The Leisure Review: news in brief

Edition number34; dateline 2 December 2009

Coming soon: the TLR Futures summit
The Leisure Review is hosting the latest in a series of summit events for industry leaders at the Lansdowne Club in London in December. The Leisure Review Futures Summit follows the success of the inaugural TLR Summit, held at the Reform Club earlier this year, [see the July 09 issue]. Among the key themes of the discussion at the Reform was the desire among senior figures within the sport, leisure and culture sector to be able to contribute to the professional development of future leaders. With this in mind, The Leisure Review invited those who composed the Reform group to join us again but this time to bring their future with them in the form of a member of their team who may in time become a sector leader themselves. The facilitated discussion over lunch covering a range of topics relevant to professional development across the sport, leisure and culture sector is expected to be lively and enlightening. Mick Owen, managing editor of The Leisure Review and director of TLR Communications, which publishes The Leisure Review, was looking forward to the debate. “We will, I am sure, get some different perspectives on the future of the sector and of its current efficacy.” he said. “We are indebted to the IDeA and to England Squash & Racketball who are supporting this event. I’m sure it will be an ‘interesting’ afternoon and provide a natural lead-in to our 2010 programme of similarly innovative and challenging events.”

Great leap forward for open space design at the Olympic Park
After an intense public competition organised by the Royal Horticultural Society and the Olympic Delivery Authority, it seems that the design of 0.1% of the open space in the London 2010 Olympic Park has been sorted. Well, almost sorted. The RHS Olympic Park Great British Garden Competition resulted in the selection of Hannah Clegg from Malmesbury in Wiltshire as winner of the young people’s section of the competition and Rachel Read from Colchester winning in the adult category. They will now work with members of the 2012 landscape team to incorporate their ideas into a single garden. Entrants were asked to consider the inclusion of a ‘de Coubertin oak tree’ as a reminder of de Coubertin’s visit to Much Wenlock in Shropshire in 1896 where William Penny Brookes who held the first Much Wenlock ‘Olympian Games’ in 1850. The de Coubertin oak is currently being grown in Kew from seedlings taken from an oak tree de Coubertin planted himself in Much Wenlock.

New artist takes up residence at National Gallery
Michael Landy is to be the next associate artist at the National Gallery. The associate artist scheme, which is sponsored by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation, provides an artist with a studio within the gallery and unique access to the National Gallery’s collection, a residency that is “designed to demonstrate the continuing inspiration of the Old Master tradition on today’s artists”. Born in London in 1963, Landy was part of the 1988 exhibition Freeze that gave rise to many of the leading figures of what came to be known as the Young British Artist movement but he came to national prominence with his 2001 work, Break Down, in which he destroyed all his possessions in a former department store in London’s Oxford Street. More recently Landy has added sketching and etching to his work. He will begin his two-year tenure at the National Gallery in January and will start with a series of closely observed drawings of paintings within the collection. Landy follows Alison Watt (who was featured in the April 2008 issue of The Leisure Review) and is the eighth artist to work under the scheme.

Big sport, big business, big noise
The 2011 International SportAccord Convention is coming to London. Scheduled for 3-8 April at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, the event is expected to bring 1,500 sporting officials and their inevitable companions, the international business community, from more than sixty countries. According to the organisers, the convention will bring £3 million into the London economy and stand as “a key milestone in delivering the capital’s long-term aims to position London and the UK as the world’s leading city and country in the business of sport. Boris Johnson, still mayor of London, got even more excited. “This is a truly fantastic opportunity for the capital,” he said. “Delivering a legacy for London after the Games is crucially important and SportAccord will now play a significant role in helping us achieve this. Sport is at the heart of this great city and I am looking forward to welcoming all sports leaders, IOC members and Olympic bidding cities to London in 2011 to give them a taste of what’s in store for 2012 and after.”

Safeguarding conference in Coventry: book now
Coventry Sports Foundation is hosting a safeguarding children in sport conference on 25 February 2010. Presented in association with the Geese Theatre Company and in partnership with the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit, Sport England and Brunel University, the conference is billed as a unique and innovative event aimed at anyone with a professional interest in the issues associated with safeguarding. How Safe is Your Sport? Taking a Lead in Safeguarding Children will be chaired by Dave Moorcroft and the list of expert contributors includes Professor Celia Brackenridge. In addition Sport England and the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit will be launching their new vision for children’s safeguarding over the next five years. The event is being held at the Xcel Centre, Coventry with a delegate fee of £150. Delegate places are limited to 250. Full details are available at www.safeguardingchildrensportconference.com

Under the wire: news that is just news enough
A £850,000 redevelopment is currently underway at the Swan Leisure Centre in Berwick Upon Tweed; phase one is expected to complete by January 2010. The National Gallery has developed an outreach programme, Ageing Creatively, that aims to make it possible for people who may be isolated, vulnerable or unable to visit the Gallery independently, to access and enjoy the collection. Customer service in the leisure industry is getting worse, according to Leisure-net Solutions’ third annual call-FocusTM survey. The ISRM had a conference.

But soft! What light from yonder building site breaks?
David Morley Architects has been appointed by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to design the temporary water polo venue for the London 2012 Games. The ODA says it is on track or exceeding a wide-ranging set of sustainability targets for the London 2012 construction project. BMW has become the official automotive partner of London 2012. BMW becomes the seventh Tier One partner and 24th domestic sponsor. Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and the Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Young, have officially opened an on-site study centre to support the 120 apprentices currently working for the contractors delivering the London 2012 Olympic Park. The first of 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes have been installed on the Olympic Park. To no one’s surprise the Met Office will be providing expertise, forecasts and data in the build up to and during the London 2012 Games. GlaxoSmithKline is the London 2012 official laboratory services provider and will provide facilities and equipment to enable Kings College London to operate a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited satellite laboratory at Games-time.

Who’s whom can now be found on the new People Page.

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