NASSM
If you missed the North American Society for Sport Management Conference (NASSM), no need to worry! We have the full rundown for you here. Eight of the Centre for Sport Capacity’s fantastic members headed to Montreal, Quebec, on Wednesday, May 31st. Our members and their students came prepared for a week packed with learning, making connections, and mobilizing knowledge. Our Centre Coordinator followed along to capture the team in action and showcase their important work.
Dr. Kyle Rich & Larena Hoeber
To start off the week, our very own, Dr. Kyle Rich facilitated the Qualitative Research Pre-Conference Workshop with his colleague Larena Hoeber. The workshop was organized as part of the Interdisciplinary and Impactful Sport Research Series. The entire day provided an opportunity for new and established researchers to engage in learning contemporary qualitative research methodologies, including participatory research, evaluation methods, go-along interviews, anti-oppression research, and digital research methods.
Dr. Corliss Bean & Caroline Hummell
For one of the sessions, our CSC members, Dr. Corliss Bean and Caroline Hummell, walked us through some new and exciting ways to use practical qualitative evaluation methods in sport. We were so lucky to learn from this outstanding line-up of thought leaders in qualitative research.
Dr. Kirsty Spence and Jesse Porter
To kick off day one of the conference, Dr. Kirsty Spence’s graduate student Jesse Porter presented her work which critically explores the emotional labour of female coaches to show how such labour may become invisible and gendered. This important work will contribute to the evolution of coach development that more adequately reflects emotional realities of coaching work. The picture below highlights the ‘athlete first, women coach last’ theme from Jesse’s findings.
Dr. Kirsty Spence, Dr. Michael Van Bussel & Bobby Dhaliwal
Next up, Dr. Kirsty Spence, Dr. Michael Van Bussel, and Graduate student Bobby Dhaliwal delivered a workshop on ‘Exploring the impact of SLR (Sport Leaders Retreat) core components on sport leaders’ competency development: An interactive session.” The session intended to highlight the impact of these specific SLR core components on participants’ competency development and stimulate creative thinking toward new ways of leadership development in sport contexts.
Dr. Kyle Rich & Grace Nelson
Then, CSC members Dr. Kyle Rich and Grace Nelson took the stage to discuss the impact of geography and demography on sport participation. To date, research has mainly focused on the programs and management practices within the sport system, with limited research examining external factors related to geography that impact sport participant patterns. Their findings suggest a need to consider the implications of ethnicity, gender, rurality, and competition level in developing sport policy intended to increase sport participation of equity deserving groups.
Megan Piché
We then moved into a wonderful presentation from Megan Piché on her work with Dr. Michael Naraine, Dr. Shannon Kerwin, and Anna Wojtis. Important findings from this work indicate that program administration should consider investment in preparation, coaching, and incorporating participant feedback into programming to maintain sustainability.
Dr. Kyle Rich & Grace Nelson
The next day we moved into some awesome discussions happening with this team of outstanding faculty and students, one of which was our very own Dr. Shannon Kerwin. The team in the picture to the right presented critical work about destabilizing whiteness in sport as well as another presentation on the intersection of motherhood and coaching. These insights highlighted the importance of reflection, accountability, and continued learning in the sport sector.
Dr. Nick Burton & Dr. Michael Naraine
The great discussion didn’t stop there. Dr. Nick Burton and Dr. Michael Naraine’s presentation on TikTok, sport sponsorship, and the attention economy was up next. Their findings suggested that Tiktok’s focus on content creation and generation presented advantages in driving engagement and tailoring promotions.
Dr. Kyle Rich, Dr Corliss Bean, Dante Losardo, Jayne Morrish, & Veronica Allan
In the afternoon, Dr. Kyle Rich led another noteworthy workshop with his co-presenters Dr. Corliss Bean, Dante Losardo, Jayne Morrish, and Veronica Allan. We discussed not only the importance of knowledge translation (KT), but also how to evaluate your impact.
What were our key takeaways?
🔑 Use plain language when communicating
🔑Think of your knowledge users when selecting knowledge translation strategies
🔑Don’t forget KT evaluation! We need to assess if our KT efforts are having the impact we intended
Dr. Brad Millington
To run us across the finish line on day 3, our CSC member Dr. Brad Millington presented a frame analysis of a high-profile debate over the future of public golf courses in Vancouver, British Columbia. Thank you to Dr. Millington for this discussion that provides important contributions to the literature on sport media, sport facilities management and policy, and the politics of urban space.
Bobby Dhaliwal
And to wrap up the presentations from the Brock University Team, Bobby Dhaliwal led us through his presentation on utilitarian and hedonic factors that influence professional sport team app use. This important research can help professional sport teams to improve user interfaces to maximize engagement.
Conclusion
The week at NASSM was a time for new knowledge and reflection provided by an array of thought leaders in the sport sector. Our CSC Brock University Team showed up and delivered exceptional knowledge mobilization to all attendees. The takeaway from the CSC team is that there are amazing steps being taken in the sport sector to be more inclusive, innovative, and reflexive. We need to work collaboratively by giving participants a seat at the table to voice their needs, advocate and work towards policy change, and implement evaluation strategies to assess our impact! Let’s keep the momentum going from NASSM and implement these lessons into our Niagara community.
