Case studies / Activate West Wales
Activate West Wales: a regional activity finder, built in partnership
How West Wales Sports Partnership went from no activity finder to more than 1,000 listed clubs and opportunities.
The challenge
West Wales Sports Partnership had no activity finder. Rather than buy a fixed product, the Partnership wanted a supplier who would build one with them step by step, shaped around the needs of the Partnership and its partners.
Why Nautoguide
The Partnership came to Nautoguide on recommendation, having heard about our work for Cardiff Metropolitan University (Cardiff Met Sport) and for Active Partners Trust in Derby.
What Nautoguide delivered
Working with the Partnership, Nautoguide built and launched Activate West Wales (activate.locaria.org) on Locaria. The service includes:
- a complete public portal for residents to find activities near them
- integration with OpenActive data feeds
- an administrative back end for the Partnership to manage listings
- an AI-powered data capture exercise, in which Nautoguide's research agents found and verified clubs and opportunities across West Wales to populate the finder
How we worked
Nautoguide have developed the service incrementally, listening to the Partnership and the communities it serves. Each stage has been agreed with the Partnership, and the design has changed readily in response to feedback from its partners. Activate West Wales is currently in pilot, and the Partnership and Nautoguide are using what they learn together to decide the next stage.
“We wanted a partner who would build this with us, not sell us a finished product. Nautoguide have listened to us and to our communities from the start, and have been flexible and accommodating whenever our partners’ feedback has changed what we need.”
See it live
Activate West Wales is open to everyone at activate.locaria.org.
Talk to Dave
If your Partnership would rather build an activity finder with a supplier than buy one off the shelf, Dave Barter would like to hear about it.