17TH WORLD LEISURE CONGRESS

Theme and vision


Leisure: Learn Well, Live Well

The congress theme is "Leisure: Learn Well, Live Well" and we call for contributions from academia and industry alike that engage with the potential of leisure to contribute to our ability to both learn well and live well. This theme was deliberately chosen as we wish to encourage scholars and industry practitioners to consider:

  • How leisure may contribute to individual, community and/or societal learning;
  • How we may learn about leisure from others across disciplinary and practitioner boundaries;
  • The contribution of leisure to living well, and conversely, the implications of lack of access to leisure for living well.

However, we believe the notions of learning well and living well in the title carry deeper, more fundamental meaning that in turn connote a significant responsibility on us as congress organisers. We have a responsibility to ensure our delegates, other education providers, and the wider Dunedin and New Zealand community learn well and live well as a consequence of us hosting the congress.

This is how we intend to embed our values around learning well and living well...

Learn well:

For delegates

  • Ensuring relevant high quality research and practitioner presentations;
  • Empowering student delegates with the skills and knowledge to progress in their chosen career path;
  • Encouraging young/early career researcher delegates to share their work in a supportive environment;
  • Facilitating learning opportunities between academia, industry, practitioners, community groups and associations.

For other education providers

  • Collaborating and including scholars from other discipline areas at the University of Otago (e.g. School of Physical Education, Health Sciences, Geography, Humanities);
  • Collaborating and including scholars from other education providers (Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand School of Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, Lincoln Unversity, Queenstown Resort College, Victoria University of Wellington).

For our wider Dunedin/New Zealand community

  • Encouraging and the sharing of information between academics, industry, community groups and leisure/recreation associations;
  • Hosting sessions of relevance to community groups, industry and leisure/recreation associations;
  • Solution rooms where delegates are invited to brainstorm solutions to real-world specific challenges faced by local stakeholder groups.

Live well:

For delegates

  • Ensuring an accessible and inclusive congress so that every delegate, irrespective of ability, race, sexuality, gender or religious belief feels comfortable and welcome;
  • Creating sufficient time and space for delegates to reflect, and to network and socialise with others;
  • Including major social events (welcome and conference dinner in the registration fee);
  • Enjoy a professional yet informal New Zealand congress experience;
  • Embedding best practice sustainability initiatives in all aspects of congress delivery.

For our wider Dunedin/New Zealand community

  • Obtaining World Leisure Community of Excellence status for Dunedin in recognition of city residents' ability to live well;
  • Garnering recognition of leisure's contribution to living well in New Zealand;
  • Showcasing the benefits of leisure participation (particularly arts and culture) for marginalised groups, as a result of our social legacy project;
  • Reducing the barriers to access and participation in arts and culture for all New Zealanders.