Marketing physical activity will be discussed in one of two keynote addresses at the 8th Annual Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference held in Rockhampton from Thursday 28 November) until Saturday.

Central Queensland University’s Associate Professor Kerry Mummery will discuss Social Marketing of Physical Activity – A Call to Arms for Sports Marketing. He will use the 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project as an example of a whole-of-community physical activity project based on some of the basic principles of social marketing.

Within the 10,000 Steps project pedometers are promoted as the commercial product to be used to measure the daily step count in the population. Professor Mummery believes although the pedometer represents only the tip of the marketing iceberg within the project, it offers an interesting combination of tangible product marketing and concept or social marketing.

AFL general manager of game development Dr Ross Smith will also provide a keynote address. Dr Smith will address the relationship between elite and grassroots sport, as well as sport development in rural and regional Australia.

CQU as hosts of this year’s conference is providing the ‘best of both worlds’ for attendants.

Conference director Dr Geoff Dickson from CQU\'s School of Health and Human Performance said this year’s theme of the SMAANZ Conference, ‘best of both worlds’, has been inspired by the combination of sport and management.

“We are proud to be able to host this world renowned conference in Rockhampton,” Dr Dickson said.

“Like the conference theme, Rockhampton, Central Queensland and CQU represent the best of both worlds. We get the benefits of living in a city that is not too big or too small which offers the combination of the bush and the sea.

Dr Dickson said the conference program will include nearly 50 presentations from speakers from South Africa, New Zealand, Great Britain, Taiwan, United States and Canada.

Dr Dickson said the principal aim of SMAANZ was to encourage scholarly inquiry into sport management related research and to provide the opportunity to present results from this research.

The annual SMAANZ Conference facilitates the presentation of sport management related research and its organising body publishes a refereed journal titled the Sport Management Review. The conference and journal are the vehicles through which sport management related research are communicated.