LFX North event boosts students' digital knowledge

Students and staff from our Master's programme recently attended a top UK conference for management and fitness professionals.

Didsbury's Waterside Hotel and Leisure Club was the venue for LFX North, which featured expert speakers from a range of companies including Everybody Leisure and Les Mills UK.

The event focused on digital media and its use in marketing and customer service situations within the respective industries. The group took part in a variety of sessions during the day, all designed to widen their knowledge of an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Our students said the conference had been a great opportunity to learn from industry professionals. Nathan Armstrong commented: "The event gave us the chance to network with people we otherwise wouldn't be able to meet, and I gained a better picture of what it would be like to work in the industry.

"The experience was extremely beneficial, as it cemented in place what field I want to try and get into, which has given me more reason to focus on my current studies."

Sarah Harradine added: "I loved the conference - it was very interactive with speakers whom I respected, and I also felt were respected by the other delegates. The presentations were relevant to my studies and took things like social media and put them into real-life situations.

"It also helped with the management of my own digital accounts and those I'm running as part of my work experience, showing I can be practical in the application of a relatively new element of marketing."

For more information about LFX please click here.

Lecturers to pen new book

Dr Ingrid Griffiths and Dr Sue Minten are set to co-author a new book for the world's leading academic publisher.

'Operations Management for Sport' has been approved for publication by Routledge as part of their 'Foundations of Sport Management' series.

By examining the management of operations in sport services and activities, the book will outline and explain essential theories and concepts of operations management to provide readers with a coherent and fundamental grounding in the discipline.

Dr Griffiths and Dr Minten will draw together the diverse range of research relating to sport operations management within one text, providing contemporary, global case studies in practice including sports facilities, events and competitions.

The book is scheduled to be published in January 2017. For more information about Routledge please click here.

Star athlete looks to the future

Top athlete Jenny Meadows' international career spans almost two decades, but despite having one eye on the future she shows no signs of slowing down just yet.

Jenny is the fastest 800m female athlete in the World indoors in 2015 and is currently preparing for the European Indoor Championships in Prague.

Later this year she heads off for the World Championships in Beijing, before beginning her build up to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Whilst that might be enough to keep most people occupied, Jenny is also undertaking a Master's in Sports Marketing and Business Management at UCLan, as she prepares for life after Athletics.

She commented: "During my career I've gained a useful insight into many aspects of the sports industry and have been privileged to gain first-hand experience working with a variety of key stakeholders.

"The daily demands of a professional athlete are in some ways very similar to being on a work placement scheme, as I'm gaining 'on-the-job' experience through my involvement with NGBs, local authority staff, sports development teams, sponsors, fans, sports agents, event management, corporate, media and production teams and sports regulators.

"This has ignited my interest in the field of Sports Marketing and Business Management and fuelled a desire to increase my theoretical knowledge to enable me to undertake a managerial career after my Athletics career is over."

Due to Jenny's training and competition schedule she is unable to attend UCLan campus. Course Leader, Dr Sue Minten, helps Jenny utilise the distance learning option available on the course, providing her with a recommended structure of study which Jenny tries to fit into her busy schedule.

"Obviously there is a degree of flexibility in this around the demands of my job, however I've found the pace of recommended learning very realistic," said Jenny.

"The combination of work and study has given me a new focus and has actually enhanced my passion for both as I can see the correlation between what I'm experiencing and what I'm studying in the course modules.

Jenny's husband, Trevor, is also currently studying at UCLan on the PG Dip Elite Coaching Practice course, and the pair are using each other's experiences to enhance their learning.

Jenny added: "We're finding plenty of common ground to discuss around the dining table, as well as both looking over our shoulder to see if we can benefit from any research or study notes that the other one is using.

"Having been an athlete for all my adult life, I'd always assumed I would dread the moment when I finally hang up my spikes, however through my studies at UCLan I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my professional life."