Who are our National Council members and what do their roles involve? Our series continues to cover each of our heads of departments and their involvement in our sport from the time they first bowled to what’s in store for the future.
Meet BTBA Director of Business Development Adam Lawrence
When and where was your first experience of bowling?
I was seven or eight, at a birthday party at Acocks Green bowl, about forty years ago. Like most people, I went for fun. Decades later my children brought me back to the very same centre, and I’ve been hooked on the sport side ever since.
You have taken on the important role of business development for the BTBA, what experience do you bring to this position?
My background is in business and finance rather than bowling. I’ve spent my career building businesses, so I’m used to asking what something costs, who pays for it and what they get back. That is most of business development.
The rest is listening, and I’ve had a lot of very good teachers in bowling since March.
Starting in March this year, you have had some time to settle in, so time for us to ask what priorities to business development you have identified and any plans to address?
The honest answer is that the BTBA isn’t short of good work. It’s short of a plan that connects it, and of a way of telling anyone about it.
So my first job has been helping the Executive pull together a five-year strategic plan, which is now going out for consultation. The short version is grassroots first. If the base keeps shrinking, there is no top in ten years.
Practically, that means:
Telling our story properly on social media and the new website.
Making our guidance free and findable, because every free resource is a recruitment tool.
Treating bowling centres as partners rather than landlords.
Building a sponsorship offer that a company can actually say yes to.
There’s also a BTBA podcast on the way, which the Executive has approved.
A You Gov poll has Bowling is in the top 25 Leisure activities and in physical activities is Number five. It’s the highest sport on the lists. How do we as the official sporting side of this, take advantage of this good feeling towards bowling?
That poll tells us the problem isn’t awareness. Millions of people already like bowling. The problem is that almost none of them know there’s a next step after a birthday party. I should know, because it took me about thirty years to find it.
Our job is to be that next step. When someone has had a good night out, they should be able to find:
a league near them
a youth club for their children
a coach
a tournament
Ideally all of that is on one page and on their phone. The new website is a big part of that. So is our centres putting the BTBA in front of their customers, because they see far more potential bowlers than we ever will.
We have a rich history at International events and athletes more than capable of claiming medals. How can we attract more sponsors to our national teams or seek Sport England funding?
Costs are a real problem, and nobody wants to see us miss events we’re good enough to medal at.
On Sport England, I’ll be straight. Its money is for getting more people playing, not for sending teams abroad. That’s still useful to us, because funded participation work frees up our own money for the national teams. Charity status will help too.
On sponsors, companies don’t fund organisations. They fund a story and an audience. Bowling has a great story: indoor, all year round, affordable, played at any age and almost any ability, in ordinary towns.
We need to package that with real numbers and real visibility, so a sponsor knows exactly what they’re buying. That work has started. The national teams are some of our strongest material, and I’d love to see them carrying a sponsor’s name before too long.
This leads us to your own additional current interest and future interest in bowling and your talented young son Seb who we have seen recently gaining experience abroad and we expect has dreams of playing for the National team or playing PBA events one day?
He does, and he’s not shy about saying so. Seb is 12 and in his first year in the Under-16s. This summer he finished sixth in the Under-14s at an international youth event in Bratislava, as the youngest bowler in the field. That was a long drive, but worth every mile.
His next goal is the England Under-16 team. Longer term he talks about the senior team and America, and as his dad I’ll be happy if he’s still loving it in ten years, wherever it takes him.
To be clear about my own role: I help Team England and Youth Bowling with communications and I’m running the strategic plan, but I’m not a selector and never will be. I’ll have nothing to do with any selection involving Seb. In any case, I’m a very average bowler and a Level 1 EBF coach, so the selectors are safe from my opinions.
What the Bratislava trip really taught me is how few British youngsters compete in Europe, and how much they’d gain from it. I’d like to help change that for every family, not just mine.
Finally, we wish you all success in your position Adam and we are excited to see what is ahead of us, one last question, why should people try bowling for leisure or sport?
Because there’s almost nothing else like it. You can play it at six or at ninety, with your family or on your own, indoors, all year round, without needing to be the fastest or the strongest person in the room.
Then, if you want it to be, it becomes a properly hard sport. You learn to read lanes and oil, choose equipment and think your way round a game. It’s fun first and serious second, and the two aren’t opposites. Come and try it, and if you like it, we’ll help you find your next step.