Presenters and Presentations

Presenters and Presentations Biray Alsac Do your eyes Flickr and your head Twitter when you hear the words Facebook and Second Life? Overview Understand what a social networking site is, and what it can bring to physical activity promotion Looking at real life examples, learn how you could use social networking sites like My Space, Facebook and Second Life, in your projects Discover how they can increase participation, adherence and motivation Finally explore when they work and when they don’t work More Details

Dr Alasdair Thin ‘Exergames’ – Who, Why, When and What? Overview Dr Alasdair Thin is a lecturer in human physiology at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, with a specific research interest in active video games and their impact on health. Dr Thin will give practical advice on how 'exergames' can be used to encourage people to become active and what types of games are better in terms of promoting health and appealing to different population groups. More Details

Dr William Bird Active Points Mean Prizes Overview This highly innovative loyalty scheme, similar to the Oyster card concept, involves the use of simple scanning technology (currently being incorporated within many domestic mobile phones) and data chips which can take the form of wrist bands, cards or even on phones. The data chips can be swiped by compatible mobile phones or fixed or handheld scanners. The scanners can be situated in parks, on walking or cycling routes, at tops and bottoms of stairs in the workplace or handheld by teachers or by fitness instructors holding classes allowing monitoring and data collection of people who have been active. Activity can then be rewarded through a simple loyalty programme on the same basis as many already offered within shopping stores. The technology is very cost effective and in many cases only requires only a certain model of domestic phone along with very cheap data chips. As a delegate at Major Moves you’ll be able to try out this technology yourself in our own conference-pilot. More Details

Andrew Smith Bluetooth and Blue Skies Overview Andrew has been testing the use of Bluetooth technology to communicate sexual health information to teenagers in a variety of settings including schools. Andrew’s presentation will review the pros and cons of Bluetooth technology, where it is best and most effectively used and based on this knowledge he will be discussing ways in which this simple technology could be used in physical activity promotion. Again the technology is very cost effective requiring an outlay of about £1000 for the message delivery mechanism. After this, all that is required is for Bluetooth to be activated (a very simple process) on recipients phones. This is the same process that is used for connecting Bluetooth (handsfree) headsets to telephones and is routinely used among adults and particularly children. The sky is the limit when one starts to explore the possibilities this technology offers and this session will end with a round-table discussion involving delegates, on the variety of ways this technology could be utilised in activity promotion. More Details

Tor Davies Inspiration, Innovation and Motivation Overview While research for presentations for this conference, Tor came across a whole host of ways in which technology was being used to promote activity. This took the shape of anything from using Google Maps to motivate or pimp your ride-style pedometer challenges where kids earn credits for activity they have undertaken which can be used to ‘pimp’ various different things such as virtual race horses, to dance mats in retirement homes and much much more. Tor will be presenting highlights of these findings and reviewing specific projects which have been particularly successful. The goal will be to choose initiatives which could be easily adopted or modified in the UK without costly outlay. More Details