The first week in May brought together a team of our Board Members, Regional Managers, Site Managers and Assistant Managers to attend the ASCTA and Swim Australia conferences on the Gold Coast. As part of our ongoing commitment to gaining the professional development in the swimming industry we were represented by a team of 15 staff amongst our 9 sites. This annual national conference is a great opportunity to share and discuss best swimming practice with the leaders in the Aquatic Industry from all over Australia and the world.
Some presentations of note this year included an interesting lecture on Human Resource strategies from Jon Foss, who runs Foss Swimming in the U.S. and a somewhat light hearted message on water safety and its direction in Australia from ex Australian Olympic coach, Laurie Lawrence, who was at his entertaining best. Other topics presented and discussed this year included, water safety around the house, use of swimming aides, working with swimmers with a disability, marketing and advertising, the mechanics of strokes and infant development steps.
As well as strong representation from our Management team, we also had our SSC Head Coach Peter Howes attend the coaching stream of the conference over 7 days, ensuring he remains up to date with the latest developments in swimming mechanics and training strategies.
This conference once again provided our team with some great information and ideas to help us continue to make PSS a great place to learn to swim. We also found time for some fun, concluding the conference (on the Tuesday evening) with a boat cruise around the Gold Coast as a reward for our hard work!