As part of getting to know the international team at our new partner 4Global (who’s working with us to develop the Open Ice technology platform), our Comms Lead Denise Withers sat down with their Global Partnership Director Steve Mann to learn more about their work and vision. Here’s an excerpt of their conversation.
Denise: You and your team are doing really critical, often unseen work to use data and technology to inspire change in the sports world. How did you get into this field of “sports intelligence”?
Steve: Sport has always been my passion. Growing up, I played everything: football, rugby, as well as spending a lot of time sailing. I was a competitive sailor and played rugby throughout university. I've always believed that sport shapes who you are as a person, teaching teamwork, leadership, and other vital skills.
I went to university to do a sports science degree to become a PE teacher. That was my initial goal. However, at university, I started to think about the broader benefits of sport to society, beyond just my own personal enjoyment - what it meant for physical and mental health, for wellbeing, and factors such as employabilty and the prevention of crime. This shift in thinking changed the direction of my career. I realized that if we could get more people active and participating in sports, we could help to tackle some of the biggest issues facing communities.
So I went on to become a researcher, studying how to use sport for societal benefits. My PhD was called "An Ecologically Valid Assessment of the Exercise as Medicine Hypothesis," which is a wordy way of asking, could we take what we know about the benefits of exercise for health—such as preventing diabetes, depression, and preventing and managing a huge range of non-communicable diseases —and replicate the findings from the laboratory in a real-world setting? This has always been the core theme of my work and research.
Denise: When you look at the work you and your team are doing now with 4Global, what’s the big opportunity you see in terms of using data and technology to solve the problem of physical inactivity?
Steve: From my perspective, there’s always very localized good practice and great examples of local initiatives. You have community leaders and influential people who make things happen and bring people together to create change. What data and technology allow us to do is scale that up to a macro level, informing policy and practice on a larger scale.
At 4Global, most of our work is about capturing enough data across a sector, sport, or country to inform key decision-makers. We can then advise them on where to invest in sport to have the biggest impact, see the largest return, and help those most in need.
Denise: Figuring out how to help more people benefit from hockey and maximize infrastructure investments are definitely key goals for us on the project that we're doing together. Can you tell us more about how data and tech can help make hockey more accessible through the Open Ice project?
Steve: First and foremost, you can't create solutions or gain buy-in until you properly articulate the problem. For Open Ice, we aim to understand the current allocation of ice time. Is it equitable and fair? We have some hypotheses, but we need to gather data to understand the situation fully and work with the FHL to develop solutions.
Another key principle is that you can't manage what you can't measure. We want to have a tangible and measurable impact on the equity of ice time across Nova Scotia and ultimately Canada. Establishing a baseline will help us influence and track change throughout the process.
If we identify areas lacking space or capacity for the growing women’s game, younger players, or social groups outside traditional competitive hockey, the FHL team will collaborate with providers to develop solutions.
Denise: When you look at the challenges of creating gender equity in sport more broadly, what opportunities do you see to use data and tech there?
Steve: On a personal level, I’ve been a trustee at Women in Sport in the UK for six years, and I have an eight-year-old daughter. I believe she should have every opportunity a boy has. Women in Sport advocates that no one should be excluded from the joy, fulfillment, and lifelong benefits of sport. This belief is integral to my work and what sport means to me.
At 4Global, we often conduct supply and demand analyses to determine optimal investment in facilities and infrastructure. We find a significant disparity in the number of sports clubs available for girls compared to boys, stemming from the assumption that demand is lower for girls. This assumption isn’t based on any actual assessment or survey; it's just assumed that girls don’t need as many opportunities. As a result, girls face more obstacles to playing sports, which persists throughout their lives.
Denise: So looking at the future, what's one thing that you would want to change to try to address that?
Steve: The first step is to highlight the problem. Many people still don't understand the extent of the issue. This is why the work with Future of Hockey Lab is so critical. Once we illuminate the problem, we can start making necessary adjustments.
We have a bit of a mantra that all the data in the world is only useful if it's actionable. Whenever we provide work, advice, or presentations, we ensure what we offer is actionable. If it’s not, we go back and refine it until it is. That's our job, really.
