Sport and business often go hand-in-hand. We’ve met local business people to see how they work sport into their lives...

Victoria Holloway, corporate marketing director, Queensberry

What is your involvement in sport?

Sport has always been a huge part of my life, I compete in an array of running events including marathons, half marathons, 10ks and 5ks. Combined with sport I do for pleasure; cycling, skiing, walking, Pilates and meditation.

How do you feel sport helps you in your day to day business?

I work in a busy environment having to focus on a number of different tasks at the same time, therefore sport allows me to clear by head and in turn helps discipline my mind and focus more on my day to day work. The importance and benefits of sport is underestimated by so many people.

How do you encourage your colleagues to get involved with sport?

I would actively encourage all my colleagues to get involved with sport, and this is something which Queensberry also understands the importance of, as happy staff gets better results. We previously entered a team for the Newport half marathon, we compete in a 5k charity relay run and support Teenage Cancer Trust.

Paul Bennett, who works in recruitment is also chairman of Wales Over 50s Cricket

What is your involvement in sport?

As chairman of Wales Over 50s I am proud to represent the ‘older generation’ of cricketers from Chepstow to Ammanford and north to Pwllheli – we have more than 55 players still playing the game competitively and there are another 45 or so playing over 60s cricket
Over the last 40 years I have been an active member of Chepstow Cricket Club; Chepstow AFC; St Arvans AFC and Mathern AFC. I played rugby, cricket, basketball and football at Swansea University and have held the role of treasurer at Chepstow CC for 20 years – you could say sport has been an important part of my life. I now play golf at St Pierre and hope to return to the cricket field for the Over 60s side in a couple of years’ time!

How do you feel sport helps you in your day-to-day business?

I have worked in the recruitment industry for nearly 30 years and sport has provided me with numerous opportunities to network professionally and talk enthusiastically about the services I can offer. Sport is a great common denominator and ice breaker among the business community – it doesn’t take long to find a CEO / CFO in South Wales who follows football, rugby, cricket or golf (sometimes all four!).

How do you encourage your colleagues to get involved with sport?

I have coached junior cricketers for 10 years and I’ve always sought to impress on them the importance of team sports; the fiends you make for life and the contacts that sport provides in the business community of South Wales.

Zoe Westerman, a director of Cyclone24 UK, a national endurance cycling events company, based in South Wales
 

What is your involvement in sport?

We run cycling challenges at velodromes across the UK, including Wales’ National Velodrome in Newport, which we refer to as our ‘home’ and where we first started our events.
My role is wide ranging, from looking at the challenge experience as a bigger picture, through to creating a brilliant event atmosphere. Operationally I’m responsible for the sales, marketing and event organisation. Strategically I am responsible for developing the event portfolio, looking for new partnerships and revenue streams.
Cyclone24 has engagement with sport at its heart and is focused on getting people of all abilities and ages to try an exciting and exhilarating form of cycling on the velodrome track. With just five velodromes across the UK, we are very lucky to have one here in Newport.
Most of our challenge participants are teams of employees from local SMEs and national businesses, who have active employee engagement and corporate wellbeing programmes in place.
Ahead of the challenge date, we work with the corporate teams as they embark on velodrome track cycling training. Track cycling bikes have no brakes and the track is at a 42 degree angle, so we start with the basics and move on from there. This offers a great opportunity for teams to spend time with each other outside of the office environment, while also giving a chance to work together on their challenge strategy.
Riding as six person relay team for 24 hours requires strategy, motivation and plenty of team spirit!

How do you feel sport helps you in your day-to-day business?

Sport is my day-to-day business. However, for the participants of our challenges and the attendees of our corporate cycle network, it’s all about using sport as a vehicle for staff engagement, team building and general wellbeing in the workplace.
Cycling is proven to have a positive effect on emotional health, and general wellbeing, along with being a health-enhancing way to network and reducing the cost of sick days off work. What’s more, training for a cycling team challenge encourages staff and colleagues to train together, which in turn promotes a more active lifestyle.
Couple that with the fact that creating a strong bond between colleagues leads to a more collaborative environment that puts focus on creativity, productivity and communication across departments and business units, and you’ve got a real win win situation!
And let’s not forget the charitable impact to. Most of businesses who enter our challenges chose to raise money for their charity partner in doing so. To date we have seen teams raise in excess of £125,000 for their chosen charities, meeting some of their CSR goals along the way.

How do you encourage your colleagues to get involved with sport?

I’m evangelical about getting people to try the velodrome, and especially passionate about encouraging more women to participate. Our challenges are open to all abilities, so I encourage everyone to get involved, whether you regularly ride a bike or haven’t ridden one since your childhood.

Jamie McGowan, campus director of the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise, Caerphilly
 

What is your involvement in sport?

As well as being player-manager for probably the world’s greatest five-a-side football team, FCFC, I also host the Run Club and weekly five-a-side football game at Welsh ICE.

How do you feel sport helps you in your day to day business?

It’s no myth that an active lifestyle leads to more energy and focus in your day-to-day work. Whether it’s the lunch-time run club or the after-work five-a-side games, mixing work with play has been a big positive, with members saying they feel much more engaged. There’s also the social aspect; ICE is its community, and the more varied the opportunities our businesses get to interact with each other, the easier collaboration and networking becomes.

How do you encourage your colleagues to get involved with sport?

At ICE, we are incredibly lucky to have a campus based in the breathtaking beauty of Caerphilly, and we wanted to provide our members with a way to get their sporting fix in the lush trek and travel paths that surround us. Every Wednesday lunch-time a group of us don our sporting gear and hit the trail for a short-but-sharp run. For those more interested in skill than stamina we also hold weekly five-a-side matches and regular table-tennis tournaments..
The way people work is changing, and the drudgery of 9-5 is slowly ebbing away. As the campus grows we are looking for more opportunities to bring sport and leisure into the workplace, to make sure our members can balance work and life, as well as the books.