Thank you for supporting the Thriving Tennis Tour 2023!
The second year of our state-wide Thriving Tennis Tour has come to a close after five conferences were held over the last six weeks. The theme of the tour this year was ‘From Surviving to Thriving.’ Our keynote speaker this year was Andrew O’Loughlin of Experience Design who attended and presented at all five conferences. Andrew spoke on the experience of our tennis community in particular from the start of their journey when they hear about an event or initiative at a tennis club, through to the follow up communications our clubs send after an event or initiative has happened. It was fantastic to hear him speak about the importance of considering every part of the journey the community experiences when participating in tennis.
We kicked off the tour in Geelong at GMHBA stadium where there was a high level of engagement particularly around the strategic planning session. Discussion was around the performance of the Thriving Tennis Communities framework 12 months down the track and then looking to how affiliates are able to utilise this information to help develop a clear and effective club strategy.
Next, we headed to Bendigo where we were hosted by the Bendigo Regional Tennis Centre. A clear highlight of the day was the Grass Court Network session where we continue to connect regional grass court curators. Grass courts make up 18% of courts in Victoria, so it was great to offer this session as part of the tour.
After Bendigo we travelled across to Shepparton at Parklake Shepparton for the second year in a row. Sam Wieland from Kiewa Park & Old Students spoke to the conference about the amalgamation for the two clubs and how they went from against it to embracing it as well as what it has now done to make them and the tennis community sustainable and thriving.
Next stop on the tour was Traralgon at the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre where the highlight was Susie Grumley from the Traralgon Tennis Association explaining to the group how the community partnerships they’ve developed have helped bring to life Pride events and Wheelchair Tennis.
Finally, we finished the tour on June 4th at Royal South Yarra in Melbourne where a fantastic session was delivered about safeguarding children and young people in tennis where the new child safe standards in Victoria were explained. There was also a coach stream running alongside which saw our coaches get on court and participate in player development sessions.
It was wonderful to see so many volunteers, coaches and administrators from all over the state in person, thank you to everyone who joined us at our five conferences. Over the next few months we’re hoping to make all of the content accessible to our affiliates and update you when that’s available to you.
If you attended a Thriving Tennis Tour conference, we’d love to hear from you – click here to give us your feedback!
Latest
VIC