UWS hosts first-of-its-kind Scottish sports conference

UWS has hosted a first-of-its-kind virtual conference which explored innovating out of the pandemic through sport and exercise.  

A wide variety of delegates from business and academia from the UK and overseas attended the Sport, Exercise and Health Innovation Conference, which took place on Friday 26 February and was supported by Scottish Enterprise.

The online event included a packed agenda, with 15 high-profile speakers, including the Shadow Minister for Health, Brian Whittle MSP; 2012 Paralympic Gold medallist, two-time World Champion rower and UWS Hon Doc, David Smith MBE and Dr Siobhán Jordan, Founding Director of Interface, which supports innovation and knowledge exchange in Scotland.

The all-day conference explored the challenges and opportunities for sport and exercise post-pandemic, as well as discussing the future of wearable tech, lifestyle management using technology and data collection, innovation and entrepreneurship, and how to turn an idea into a business.

The event also included an exhibition with virtual stands from external organisations, including Oriam, PeachyKeen and APC Cardiovascular. UWS also had a presence in the virtual exhibition with stands highlighting the University’s work with Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, CPD opportunities, and the Kick Start initiative, which aims to ignite, elevate and engage the next wave of leaders for the future, through skills development, innovation and entrepreneurship. 

UWS’s Sport, Exercise and Innovation conference was a fantastic success, and it was great to see so many delegates join to explore this incredibly important issue. The value of sport and exercise has been reinforced during the Covid-19 pandemic, and with a background in these subject areas, I am personally pleased that discussions centred around the role sport and exercise can play as we navigate our way out of these challenging times. I’d like to thank everyone involved in delivering the conference, our sponsors, partners and guests for making it such an enlightening and impressive virtual event.

Professor Craig Mahoney, Principal & Vice-Chancellor of UWS

It was fantastic to see so many experts in the fields of sport and exercise come together for our virtual conference. Collaboration and knowledge exchange is more powerful now than ever as we collectively strive to move forward out of the pandemic. Thank you to all of our excellent speakers, and to those who worked hard behind the scenes to make it such a successful, engaging session.

Professor Richard Davidson, from the University’s School of Health and Life Sciences.