The Active Places, Active People National Conference will take place at Aviva Stadium on Thursday, November 12th, with Sport for Business Founder and CEO Rob Hartnett serving as MC.
Hosted by Dublin City Council in collaboration with the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS), the event will examine how city, town, and neighbourhood design, along with sporting facilities, can encourage greater physical activity and help build more robust communities.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daryl Barron, will welcome delegates before Minister of State for Sport and Postal Policy, Charlie McConalogue, delivers the opening keynote address.
The programme brings together sporting experience, academic research, participation expertise, and international thinking on developing public spaces.
Professor Niall Moyna of Dublin City University, one of Ireland’s leading voices on exercise and its role in preventing and treating chronic disease, will contribute to the morning discussions on lifelong movement and physical activity.
He will be joined by Paralympic medallist Orla Comerford, whose achievements on the track have included bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and double gold at the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships. Her experience will bring an important athlete perspective to the discussion around accessibility and the opportunities that sport can create.
Benny Cullen, Director of Research and Innovation at Sport Ireland, will examine participation trends and the changing patterns of how people engage with sport and physical activity, while Ger O’Connor, Director of Coaching and Club Development with Dublin GAA, will bring the perspective of one of the country’s largest community sporting networks.
Daniel Lambert, the Chief Commercial Officer for Bohemian FC, Elaine O’Connor, the Limerick City and County Council Lead for the Ryder Cup and Annette Cleary, the Dublin City Council lead for Euro 2028 will add to the conversation around the wider impact of major sporting events and clubs.
Together, their contributions should provide a useful picture of where sport stands today, how expectations are changing and what sporting organisations need to consider in planning for the years ahead.
The afternoon will turn attention to the physical environments where activity takes place, drawing on international experience in designing and developing sports and leisure spaces.
Ola Mattson, an IAKS Nordic Board Member and Development Consultant with the Danish Foundation for Culture & Sports Facilities, will bring insights from Denmark, where approaches to public space and community facilities have increasingly sought to accommodate changing lifestyles along with more informal forms of participation.
Rebecca Halstead, an architect and Northern Europe Representative for RIBA Europe, will explore how spaces can be designed and planned to encourage greater participation among girls, where the built environment, accessibility, and sporting opportunity are especially important.
The programme will also include fireside discussions that bring together different perspectives on participation, community clubs, major events, and how to use existing spaces more effectively.
These conversations have a significant wider policy dimension.
Much of the debate around increasing participation in Ireland has traditionally centred on investment in sports facilities, the development of clubs and the recruitment of coaches and volunteers. All are still essential, but building a more active society also depends on decisions made well beyond the sporting sector.
School locations, park design, access to safe walking and cycling routes, the opening of publicly owned facilities, and the availability of attractive shared spaces all influence whether people have the opportunity, confidence, and inclination to be active.
Financial and operational considerations also matter. Better use of existing facilities can deliver greater value from public investment, while more inclusive design from the outset can reduce the need for expensive later adaptations.
For National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships, this creates opportunities to work more closely with local authorities, planners, health agencies and community organisations, connecting the ambition to grow participation with the practical decisions that determine where and how activity happens.
It also raises the question of whether investment in sport should be measured simply by the number of facilities built, or more meaningfully by the number and diversity of people who use them.
The conference comes at an important time for these discussions, as recognition of the role physical activity can play in preventative healthcare, community wellbeing, and social connection has grown.
By bringing together voices from different sectors, Active Places, Active People aims to encourage a greater understanding of what sporting infrastructure can look like, and how Ireland can make better use of the places it already has.
The full-day conference runs from 9.30 am to 4 pm in the Havelock Suite at the Aviva Stadium and includes networking opportunities and a stadium tour.
Registration is now open, with places limited.
Book your place at the Active Places, Active People National Conference
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Image Credit: Dublin City Council
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