The #MoreThanBasketball event is designed to be the launch pad for a new movement where basketball gets together, learns from best practice from both within and outside the sport and starts getting its deserved recognition.
Register your interest now! Tickets are now available on eventbrite and the event is FREE to attend on Thursday October 26.
The event will comprise:
• An all-day Conference
• Speakers on arena developments, from the NGBs, on media & sponsorship and community developments
• Exhibition area with basketball and arena suppliers/ basketball technology and e-games
• Demonstration areas with community and education programmes, wheelchair basketball and others
• Plenty of networking opportunities
In partnership with: Basketball Foundation, British Basketball, Basketball England, basketballscotland, Basketball Wales, Women’s British Basketball League, British Wheelchair Basketball.
Real stories and successes are to be told, lessons to be learned, and ideas and experiences to be shared on how to create a more vibrant, visible and viable basketball sector in Britain
Basketball in Britain needs to tell its story
Basketball in the UK has got a great story to tell in terms of its ability to get young people active and its impact on many deprived communities and the people who live there. In our inner cities and amongst the most deprived areas basketball has the highest percentage of their participants who are under 25 and it is of greatest interest to BMEs (more than 50% of basketball participants are black, minority or ethnic).
Basketball as a whole needs to improve the way it tells its story and sells the benefits of its impact to political decision makers, commercial funders and the media. In addition, historically, there has been limited joined-up thinking and collaboration among the various bodies and interest groups within basketball.
Various initiatives to promote basketball do exist across the UK and the incredible popularity of the sport is demonstrated by the immense demand for tickets when NBA games are being played in London and for the BBL Finals across the UK Various bodies do promote the sport and their specific projects, but the lack of synergy is evident.
As a consequence, the sport is not getting the recognition and support it deserves.
#MoreThanBasketball focuses on key issues
• How basketball can contribute to cross-departmental objectives on improving health and educational outcomes and social engagement, especially in inner city community environments
• How best to engage funders from the public and private sector
• How to develop new basketball facilities which embrace both the needs of basketball and its communities, and meet commercial objectives
• How basketball can play an increasing role in the new and develop in national media landscape
• How to re-think basketball’s communications strategy to make more and better use of the sport’s inherent assets and attractiveness to particular groups, including using new technology and social media to better effect;
• How community basketball clubs and third sector organisations, such as housing associations, with whom they share objectives, can work together
• How to engage with Police and Crime Commissioners nationally with a view to commissioning innovative basketball-inspired projects which contribute to the reduction of youth crime and antisocial behaviour in problem areas;
• Help community basketball clubs develop a more enterprising approach
• How to get more females to play and coach basketball
• How to develop stronger relationships between wheelchair basketball and other parts of the sport
• How to encourage greater and wider engagement of universities and colleges with basketball by developing a prospectus of current best practice in this area
Bringing everybody together
This event will bring together NGBs, sport funding agencies, County Sport Partnerships, schools, colleges and universities, basketball industry suppliers, arena architects, contractors and constructors, community basketball clubs, local authorities, digital marketing consultants, sport media executives, sports charities, representatives from non-sports partners from Police, health, housing, youth clubs and others.
On behalf of the partners Kevin Routledge, Director of the British Basketball League and Leicester Riders said: “We are really excited by this opportunity for basketball to come together and demonstrate the big impact the sport can have on our communities. Also, by sharing best practice all stakeholders within basketball can keep improving on how we deliver #MoreThanBasketball.
