health) introduced by Professor Milan Radosavljevic (Vice-Principal, Research, Innovation & Engagement, UWS)

9.15 - 10am: Identification of the challenges and opportunities for sport and exercise post COVID-19

David Smith MBE

10 - 10.30am: Coffee Break/Virtual Exhibition

10.30 - 11.30am: Delivering activities online? Challenges and opportunities 

Matt Archer (Market and Business Developer, Motitech); and Ian McGregor (Customer Experience Manager, Les Mills)

11.30am - 12.30pm: Personalised lifestyle management using innovative technology and data collection

Aidan Gallacher (CEO, Actify); Dr Anand Saggar (Lead Clinical Consultant, Geneplanet); and Colin Foskett (Head of Innovation, CleverCogs)

12.30 - 1.15pm: Lunch Break/Virtual Exhibition

1.15 - 2.15pm: Commercial - academic interface

Prof Geraint Florida-James (Academic Lead of the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland); and Dr Antonio Dello lacono (Senior Lecturer, UWS)

2.15 - 3.15pm: Human technology interface – the future of wearables

Arno Hermans (Founder, Sport eXperience concepts B.V.) and Dave Hurhangee (CEO, Waire Health)

3.15 - 3.45pm: Coffee Break/Virtual Exhibition

3.45 - 4.45pm: Innovation and entrepreneurship making your idea into a business

Professor Ian Fillis (Professor of Entrepreneurship, Liverpool John Moores University); Dr Siobhán Jordan (Director, Interface) and Johnny Mone (Head of Business Innovation, UWS)

4.45pm: Close

Professor Craig Mahoney (Principal and Vice-Chancellor, UWS)

You can register for this conference here.

Planning for this Conference is still ongoing – keep an eye on this page for the latest information.

Job title: MSP and Shadow Minister for Health

Brian is the MSP representing the South Region of Scotland and is the Shadow Minister for Health. In a previous life Brian was an elite 400m runner and represented Great Britain 45 times over a ten-year career including at all major championships, Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Since then he has maintained his connection with athletics been heavily involved in coaching and developing the next generation of sprinters.

David Smith is a 2012 Paralympic Gold medallist and two time World Champion rower who has battled significant health issues all of his life to follow his passion to be an elite athlete. His strapline "Passion, Purpose, Resilience" says everything about someone who has nearly died at least five times, who has had to learn to walk after multiple major operations and yet has reached the pinnacle of sporting performance. Today David continues to train as hard as ever with the aid of several innovative pieces of equipment with the ambition of competing on home soil in the UCI World Championships 2023 in Glasgow.

Job title: Market and Business Developer -Motitech UK Ltd

Twitter handle: @Motitech_UK

UK Business and Market Developer for Motitech. With 20 years experience working in the healthcare arena. Both working for the NHS and the private sector. At Motitech we are adamant that all people deserve the same opportunities regardless of age or functional ability.

Job title: Customer Experience Manager (Scotland) – Les Mills

Twitter handle(s): @IanRMcGregor @LesMillsUK @LesMills

Scouser with a Scottish name living in my ancestral land. I’ve spent 20 years in the fitness and leisure industry following graduation from Coventry University. My experience is broad, having begun as a Fitness Practitioner I followed a path through fitness/leisure centre operational management and have been supplying to the sector for the past nine years.

Les Mills is not just a brand name he is a person. A former New Zealand Olympic athlete and his passion for human performance led him to open a gym back in 1968. The business is family owned. His son Phillip was instrumental in bringing the first choreographed weights-based group exercise class to the world when BodyPump was born in 1992.

Les Mills workouts can now be found in over 100 countries around the world in excess of 20,500 clubs and delivering 6 million workouts per week supported by a team of 160,000 trained instructors. In the modern-day digital generation, we have a 24/7 offering with at home services, virtual solutions for facilities to compliment the power of human connection in live instructor led classes. Our workouts range from pre-school, young adult and options in core programs for all abilities and ages.

Like so many the UK fitness market has witnessed closure of facilities during the last 10-11 months. COVID-19 has had an extraordinary impact on how the industry can remain connected with people and encourage them to stay active. It has been remarkable to witness the acceleration of online experiences and I’m looking forward to sharing with you the challenges and opportunities that online presents.

Job title: Founder and CEO of Actify

Twitter handles(s): @Actify @AidanActify

Aidan grew up on a farm on the outskirts of Glasgow playing every sport he could get access to. He further explored these interests by studying sport at the University of Stirling while progressing his involvement at various levels as a participant, coach and volunteer.

These early experiences led Aidan into a career in the management of sports and physical activity programmes. Initially working in the private sector in London and overseas, Aidan worked with clients such as Coca-Cola, Nokia, Castrol, Boris Becker and Inter Milan. On his return to Scotland, Aidan pursued his interest in social outcomes with Scottish Sports Futures, leading on the development of Active East; a programme designed to build a legacy from the 2014 Commonwealth Games for young people in the East of Glasgow. During this time he was also invited to contribute to the development of Bowling Out Aids, a cricket programme in the West Indies.

Through these roles Aidan identified two areas for further exploration and development: 1) the use of digital technology to provide practitioners and participants with greater access to relevant support, guidance and data 2) the development of programme models that were focused on the needs and interests of all population groups (not just those who were already interested in sport).

These ideas led to Aidan founding Actify Training & Technology, a social enterprise that since 2016 has been helping sport and physical activity organisations to achieve a range of outcomes. Actify support organisations through a mix of training and technology products and services that include the Actify platform which now hosts 1100+ sport and physical activity resources for more than 100 organisations and programmes. Actify works closely with the Scottish Government’s Active Scotland Division and a broad range of organisations from education, health, sport and community development to continually develop new and innovative approaches that complement and support existing work across the sector.  

Dr Anand Saggar is a Senior Consultant in Clinical Genetics at St Georges NHS Trust and Senior Lecturer in Medicine. He is a director of GenePlanet. He has a comprehensive record of experience in genetics, respiratory medicine, diabetes/endocrinology, cardiology, intensive care, nephrology (kidney disorders) and neurology.

Job title: Head of Research and Innovation - Blackwood

Twitter handle(s): @colin_foskett or @Blackwood_HC

Colin Foskett is Head of Research and Innovation at Blackwood, a specialist housing and care provider working with people with a disability across Scotland. His role is about helping people to live as independently as possible, to co-design personalised homes and services that enable people to live their life to the full. Colin has a wealth of experience in design and technology having held several senior positions across commercial and third sector organisations.

Colin has driven Blackwood’s investment in technology to aid independent living, from shared low cost WIFI connectivity to CleverCogs™ an award winning digital care and support system. He believes passionately in good design that involves and enables people. In co-designing the Blackwood house, a beautiful, accessible, affordable and connected home he championed the use of bespoken, a digital platform to crowd source the best ideas and gain feedback from across the globe. Colin has established partnerships with key manufacturers and academics leading to new projects in AI, Data, Value exchange and robotics.

Job title: Professor of Applied Science - Edinburgh Napier University

Twitter handle:  @GeraintFJames

Professor Geraint Florida-James is a Professor in the School of Applied Sciences of Edinburgh Napier University and the Academic Lead at the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland (MTBCOS). MTBCOS was established in 2014 and is a centre for open innovation with a remit of growing the Scottish Cycling Industry and has partners Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Cycling. The work of MTBCOS was recently recognised by the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) and MTBCOS is now a full network partner of NMIS. He is a founding member of Cycling Industries Europe (CIE), and sits on its Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs Executive Group. CIE represents many of the EU and the world’s leading cycling companies and supporting organisations. Professor Florida-James is additionally a founding member of the UK Society for Exercise Immunology, is an associate editor of the Journal of Science in Cycling (JSC) and is a Research Associate for the Observatory for Sport in Scotland. He has worked with numerous start-ups and SMEs on product development in cycling and continues to coach professional athletes competing in the Enduro World Series (EWS). In 2019, the MTB partnership secured £19million in the Heads of Terms Agreement of the Borderlands Regional Deal, to deliver a MTB Innovation Centre, Trail Lab and Bike Park in Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. Professor Florida-James continues to work on this with the partnership, which is making excellent progress in completing the final business case to deliver this project. 

Job title: Senior Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning at University of the West of Scotland

Twitter handle: @DelloAntonio

Dr Antonio Dello Iacono is a Senior Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning at University of West of Scotland. His expertise and research interest led him co-authoring more than 60 peer reviewed journal articles in the broad areas of sport performance conditioning, sport biomechanics and sport analytics. Antonio has also applied experience across a range of individual and team sports, and consulted with numerous professional and semi-professional individual athletes and sports teams throughout his professional career.

Antonio has an extensive record of successful knowledge transfer partnerships with start-ups and companies operating in the sport technology field. Relying upon his inter-disciplinary knowledge, he supports research and development enterprise and helps bridging the gaps between product solutions and end-user needs. Recently, he has held the role of Chief Scientific Officer at Track160 ltd, a FIFA certified Sport Tech Company that develops and provides tracking solutions, performance analysis and analytics services for football coaches, players and practitioners.

Job title: Co-Founder @ Sports Vitality HUB

Twitter handle: @ArnoHermans

Looking to the past, sport has not always been associated with technology but the world is changing fast. Arno is an Engineer by trade and a sportsman from the heart so for him what could be more natural than combining the two!!  Well that’s just what Arno did in early 2016 when he set up Sport eXperience. And now he’s part of Sports Vitality HUB.

And Arno is not alone! SportTechie is the world’s leading resource in the fascinating and fast growing world of sports and tech and they absolutely get the drive which led Arno to build a community linking sports and technology.  When Arno met with SportTechie he said the following: “My love for sports comes down to football and volleyball. As captain of the regional volleyball team, we became the Dutch champion in 1996. As an engineer, I’ve had the opportunity to discover different technologies in different sectors, and be involved in multiple sectors as well as set up a Sports Engineering department in 2011. During the years, I grew up with the energy of Start-ups. When you make that combination; sports, technology and Start-ups, there’s an accelerator born. By interviewing 100 stakeholders in 2015, I gained the confirmation that The Netherlands was ready for a Sports Accelerator.”

When unconventional thinking is necessary, when excellence in chaos creates opportunities and for those looking for creativity on command, that is where Arno feels at home. His strengths are to initiate, chase, organise, connect and push to add value to a company in motion. Basically, he is a born Business Initiator. His commitment and enthusiasm inspires people. With his technology background and commercial experience enabling him to connect both worlds.

Job title: CEO & CTO – Waire Health

Twitter handle: @Sentinel_Sensor

Dave has 36+ years’ experience in Healthcare and designed his first medical wearable in 1985 for monitoring radiation absorption in sailors on Nuclear Submarines. Dave designed the original Sentinel unit for the E.U. Nightingale project, developing the next generation of wearable sensors beating 198 other designs from across the world. He also designed and developed the company’s latest C-Detect unit developed not only for COVID but any other viral infection.

Job title: Professor of Entrepreneurship – Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moore University.

Twitter handle: @Ifr11I

Ian Fillis is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University. His research interests include cultural entrepreneurship, small business, sports marketing, arts marketing and research methodology. He has secured a number of externally funded research grants, such as being Principal Investigator of an AHRC funded Cultural Value project in Scotland. He is also the Editor of the Edward Elgar Handbook of Entrepreneurship and Marketing. He has also been Visiting Distinguished Thought Leader, University of South Australia, University of Tasmania Distinguished Visitor and Bowater Visiting Research Fellow at Deakin University.

Job title: Director, Interface

Dr Siobhán Jordan is the founding Director of Interface, set up in August 2005 to establish the organisation as a central point of access for industry to collaborate with the world leading knowledge, expertise, specialist facilities and technologies within Scotland’s universities, research institutes and colleges. Informed by the needs of industry she has forged impactful collaborations across all industry sectors.

Her particular areas of expertise are in the development and management of impactful programmes aimed at: enhanced innovation in industry, effective collaboration between universities and industry, the commercialisation of academic research, leadership and strategic development

Siobhán has a wealth of experience in the worlds of business and academia and is a member of, Scotland Can Do Business Innovation Forum, Chemical Sciences Scotland Leadership Group and the Board of Colleges Development Network.

Job title: Head of Business Innovation - UWS

Twitter handle: @johnnymone 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/johnnymone

Johnny Mone is the Head of Business Innovation at University of the West of Scotland.

Johnny, who took up the post in 2015, joined UWS from the Scottish digital agency, Brightfire Ltd, where he held the post of Vice President of Business Development.

Johnny is a vastly experienced business development and management professional and prior to joining Brightfire in 2012, he was Director of Strategic Alliances for Ephox, in California which specialises in content authoring software.  From 2006 to 2010 he was Senior Vice President of Boston-based specialist software and services company, Vamosa Inc.

As Head of Business Innovation at UWS, Johnny takes a lead role in the transformation of UWS into an even more industry-focused University. Johnny’s customer-centric philosophy helps build and maintain UWS’s reputation as one of Scotland’s most accessible universities for businesses as evidenced in revenue growth and customer satisfaction.

Since 2015 Johnny has led UWS to be the #1 provider of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in Scotland and largest provider of Continuing Professional Development in the country as well as launching the first high-growth spin out company from UWS (Novosound.net).  He sits on a number of boards including Novosound Ltd, The Centre for Engineering Education and Development (ceed-scotland.com), Glasgow City of Science and Innovation (glasgowcityofscienceandinnovation.com) and the Operational Board of the Converge Challenge.

Johnny, who lives in Glasgow, said: “UWS was founded with a spirit of entrepreneurship and has an extremely strong reputation in the Scottish university sector for the quality of its student experience and the difference it makes to their lives and the wider economy. I am delighted to be helping UWS make an even bigger difference through developing its enterprise mission.”