Esther Hope from the British Heart Foundation National Centre (BHFNC) talks about the messaging behind getting people active and the BHFNC's annual conference.
Physical activity is a vital component in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and keeping a range of preventable diseases at bay.
But despite extensive promotion of this message over recent years physical activity levels across all age groups remain low.
This suggests that health is not a strong enough motivator to spur people into action. Does this mean that the physical activity sector needs to think differently about how it promotes activity?
Do we need to understand more about our audience and what motivates them to get moving?
This year’s BHFNC annual conference is aiming to do just that.
The event aims to think outside the box and create partnerships with organisations that are not traditionally related to physical activity to help us to understand what motivates people and to explore non-traditional ways of being active.
For example, volunteering and conservation organisations that offer people opportunities to get out and about clearing footpaths or maintaining their local countryside – an area and cause close to their heart.
Linking with charities that organise sponsored running events or bike rides – initially people do these events to raise money for a cause that means a lot to them but what can we do to ensure this is not a one-off participation and they continue to participate in the future?
This year’s conference will focus on these stealth interventions and examine in more detail how we can capitalise on them by tapping into people’s interests and motivations to be active.
Interested in coming? We’d love to see you at this year’s annual conference on Thursday 20 November.
For more details on the programme and to sign up please visit www.iexevents.co.uk/bhfnc2014
Do you have a good example of a stealth intervention? We’re also looking for projects to showcase their work at our conference. Visit the conference website for more details.
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