An improved version of Open Sessions for voluntary clubs, groups, businesses and fitness professionals to access 1000’s of new customers via the web’s biggest activity finders such as Get Active has gone live.
The updated Open Sessions website, from London Sport, will also allow the community groups, small businesses and clubs to become cash free as well as simplify payment reconciliation to save time and effort.
Open Sessions has been built as part of London Sports’ mission to harness open data – data available to anybody to access – to help people in London to discover and take part in new activities more easily, and enhance the sector’s engagement and reach in the capital.
“Because of all the open government data…you can find your way across London very quickly, and that has spread to other cities…you take it for granted.
“When people want to find their way towards being healthy, we should do the same thing – put sports data online. If we get it all online then there will be apps that will immediately help you do these things.
Tim Berners Lee – Inventor of the World Wide Web
We believe that every Londoner should have the option to search, find and book a physical activity that inspires them to become active.
Currently, a large proportion of opportunities to get physically active are not available digitally.
Information about activity sessions is often public though, a gym might publish sessions on its own website, a walking group could share its timetable on social media and a pilates instructor may use flyers and posters in the local area.
As a result, people find it hard to browse local opportunities in one place, and services wanting to promote activities struggle to keep that data up to date.
For this reason, London Sport have developed Open Sessions which creates and uses open activity data to make more activity sessions digitally available and erode some of the barriers that prevent people from coming together to get active.
To do this, Open Sessions offers a solution for activity providers to publish, manage and promote their sessions in one place.
“We want to make it as easy to book a badminton court as it is a hotel room”
Lisa O’Keefe –Director of Insight, Sport England
Open data not only makes it easier for everyone to find and book activities but it also helps Local Authorities and National Governing Bodies to understand provision within their borough or sport.
London Sport can work with you to help you to achieve the following:
- Make it easier for Londoners to be active by making activities more accessible
- Channel existing open data and unlock new sources of open data from major activity providers
- Populate activity finders, apps and tech solutions such as Get Active
- Develop a plan of action for open data for sport and physical activity within your borough
An important by-product of increased usage of these products is the generation of much needed data around the provision of physical activity and sport across the capital, including:
- The supply of physical activity – who is delivering what and when
- The demand for physical activity – who is searching for what and where
- Participation in physical activity – who is attending what and how often.
The all new Open Sessions Web App is now live, including a host of new features built in direct response to user feedback.
To learn more about Open Sessions and what London Sport can do to help you to stimulate the flow of open data in your area, please visit opensessions.io, download the Partner Toolkit below or email us at [email protected].
