Future Sport Lab 01 · Participant Experience
Design sporting experiences
people choose to return to.
Bring one real participant challenge.
Work with peers, specialists and AI to understand it, design a practical response and test something real. Leave with a prototype and a 90-day implementation plan—not another set of workshop notes.
- START
- STAY
- CONTRIBUTE
What is it?
Professional development for sport industry leaders and practitioners, built around a real piece of work. Across three facilitated sessions, you will work with peers and specialists to understand one participant experience challenge, design and test a practical improvement, and develop a 90-day implementation plan. It is part workshop, part peer learning and networking, and part applied improvement project.
Who it is for
Leaders and practitioners responsible for participation, member or club experience, program delivery, workforce, inclusion, communications or organisational improvement—and able to influence or test a change inside their organisation.
What you will work on
A genuine challenge your organisation already needs to solve: recruitment, retention, re-engagement, onboarding, belonging, progress, recognition, communication or participation friction.
What you will leave with
A practical prototype, evidence from participants, a 90-day implementation plan and a network of peers and specialists who have worked alongside you.
Use the Lab to advance work your organisation already needs to do—not to create another project that sits on a shelf.
- Applications closeFriday 16 October 2026
- Sessions10 Nov · 24 Nov · 8 Dec
- Time11.00am–1.00pm
- VenueDeakin University · Burwood Campus
The challenge
How might we design sporting experiences that are easier to start, more worth staying for and more natural to contribute to?
Easy to start
Discovery · joining · confidence · welcome · friction
The distance between wanting to take part and actually taking part.
Worth staying
Enjoyment · belonging · progress · voice · ease · recognition
What makes the second, tenth and fiftieth time worth turning up for.
Natural to contribute
Identity · connection · advocacy · volunteering · leadership
When taking part turns into giving back without being asked twice.
The Lab will help each organisation identify one participant, one experience challenge and one moment worth improving.
Why participant experience?
Sporting experiences are shaped by
far more than the activity itself.
How people are welcomed, communicated with, recognised, supported, included and able to see progress can influence whether participation becomes something they try once — or something they want to return to.
This focus reflects the wider direction of Australian and Victorian sport. Play Well—Australia's Sport Participation Strategy—places safe, welcoming, inclusive and enjoyable sporting experiences at the centre of its vision that everyone has a place in sport. Our analysis of Victorian State Sport Organisation strategies found participation, or closely related priorities such as growth, engagement, retention and inclusion, to be among the sector's most consistent areas of focus. Beginning with participant experience therefore responds both to the national direction and to the priorities Victorian sporting organisations have set for themselves.
The 2026 State of Victorian Sport & Recreation identified strong aspects of participant experience alongside practical opportunities around progress, ease and recognition. It also identified experience measurement as a significant organisational capability gap.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to tell organisations that experience matters. It is to build their ability to understand it, intentionally design it, test improvements and measure what changes.
The capability gap
4.37
Experience measurement — the lowest-rated organisational capability in the sector.
Experience drivers, 0–10
| Enjoyment | 7.33 strength |
| Belonging | 7.04 strength |
| Progress | 6.44 opportunity |
| Ease | 6.13 opportunity |
| Recognition | 5.98 opportunity |
Source: State of Victorian Sport & Recreation 2026.
The participant promise
Bring one real challenge.
Leave with something you can test.
During the Lab you will develop:
A defined challenge
One participant problem worth solving.
An Experience Journey
See where value is being created or lost.
A Moment That Matters
Identify the place where change could matter most.
A prototype
Build something real enough for participants to experience.
Evidence from testing
Learn what happened when you put it in front of real people.
A 90-Day Improvement Plan
Turn the learning into action inside your organisation.
How the Lab works
Three focused sessions. Six weeks.
Real application between them.
Session 1
SEE — See the experience through their eyes.
Understand the evidence, the participant and the current journey.
You leave with: target participant · current experience · Moment That Matters · design challenge.
Fieldwork
LOOK
Talk to participants. Observe. Walk the journey. Test your assumptions.
Session 2
IMAGINE & MAKE — Design the experience you wish existed.
Generate possibilities, challenge assumptions and make the strongest response tangible.
You leave with: future experience · prototype · test plan.
Fieldwork
TEST
Put the prototype in front of real participants.
Session 3
LEARN & COMMIT — Make it better. Make it happen.
Use evidence from testing to improve the prototype and create a 90-day implementation plan.
You leave with: prototype v1.0 · evidence · owner · measures · first action.
What you'll use
A practical Participant Experience Field Guide.
Participants work through eight tools.
The Match
Who is it for? What is it for?
Participant Lens
See the person, not the demographic.
Start · Stay · Contribute
What behaviour are we influencing?
Experience Journey
Map the moments, not the programme.
Pink / Green Moments
Where is value created or lost?
Future Experience Canvas
What should happen instead?
Prototype & Experiment Card
Make it real enough to learn.
90-Day Improvement Plan
Turn learning into practice.
The Field Guide is a working artefact — not a textbook.
Who should apply?
Organisations with a real challenge
and the ability to test within 90 days.
The Lab is designed for Victorian sport organisations with a real participant experience challenge and the ability to test a practical response. Relevant roles may include:
- Participation and development
- Club development
- Member experience
- Program and competition management
- Coach development
- Community and inclusion
- Workforce and volunteering
- Communications
- Senior leadership
We encourage organisations to nominate two people where practical: one able to influence decisions, and one close to participant delivery.
The cohort
Small enough to work.
Diverse enough to learn.
12–16
organisations
18–24
participants
The cohort will be curated rather than selected first-come-first-served. Selection will consider:
- Challenge quality
- Readiness
- Cohort diversity
- Implementation potential
- Willingness to share learning
What we ask of you
| Bring | One real organisational challenge. |
| Attend | All three sessions. |
| Prepare | Complete short fieldwork between sessions. |
| Engage | Speak to or test something with real participants. |
| Implement | A small experiment inside your organisation. |
| Share | What you learn, with the cohort and the wider sector. |
This Lab is designed for people ready to work on a challenge — not passive attendees.
Future Fellows
Specialist expertise when you need it.
Participants will work alongside Future Fellows across areas including:
- Sport Experience Design
- Participation and behaviour
- Participant voice
- Design and innovation
- Evidence and evaluation
- AI and technology
- Implementation
Confirmed Fellows: announced as they are confirmed.
AI in the Lab
Human-led. AI-accelerated.
AI will be used practically throughout the Sprint to help participants:
- Interrogate evidence
- Challenge assumptions
- Explore perspectives
- Generate alternatives
- Prototype ideas
- Stress-test inclusion and accessibility
No prior AI expertise is required. The emphasis is on human judgement and practical application.
Time commitment
Three focused sessions over approximately six weeks,
plus short preparation and applied work between them.
~6¼
hours live, across three sessions
2–3
hours of preparation and fieldwork
Indicative commitment; final timings will be confirmed with session dates.
What happens after Session 3?
Implementation is part of the Lab.
30 days
VicSport checks in
We check in on implementation and help unblock progress.
90 days
Learning Showcase
The cohort reconvenes: we tried… what happened… what we learned… what we'll do next.
Selected opportunities may progress into:
- Guiding Sport implementation
- Sector case studies and patterns
- Future Communities of Practice
- VicHealth Participation Innovation pathway
The VicHealth pathway applies where a fundamentally different participation model is required.
Before you apply
Questions you may have.
Not sure what you might work on, who should attend or what the Lab will involve? Start here.
What exactly is the Lab?
It is professional development built around a real piece of organisational work. It combines facilitated workshops, peer learning and networking, specialist input and an applied improvement project. You will work on the same challenge across all three sessions and test a practical response between sessions.
What kind of challenge could we bring?
Any focused participant experience challenge that matters to your organisation and can be explored with real people. It might involve recruitment, retention or re-engagement; welcoming and onboarding; transitions between programs; belonging, progress or recognition; communication or registration friction; the experience of a particular cohort; or how you listen and respond to participants.
What might we create?
Your prototype does not need to be a major new program. It could be a coach or club experience guide, a redesigned welcome journey, a first-session or first-30-days experience, a participant communications sequence, a progress or recognition system, a check-in or feedback tool, a re-engagement approach, an improved transition, or a small pilot for a new audience.
Do we need to know our solution before we apply?
No. Bring a genuine challenge, not a predetermined answer. The Lab will help you understand the participant and the current experience, identify the moment that matters most, generate options and turn the strongest response into something you can test.
Should two people attend from our organisation?
Two people are encouraged where practical—ideally one person able to influence decisions and one close to participant delivery. A strong single applicant is still welcome where two people cannot attend.
Do I need experience in design or AI?
No. The process and tools will be facilitated, and no prior AI expertise is required. Human judgement, participant insight and practical application remain central.
What happens after the three sessions?
You will leave with a 90-day implementation plan. VicSport will check in after 30 days to help unblock progress, and the cohort will reconvene at 90 days to share what was tried, what happened and what comes next. Selected projects may have opportunities for further work with VicSport.
What if I am interested but unsure what to work on?
Get in touch before applying. We can help you decide whether the Lab is the right fit and shape a challenge that is useful, focused and realistic to test.
Cost
Supported participation.
Participation is supported through Together More Active. VicSport members participate at no cost; non-members pay $100 per person. Places are deliberately limited.
Key dates
| Applications open | Now |
| Applications close | Friday 16 October 2026 |
| Applicants notified | As soon as possible after applications close |
| Session dates |
|
| Session times | 11.00am–1.00pm |
| Venue | Hosted by Deakin University — Burwood Campus |
Apply
Bring us a participant experience
worth improving.
Applications take approximately five to ten minutes.
Interested but unsure what you might work on? Talk to us about your challenge.