Australian Swim Schools’ virtual conference a huge success

The Australian Swim Schools Association has reported that its 2020 Annual Conference - held online from Monday 27th to Friday 31st July -  succeeded in delivering a program that had been designed to provide the most value to swim schools as well as giving them the opportunity to remain connected.

Noting that the conference had been delivered “a little differently to those in the past”, ASSA General Manager, Emily McNeill advised that with the global pandemic we are all living, the Association had not been able to deliver an in-person conference instead running the event in a virtual format over five days, with sessions running three hours per day that included a series of networking and round table discussions.

McNeill commented “we had to shift our thinking to ensure we could still offer something special to our Swim School Community.”

Key areas of focus were Leadership, Product, People, Promotion and Performance, with McNeill stating “we had over 20 incredible industry and non-industry experts deliver these topics who both inspired and engaged.

“As our collective businesses around the world consider how we return from the last six months, it is critical for business leaders to find resolve, resilience, reimagination and reform to become futureproof.”

McNeill went on to say that “across the week, we had over 530 delegates from 25 different countries register and attend the event both live and on-demand after the event concluded.”

Explaining ASSA’s current activities, McNeill added “our goal through the past six months has been to keep the Swim School community supported to ensure that no one feels alone through this.

“Our industry has been hit so incredibly hard by this pandemic, however, we continue to band together to work our way through this storm.”

The feedback from the event has been overwhelmingly positive with one Swim School owner stating that “this is by far the best Swim School Conference I have attended. I have never been able to afford to attend an ASSA Conference so I was so happy and lucky to be able to view it all online as well as watch it at a later time.”