Day two of Beyond Sport 2016
The second day of the Beyond Sport Summit started with talks at BT Tower. Participants were given the opportunity to choose between a panel on the vibrant London start-up scene, a talk on the power of networks or a presentation on the intersection of non-profits and social enterprises.
Nishal Desai, co-founder of imin, talked about his experiences in the world of startups. It began as an idea for an app that would provide people with a way to find open squash courts in real-time. The idea evolved into a company that provides people who want to create apps for physical activity: the data needed for their services. Desai underscored the idea that sport and development projects can benefit from these types of technologies. He also pointed out that a startup begins with a lone “nut”, someone who truly believes in her/his business or project idea. It is not, however, this person who drives the startup forward. It is the first follower who believes and backs the idea that facilitates the innovation.
During the second part of the morning, participants were separated into groups and took turns listening to three companies pitch their idea to the audience. All three presented products that were recently released, focus on encouraging people to be physically active and in charge of their health. Audience members voted for the product they found most convincing. That winner will be given a chance to pitch their idea during the third day of Beyond Sport during the Innovation Hub. Below are descriptions of the three pitches.
Racefully – Presented by David Naylor and Chris Pointon
Over 100 million people are using social fitness apps but only a small percentage are actually using the social aspect. While they may run or cycle using the app, they rarely share their stats with friends for a variety of reasons. Racefully aims to change this by allowing users to communicate to run with friends in realtime. The app helps build 'tribes' and assist people form communities around physical activity.
Flex – Matt Quin
Over 31 million adults in the UK do not achieve the recommended amount of physical activity due to time constraints and lack of motivation. Flex is an online platform that allows users to book a live class and participate virtually. Users register ahead of time, their class is added to their calendar and they are sent reminders to prepare them for the activity. Users chat before, during and after the classes allowing them to build new communities around physical fitness.
Kaido – Rich Westman
This software integrates all health and fitness applications for users empowering them to take control of their health ecosystem. Kaido has many features including: allowing users to track their food, informing them of when they need more exercise and letting them know when something needs attention (such as high blood pressure or low caloric intake). Kaido is currently used through Facebook as a means of ensuring that users can see all their data in an integrated, familiar platform.
During the afternoon, participants went to various site visits to learn more about the range of sport for development and sport development programmes across London. The day will end with the Beyond Sport Awards supported by Comic Relief.
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