Let’s say you’re a young footballer in the Hawke’s Bay who, against the odds, has started up a team for girls. Or you’re a researcher in Connecticut looking at why there aren’t enough women leaders in sport.
And you both want to share your successes, struggles and findings with the rest of the world.
For the first time, there will be a digital hub where research on women in sport and the personal stories of sportswomen will be collected from around the world and shared freely. And it’s being created here in New Zealand.
The ‘Insight Hub’ will be New Zealand’s legacy from holding the International Working Group (IWG) World Conference on Women and Sport, in Auckland in 2022. The conference will be one of the ‘Big Four’ women’s sports events planned to hit New Zealand over the next three years – alongside World Cups in rugby, cricket and football.
And as the impacts of a global pandemic continue to reverberate through sport – and impact women’s sport more adversely – establishing a hub where athletes, administrators, leaders and researchers can communicate their experiences is timely.
The theme for the world conference, ‘Change Inspires Change’, will be launched today and it’s become even more apt since Covid-19 struck.
“Because of Covid, we’re living the idea of ‘change inspires change’ every day,” says Rachel Froggatt, who is both CEO of Women in Sport Aotearoa, and secretary general for the IWG. “The concept was born in January, so it’s meant having to think outside the box and change some of our creative ideas around the way we deliver the world conference.”
In these times of uncertainty, Froggatt and her local organising committee have decided the conference in May 2022 will be a physical-digital hybrid event. In other words, people around the world who can’t get to Auckland will still be able to take part virtually. Both programmes will be given equal weight, rather than the online programme simply being a window to the event in Auckland.
And they wanted the involvement to start now, rather than it just be a ‘pop-up event’ in two years’ time.
“Our theme came out of a simple idea to empower the individual and for people to feel that their contribution – however large or small – is meaningful, is appreciated and can inspire the next person, and the next,” Froggatt says.
“We’re going to encourage people to tell their stories, tell us what they’re doing, and what they’re seeing. And to tell us how they are making positive change for women and girls. We see that passing on the wisdom by telling people’s stories will help a whole raft of people wherever they are in their journey in the world.”
From today, when the ‘Change Inspires Change’ campaign is launched digitally, people will be able to submit their stories for consideration while the interactive Insight Hub is being built (it’s scheduled to go live early next year).
