Dear friends of sport,

It is no secret that we are fascinated with innovation here at ThinkSport. It is fair to say that almost every day we learn something new about ideas and products that have the potential to drive progress in sport. Many of these have become successful as a result of a cross-sector partnership.

And it is always an exciting moment when one of these success stories ripens and can be shared with our network. Such is the case this month with DeFROST. DeFROST is a new project that uses satellites from the European Space Agency to provide fast and accurate data on snow cover on mountain trail networks. The technology allows athletes, hobbyists and guides, for example, to plan their activities in real-time, while the outdoors tourism industry can use it to better adapt to climate change.

We have reported on several occasions that Switzerland is fertile ground for innovative minds. If you happen to be involved with, or come across, an intriguing or successful sports business project in the Lausanne region, you might want to consider nominating it for next year's PERL Awards, which recognise entrepreneurial activity, innovation and creativity that has a positive economic impact. Start-ups and established companies from the Lausanne region have until 12 January 2018 to nominate any economically viable project that introduces new services, products or business models.

If you would like to delve into the exciting world of new technologies serving high-performance sport, then you should join the 4th Sportdata & Performance Forum organised in Zurich at the end of November. The event serves as a platform for sport performance specialists to examine the convergence of technologies that has resulted in the unprecedented collection and analysis of sporting metrics, and how it can be applied effectively by sporting organisations to achieve success on and off the field of play.

We would also like to encourage you to keep adding to the many great discussions on our Sport & Innovation Group on LinkedIn, a platform for anyone who is keen to exchange information about, or drive innovation in, sport and physical activity. 

Stay tuned, there is more exciting news to come soon!

Yours,

Anna Hellman
Director of ThinkSport