PLx welcome from Sally Munday, CEO UK Sport

Keynote: Eleanor Oldroyd & Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair UK Sport – Reflections & Stories from Paris 2024

BREAK – Coffee & Movement to Session

Sessions

Session ONE - Louise Kingsley, Performance Director British Rowing in conversation with Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair, UK Sport

Listen in to a unique conversation with Katherine and Louise where they will cover a range of topics from performance planning, relationship management, setting the conditions for success and culture.

Session TWO - Connect, Collaborate and Change

Para Performance Strategic Framework brought to life through athletes, coaches and staff sharing their experiences of preparing for the Paris Paralympic Games. Each athlete, with their support staff, have some unique experiences to share that have contributed to their medalling performances at the Games. How to overcome adversity, the power of collective thinking, and the application of technology to support optimal performance and realise dreams. Come prepared to be curious as well as celebrate in the success of our Paris medallists!

Session THREE - Female Athlete Support and positive impacts in the Paris cycle

There have been significant gains resulting from the increased focus on female athlete support in recent years and we have started to see the positive impact of this in a variety of ways. In this interactive session we will hear from athletes about their experiences and what this progress has meant for them in the Paris cycle. Furthermore, we will hear from those supporting female athletes, in how understanding of the female athlete and specific support has advanced. Hear Amber Rutter tell the extraordinary story of her return to competition and winning Olympic silver just four months after having her baby boy, Tommy; or the Gold medal winning Women’s Quad in rowing who have since spoken passionately about the part that Project Minerva played for them in the Paris cycle. The session is intended to provide a space to reflect on several specific examples; what it means to be a female athlete; and how the high-performance system can continue to evolve to meet the development and performance needs of females.

Session FOUR - Coaching – The Coaches Gallery – Part ONE

This session will offer a space where we can come together, share stories from our work and celebrate our coaching. By practicing community, we will work together to create opportunities for open, exploratory conversation about our work, the impact it has on us and those that we support in high-performance sport.

Lunch

Sessions

Session FIVE - From Performance Planning to Execution: Applied examples and learning from the Paris Games

In this interactive session, you will hear first-hand experiences from sports on their different approaches to performance planning. Speaking directly with delivery teams from both Olympic and Paralympic sports, we will hear their reflections on what made the difference to enable successful execution in Paris. There will also be an opportunity for a Q&A to draw out practical learnings and insight from your peers to take away as we plan for the next Games.

Session SIX - Planning for performance and culture change through people, collaboration, and stories
Whilst high-performance and elite success remain our raison d’etre, there are increasing questions about how we go about this work. This session presents case studies of change on high-performance culture, and performance planning, in Gymnastics and British Wheelchair Basketball. The session will invite attendees to share their stories and to explore how focusing more on culture and planning, through people and collaboration, has worked, or not.

Session SEVEN - Athlete Support – Bringing collective responsibility to life
In this session we will explore the growing importance of collective responsibility in athlete support. We will showcase the impactful and significant role sports can play in supporting and enabling the development of athletes as people and as performers and explore how this could be further developed throughout the LA cycle and beyond.

Session EIGHT - Coaching – The Coaches Gallery - Part TWO

This session will build on the morning, creating further opportunities to share stories from our work and celebrate our coaching. By practicing community, we will work together to create opportunities for open, exploratory conversations about our work, the impact it has on us and those that we support in high-performance sport. If you did not have the opportunity to attend the first session, we would be delighted if you could join us for the second.

BREAK – Coffee & Movement to Session

Keynote: Mark Pollock

www.markpollock.com

Connection time and drinks reception

Dinner and PLx Awards 2024

Break – Coffee & Networking

Sessions

Session NINE - Elite Training Environments – The Future

This interactive panel session will bring to life an emerging focus at a system level as to what the future holds for the provision of Elite Training Environments. We will hear from Host partners, academic researchers, a Performance Director and a CEO amongst others.

The majority of the current Elite Training Centres stock was built in the late 90’s / early 00’s as Lottery Funding became available. Whilst we continue to work together at a system and partner level to aspire to provide the best environments within the budgets available, UK Sport is now committed to working in collaboration with key stakeholders to explore what the future holds for our ETCs to ensure we maintain one of our many competitive advantages.

Session TEN - Exploring Future Potential – Case Study from City Football Group  - CANCELLED

The ability to optimally identify, recruit and develop talent within football is critical. The ‘success’ or otherwise of player signings, transfers and loans has a significant impact on the finances of the club, and their capability to gain competitive advantage and sustain success. In this session, we will hear from City Football Group’s Dr Catherine Hesford on how they seek advantage in a highly-competitive and fast-paced global market by focusing on potential and seeking to deeply understand the players they recruit and develop. She will also explore the challenges that inevitably arise when working across age ranges, environments and different cultures, combined with a business model that expects success.

Session TEN - Sports Next Gen: The secrets to engaging young athletes led by Stuart Rowson, Founder, Lucky Socks Media

Engaging the next generation of athletes is crucial to the future of all sports - but how do we do it, and what are the opportunities and the pitfalls?

Join us as we look at how social media can benefit our athletes and boost the profile of our sports - as well as examining the crucial things to watch out for to protect our athletes and the reputations of our sports.

Session ELEVEN - Mental Health in the high-performance community – Past, Present and Future

A session focused on the mental health of all people from the high-performance community, athletes, coaches, support staff and leaders. This interactive session will bring to life the work carried out to date in mental health across the high-performance community by sharing individuals’ lived experience, whole-sport reflections, system-wide initiatives and outlining future plans in this important area.

Session TWELVE - Towards LA 2028 – What enables our coaches to flourish (a focus on female coaches)?

This session will invite conversation about the journey we’re travelling, with sports and partners, as we build on and evolve our approach to improving the experiences and representation of females in high-performance sport. Case study material from current research will help to move our understanding of the issues forwards and act as a stimulus to explore how culture, policies, and practices either support or hinder coaches’ development and performance. Perspectives from sports, academia and partner organisations will be shared.

Lunch