Moving More Boosts Saracens Class Attendance by 40%

The Saracens Foundation are the charitable arm of the professional Saracens Rugby Club and one of the most prominent physical activity delivery organisations in Hertfordshire and North London. They run a suite of programmes encouraging people of all ages to participate in sport and physical activity as they seek to encourage positive change, from rugby to dance to athletics and targeted focusses that include those with disabilities, older adults and encouraging positive outcomes within education and employability

As such, the Moving More team were delighted to be contacted by the Foundation, following an online workshop event, to discuss the best way of incorporating their sessions into the activity finder. There was a lot of energy to get the sessions uploaded as soon as possible so it was decided that they would be uploaded through 'Open Sessions'. However, although Open Sessions a popular cost-effective method for smaller organisations, the mass and breadth of Saracens Foundations activities were causing too much workload in addition to updating their own booking system.

To overcome this we delved deeper into their current booking system to explore whether it could become compliant with the OpenActive data standards and therefore connect automatically to the finder with no extra effort. After connecting the Foundation to Imin, a physical activity open data specialist, it transpired that the Foundation's booking system (Bookwhen) was already compliant and could be easily connected to the activity finder. A few quick processes with the booking system provider later their sessions were open and pulling straight into the activity finder automatically!

Since then, the Foundation have found that using the platform not only provides a 'quick simple way to push the message out there', but also saves on administration time. Participation rates have improved and their Officers are not having to answer numerous phone calls and emails to give participants the session details or attendance options.

Jess Smith, Senior Development Manager at Saracens Foundation, summarised the impact of opening their session data to Moving more:

"Since opening up our data we have seen clear growth in the majority of our Herts classes. For example, our Watford Love to Dance class at Wellspring Church quickly increased by 40% and our class in Potters Bar by 28%. All other classes have seen increase of at least 10% attendance. Whilst we recognise this could be due to a number of contributing factors, we are confident that opening our data has made a significant difference to this. Especially considering a post pandemic world where return to our classes for this more vulnerable demographic has been slow; the activity finder has played a part in reaching a new audience who have perhaps acknowledged the importance of being social and physically active post lockdown."

If, like Saracens Foundation, you provide activities and would like to grow your attendance by connecting your sessions to the Moving More Activity Finder, you can visit the upload your sessions page to find out how. 

Alternatively, if you have any questions or could do with some help with opening your session data, please contact Linzi at l.hyde2@herts.ac.uk

To find out more about the great work Saracens Foundation are doing across Hertfordshire and North London, you can visit their website at www.saracenssportfoundation.org