About us
iStadia is the global community for those in professional sport and exercise to network, promote themselves and develop business. Organised locally on a global basis, iStadia will bring together athletes (beginners to elite), coaches, sport scientists, academics and businesses involved in sport and exercise. It will create new opportunities for referrals, jobs, projects, business development, access to expert support or advice, research and shared learning. iStadia will provide a platform for connecting and collaborating with like-minded individuals through Networks, Clubs, Events, Videos, Articles, Blogs and Forums.
So if you are one of the following or looking for support or advice from one of the following:
- • A coach
- • An athlete or professional sportsman or woman at any level
- • Public health specialist in sport injury
- • Physiotherapist or sports therapist
- • Sports physician or surgeon
- • Sports agent, lawyer or marketing specialist
- • Influences or delivers sport and exercise policy via local/federal or national government
- • Involved with a business supplying products or services to the sport and exercise industry
- • Sport or leisure manager
- • Personal trainer
- • PE Teacher, educator, researcher or work in any other capacity in sport and exercise
- • Student taking a course within sport and exercise or sport science
- • Organise sport through a club or association at any level
- • Team manager
- • Part of a National Governing Body (NGB) or Professional Association
- • Or simply you just have an avid interest in sport or exercise
- then iStadia will be of interest to you.
Get Started on iStadia
Join for free, connect with others, view Profiles, locate local expertise and advice, find jobs and much more. Articles and Networks with iStadia will ensure that you keep up to date with everything that goes on within sport and exercise both locally and globally.
We aim to bring a wide range of jobs at all levels from part-time to full time including:
- • coaching roles at all levels from amateur to professional, from those privately hired to those employed by National Governing Bodies (NGB’s)
- • referrals from professionals in other disciplines (phyios, psychologists, biomech.’s, strength and conditioning specialists, nutitionists etc)
- • service organisations (marketing, agencies, licensing, legal, advertising and sponsoring)
- • fitness trainers and health professionals involved in private, government and NHS positions
- • manufacturing to service businesses that serve the sport and exercise industry
- • management and organisation of sport and exercise
- • local and national government involvement in sport and exercise
Create Your Profile
Tell the world of sport and exercise about yourself by developing My Profile, upload your CV/resume, images, videos, articles, testimonials and case studies. Build your Network and get involved. We have learned that good content creates traffic. The more you contribute to the iStadia community, the more your personal profile will be seen. So by keeping MyProfile up to date, blogging (why blog?), leading your own network/Club or interest group, writing articles, participating in forums, the more opportunities you will have to develop for yourself and your business.
Invite Colleagues and Contacts
Build your network of colleagues, contacts, referrals, clients, sponsors, team members, staff and so on. Why network? Click here
Browse Through Profiles
Browse through Profiles, Articles, Case Studies and much more. Looking for a new coach or performance psychologist, perhaps a sponsor - read through Profiles relevant to your sport, discipline, sector or business. Keep up to date with the latest news and cutting edge research (Articles and/or Clubs as well as iStadia news), opinion (Blogs) and discussions (Forums).
Browse now
iStadia blogging – beginners guide
Creating a blog on iStadia can be about anything so long as it relates to sport and exercise. Besides text it can include photos, other images, music and videos uploaded from YouTube, MySpace etc. Blogs should be current which means something that has caught your attention today or very recently and then your view on what you want to say about it. It could be something you want to comment on:
- • a recent achievement (how you or your team won/lost)
- • sharing news with your colleagues, team or organisation
- • your opinion and recent changes in government/NGB regulation with regard to your sport or discipline
- • recent changes at your local gym or health practice
- • views on the latest theory in motivation, self-efficacy or anxiety
- • the latest football results
All content must abide by our terms and conditions especially with regard to language and content
Networking and why do it?
Why network?
Networking can be very useful for several reasons:
- • Finding a job
- • Increasing your business
- • Starting/developing your business
- • Promoting your organisation
- • Looking for assistance with a project
- • Finding expertise that you don’t possess eg. a nutritionist for your client/athlete if your specialty is say, physiology. This also applies to specialists in accounting, VAT, sports law, licensing and marketing.
- • Locating expertise in your area eg. a coach or sport psychologist if you have recently moved
- • Locating participants for your research
- • Maintaining links with friends and colleagues from your previous organisation or academic institution
- • Finding additional members for your team
There is networking and effective networking!
Within iStadia the first thing to do is to build your profile so you everyone can see what you do or what you want to do. You can then raise your profile by inviting people to join your network, blogging and joining Clubs.
The most important thing to remember is that networking is NOT about asking people for what you want. It’s what you can do for them rather than what they can do for you. It is about asking people for information, advice or assistance.
Share and share alike. Think of networking as being about gathering and sharing ideas – see yourself as a knowledge resource: the more people you meet, the more information you will have that you can pass around. Make yourself a useful contact to other people. Be prepared to share your information and contacts in return.
Who do you network with?
Start with people that you know. Not only it is less daunting, but it’s time-effective to build on your existing network rather than try to create a completely new one from scratch. Think you don’t know anybody? What about people you currently work with – or have worked with in the past. Think about the people you socialise with. If everyone you know in turn knows just another 10 people, it’s not hard to see how you potentially have access to hundreds – even thousands – of people.
Identify new avenues to pursue. Try to expand your network to include people whom you wouldn’t ordinarily come into contact with – perhaps from professions, cultures or backgrounds very different from your own. This is a great way of broadening your horizons and helping yourself to think creatively and more imaginatively about say, your career options. Joining a Club that focuses for example on one sport say football will bring you into contact with coaches, agents, sponsors, technologists (prozone, opta, video analysis etc), physiologists, sport psychologists and footballers themselves.
Be clear on what you want to achieve - remember, you are not asking your contacts directly for something eg. a job. However, you might want to ask them for ideas about career opportunities you haven’t thought of, more information about options that you are already considering, or advice on your CV/resume. And remember to ask every contact if they can in turn put you in touch with two or more further contacts – that’s how you grow your network.
How do you meet?
Online contact is fine but you might get more if you try to meet your contacts face-to-face at some point by joining appropriate iStadia Clubs that organise offline events. You will find that it is much easier to strike up a rapport, you will be much more memorable to them, and they’ll probably give you far more information than they would have done in a telephone call or an email. Don’t take up too much of their time, say 10 minutes at most. If you develop an understanding then you will probably get longer.
And then what?
Do I prepare before meeting someone and if so how?
Do research beforehand. Make sure you know as much as possible about the person you are meeting and how they may be able to help you – you want a focused discussion, not just a pleasant but ineffectual chat. People will be impressed if you are well-prepared but if you’re not, then they may feel you are wasting their time as well as your own.
Follow-up. Always follow up all the leads you receive, even if they don’t look too promising in the first instance. Firstly you can never tell how useful someone might be until you speak to them. Nor who they in turn might be able to put you in touch with. Secondly, because if someone has gone to the trouble of giving you a lead or a contact, it’s simply rude not to follow that up. Also make sure that you write – or at least email to thank the person who has given some of their time to you.
Developing your network
Set yourself some targets eg. aim to contact 3 new people every week. Don’t set yourself a target that is unachievable, and don’t confuse quantity with quality. Make sure you give yourself time to prepare properly before you chat with someone, and follow up properly afterwards.
Keep good records of all contacts. Keep notes about what you talked about, anything you know about them and so on.
Be patient. Remember that networking is a long-term strategy, not a short-term fix. Don’t get frustrated if the first person you talk to doesn’t offer you what you want on the spot! Put time and effort into building up and nurturing your network. It will pay dividends later.
It is very unlikely that you will be able to remember all this information – you won’t! So put in place a good record-keeping system from the outset.
