What Role Can Technology Play in Driving Participation Sport?
Give participants the tools to deepen their connection with the sport and share their experience with others: One such example is the app Pitchero, which allows teams at grassroots level to record their matches and broadcast clips on their club’s website and social media channels.
ENHANCE THE EXPERIENCE
The popular cycling and running app Strava also facilitates the creation of engaging and shareable content in this case derived from tracking your workout across a multitude of data points.
Northern Ireland is a sporting nation and has produced the likes of George Best (football), Joey Dunlop (motorcycling), Rory Mcllroy (golf), Alex Higgins (snooker) and many more, with a small population of only 1.8 million!
There are several reasons why Northern Ireland has produced many greats but one is the participation in sport for fun, recreation and enjoyment from an early age.
The Northern Ireland government has sought to capitalise on sport by producing a long-term strategy for sport. The strategy was introduced in 1997 and redeveloped covering the period 2009-2019. This long-term approach has been vital to its success.
‘Sport matters’ seeks to create a culture of lifelong enjoyment and success in sport. The strategy focuses on the three broad areas of participation (playing for fun and enjoyment), performance (elite athletes) and places (sporting facilities).
The strategy incorporates 26 high-level targets and priorities for sport and recreation over the current 10-year period each falling under one of two primary development outcomes: increased participation in sport and physical recreation and improved sporting performances.
The high-level targets in the strategy set out to deliver an increased number of children and adults experiencing, enjoying and participating in high quality sporting opportunities.
Northern Ireland: a government that focuses on participation sport
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