Sheila Bouman: Tech-letics: Why technology and sport create a better B.C.

Cyclists can use a smartphone app like Strava Ride to monitor their stats. VSUNwp

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Next week’s #BCTECH Summit is taking place at a time when the public’s mistrust of technology is at an all-time high. From parents’ despair at their kids’ screen time to the effect of social media in determining foreign elections, even the most devout tech evangelist is most likely weighing the pros and cons of storing and sharing workout data with fellow cyclists and runners on the mobile app, Strava.

Despite these challenges, technology continues to prove its worth by pushing the boundaries of innovation to advance human potential. Within the world of sport and physical activity, Olympic athletes are tracking bio-metrics to reap the most benefits out of their training. Professional sport teams are using data analytics to optimize their roster. At the highest level of sport, technology is helping produce significant results.

However, most people don’t go to the Olympics or participate in sport at a high-performance level. In fact, even with the known physical, mental, education and social benefits of sport, we’re seeing a general decline in participation across the country. Moreover, technology is being perceived as the root cause of our national inactivity crisis. This bold and dangerous presumption ignores other pressing factors that are resulting in kids dropping out of sport, such as early sport specialization and burnout. Yet, society seems to have adopted the limiting belief that technology and physical activity can’t coexist.

But that’s not true. Technology does play a role in sport and physical activity. Take Pokémon Go, for example. Over the app’s inception, players have walked enough kilometres to circle the Earth over 200,000 times. What’s even more remarkable is how the game inspired physical activity for previously inactive individuals and fostered community engagement within public spaces.

Another effective example of how technology can provide an incentive for physical activity and health lifestyles originated here in British Columbia. The Carrot Rewards app allows users to track and input healthy lifestyle choices for rewards, such as Aeroplan points or movie passes. This program has been wildly successful and is a model for how businesses, government and sport partners can partner to improve the quality of lives for British Columbians.

At viaSport, we embrace technology as a key ingredient to remove barriers to participation in sport. Earlier this year, we saw an opportunity to create better knowledge-sharing around sport programs and resources for people with disabilities. Microsoft, a leader in technological innovation, volunteered to come onboard and partner with us to develop the Accessibility Sport Hub (ASH). A chatbot using article intelligence and machine learning, ASH helps athletes, parents, and administrators find sport programs and resources for people with disabilities in an easy and interactive manner. Turns out, sport and technology go hand in hand.

With the digital health platform predicted to be worth $220 billion by 2021, technology is certainly here to stay. After all, the innovation potential for technology and physical activity is already happening, even without a coordinated effort. Imagine the increased impact sport could have on people’s lives if we simply collaborated.

By working more deliberately with the dynamic leadership of the B.C. technology sector, viaSport will ensure that more people thrive through sport and physical activity. Because technology is not only an ally but a fundamental enabler.

Sheila Bouman is CEO at viaSport B.C., an independent not-for-profit organization created with the support of the provincial government in 2011 to lead the province’s sport sector to build a stronger, more effective system in British Columbia. She will be speaking on The Human Side of Tech: Pushing the Boundaries and Creating Positive Human Impact at Western Canada’s largest technology and innovation event, #BCTECH Summit, on May 16.

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