SMAANZ 2023 - Keynote Speaker #2

On behalf of the SMAANZ 2023 Organising Committee, we are delighted to announce our second keynote speaker Professor Tracy Taylor.

Sport management scholarship has played a pivotal role in shaping and contributing to positive change in the sports sector. In considering contemporary sport management challenges and opportunities, and how to continue making meaningful impact on practice, we can reflect on how our work to date has made a difference and how it might shape sport into the future.

Over the last several decades our academic research has not only informed practice, but it has also provided a catalyst for evidence-based solutions. While important to reflect on our successes, we also need to acknowledge where change hasn’t occurred or hasn’t been as progressive as we might have hoped for. While our research has contributed to innovations, generated new ways of thinking, provided best practice models - there are areas where even robust research findings have not facilitated much needed change.

Strong research collaborations and productive partnerships are crucial in shifting practice, generating system, governance, and organisational improvements; and developing sustainable operating models. Partnerships between sport management scholars and practitioners can productively address the changing nature and future of sport – through co-designing research agendas and taking shared responsibility for ethically utilising research outcomes in the advancement of both our scholarship and practice.

As we find ourselves in an increasingly changing sporting landscape, we can draw on the past to help shape the future. Through the integration of sport management research with key sector players, we can continue to address persistent challenges, identify new opportunities, and contribute to shaping an inclusive, safe, welcoming and sustainable future for everyone in sport.