Guest blog: Martin Gibbs, Policy and Legal Affairs Director, British Cycling
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Participants from the fourth ILP intake
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Martin Gibbs 13 June 2011
As we lined up for our final group photo last week, it had been just under a year since we'd first met at the Oval as the fourth intake of UK Sport's International Leadership Programme (ILP).
It’s been a really good year and eventful too. We've had births - Andrew Baptie, formerly of UK Sport and now Regional Development Manager at Sport Scotland, had twins - marriages - well almost, Tanya Crook (Head of Summer Sport Engagement, BOA) gets married to her fiancé Mark, who is currently serving in Afghanistan, next month - and fights - well, a bit of a snowball misunderstanding in ice-bound Lausanne in December.
We've done some solid work, had the generous input of some of the most influential people in our sector, both nationally and internationally, and best of all it’s been a fantastic opportunity for personal development and very well run by Ben Calveley and his capable team.
It has been genuinely inspirational to listen to experiences and lessons-learned from people like Sir Craig Reedie, Sir Keith Mills and Mike Lee. We've also been privileged to have frank and engaging briefings from the people shaping policy in our sector like Hugh Robertson MP, Christophe Dubi and Andrew Ryan.
What UK Sport have understood is that for us as a nation to start really punching above our weight in terms of influence internationally, we need to invest time and resource into that and create the networks that will facilitate it.
We've bonded well as a group, been given the chance to make some lasting contacts and it’s been great to meet some of the people who came through previous years of the programme and hear of their experiences.
Colin Grahamslaw geed us on with his story of building on the work he did on the ILP to successfully become Secretary General of the World Curling Federation and Craig Hunter's experiences navigating the politics of swimming's European governing body were really interesting to hear.
I look forward to keeping in touch with my fellow ILP-ers and hope to see them again soon.
Martin Gibbs is Policy and Legal Affairs Director at British Cycling and previously worked in Switzerland for Pat McQuaid, President of the Union Cycliste Internationale.
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