Staying true to their reputation of championing innovation, national intellectual property (IP) specialists James & Wells are proud to announce a new partnership with the Sports Performance Innovation Forum.

The Forum is organised as a joint initiative with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), High-Performance Sport New Zealand and Callaghan Innovation, and is part of Techweek’ 18. The Forum aims to showcase both Auckland and New Zealand as a home for world-leading sport performance innovations.

James & Wells Partner Jonathan Lucas says “Being involved with the Sports Performance Innovation Forum is a fantastic opportunity for us to meet the very best innovators in the sports performance space. It’s a chance for us to emphasise to this sector the importance of IP and how it can be used to strengthen and enhance the value of an idea, product or service.”

Keynote speakers at the forum will be international expert on Artificial Intelligence, Professor Nicolas James and Performance Analyst Mike Hughes.

Professor James is a world-leading researcher in the areas of neural networks, artificial intelligence and data mining techniques for sports performance. He will share his extensive knowledge gained in his roles as a professor and leader of a world leading post-graduate sports analytics course, and as a data analysis consultant to many professional sporting bodies (including UK Sport, English Institute of Sport, Swansea Football, Saracens Rugby, Welsh Rugby, and Welsh Football).

Mike has been working in elite level sport for more than 15 years and has been an integral part of some outstanding teams, including British and Irish Lions, Senior England Rugby Team, British Cycling and England Squash. He was also Senior Performance Analyst on the British Lions Tours in 2013 and 2017. Both tours were very successful with the Lions winning a test series for the first time in 16 years against Australia and drawing the series in 2017 against New Zealand; only the second Lions tour of all time that New Zealand has not won.

Pam Ford, ATEED’s acting General Manager, Business, Innovation and Skills says “ATEED is thrilled to welcome James & Wells to the Sport Performance Innovation Forum sponsorship family for 2018. This builds on the great partnership we have with Callaghan Innovation and High-Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) to put this high-quality annual event together”.