OPEN DATA
SHARING
IS CARING OpenActive is a community-led initiative with the ambition of helping people in England get active using open data. Sports Management talked to Allison Savich, Sport England’s strategic lead for data and innovation to find out more
Why did you launch OpenActive?
in this digital age, there are many sectors
need to make an informed choice on the
Something we hear quite often is that
that are making it a lot easier for people to
websites, apps and services that they
people want to get active, but it can be a
find alternatives – such as the transport,
already use, such as Airbnb.
frustrating experience to find accurate and
restaurant and travel sectors. For example,
Sport England’s ultimate aim is to
up-to-date information that helps them
when the travel sector’s data was unlocked
help more people get active. According
decide which activity is right for them –
several years ago, this revolutionised the
to the most recent Active Lives survey,
even just the basics like what the activity
experience for holidaymakers, making it
currently over a quarter of the population
entails, where it’s located and what it costs.
far easier for them to book holidays using
in England are inactive, which means they
sites like lastminute.com.
do less than 30 minutes of moderate
This information does exist, but it tends to be hidden away on websites that are
OpenActive aims to do the same for
difficult to use, in disparate social media
the sport and activity sector by ensuring
groups, or printed flyers and brochures.
that gyms, leisure centres and sports clubs
As a sector, we know that physical activity must compete for people’s leisure time. And
keep up with the digital expectations of our consumers by putting the data people
intensity activity each week. We believe OpenActive can help remedy this.
Is this the first time you have tried to solve this problem? No. Our first attempt in 2012 was called Spogo, which was in partnership with ukactive. This aimed to capitalise on the legacy of the 2012 Olympics, but it didn’t achieve this for several reasons. Spogo aimed to create a single website for consumers to find and book physical activity online. But we quickly came to the realisation that the marketing costs
OpenActive aims to help customers find sporting activities
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ISSUE 4 2018
sportsmanagement.co.uk