The National Sports & Physical Activity Convention (NSC) and the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to partner with, providing greater access to the latest global insights to the Australian community sports, aquatic, and leisure facilities market.
Both IAKS and NSC are committed to collaborating for a greater global network and a stronger and sustainable Asia Pacific region industry voice and networking by combining resources, to benefit the industry. Recently Stefan Kannewischer, IAKS President and Klaus Meinel, IAKS Secretary General, met Martin Sheppard, Co-founder of the NSC, in Cologne and signed the Memorandum of Understanding to cement the relationship. (see photo)
IAKS is the leading global non-profit organization for professionals involved in the sports, leisure, and recreation industries. For nearly six decades it has enabled international networking for the exchange of planning, design and operational management for over 120 countries and across all continents of the world. IAKS has appointed Yvette Audet as its ANZ Ambassador and over the past 12 months has grown its presence in ANZ.
The NSC is Australia’s largest community sport convention and has over the past few years with the direction and support of over 40 peak bodies and collaborators, continue to share the latest trends and thinking from the globe with showcasing good practice from around Australia.
The MoU partnership will allow Australia and New Zealand NSC delegates to benefit from the global IAKS network of experts and partnerships, with support over the next five years. The partnership will allow both organizations to expand their offering withing the ANZ region by offering:
• Global speakers at NSC from 2022
• A specialist design stream in NSC23
• IAKS Southern Hemisphere Global Conference co-located in 2024
• Expanded IAKS program in ANZ to share global best practice, aligning with their expert circles across a 12-month program
• Global access to suppliers from Australia to the world’s largest Sports and Leisure Facilities Expo (FSB cologne) held every two years.
Stefan Kannewischer, IAKS President, said “The MOU with NSC allows IAKS to expand further into the Australian market and use our global networks to continue to present global industry trends and best practice.”
Yvette Audet, IAKS Vice-President / ANZ Ambassador said “It is a great alignment for IAKS ANZ with the NSC, creating a good synergy among our networks. IAKS has helped provide international speakers in past NSC events, presenting global trends papers and case studies. We are thrilled to be further involved with NSC coinciding with the expansion of our members, network and events across Australia and New Zealand.”
NSC Co-Founder Martin Sheppard says “The NSC is excited to build upon the collaboration we have nurtured with IAKS over the past five years. This formalization will allow NSC to continue to bring the best of global best practice to ANZ. We will continue to work closely with the ANZ peak bodies to allow global case-studies to be show-cased alongside each other.”