In March of last year, we sadly made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming Apprentice Coach Program due to the escalating Covid pandemic. Little did we know at the time that almost a year later, and we are no closer to welcoming guests back to ALTIS for any in-person Programs.
The upside?
The amazing February all-women’s ACP is the most-recent one – and we can’t think of a better one to be the freshest in our memory!
Once we made the decision to cancel the season’s ACPs, we decided that we would try to host them virtually – and the Virtual ACP was born. 6 events later, and we have now been joined by over 2000 coaches around the world, representing dozens of sports. In this sense, introducing ourselves to a far greater number of coaches than what is possible with in-person events (where we limit guests to 15-20) was awesome.
But in another sense – we really missed the interactive, behind the scenes engagement that the ACP is famous for – and in this sense, the vACP isn’t really an ACP at all, is it? We kept the pool-side chats, but there is no real way to observe training, and engage in the 100s of track-side conversations with our staff and professionals from all over the world when you’re sitting in your living room in front of a screen.
For this reason, we have decided to rename the vACP. We had hoped that the vACP would just be a short-term replacement for the ACP – but it is not looking that way, is it? And – I’ll be honest – even when we can welcome you back to ALTIS, we have really enjoyed the virtual events, and will most-likely continue them in some sense anyway!
So if not vACP – what?
This is honestly one of the hardest things we do – try to come up with names for stuff!!
We are coaches – not marketers!
Anyway – we spoke to a bunch of our smart friends, and – after bandying about names such as the ALTIS Symposium and the ALTIS Virtual Symposium – we have landed on: ALTIS Connect!
Why Connect?
The change to ALTIS Connect! reflects our belief in the principles of transparency, inclusiveness and shared experience – principles that ALTIS was founded on.
ALTIS Connect! will continue to provide access to our popular coach development program online and in real time. Providing attendees with the opportunity to interact as a community, fostering personal development in a safe and collaborative environment.
ALTIS Connect! – where “our network is your network” – a place where some of the best practitioners in the world come to share.
Look out for more details on ALTIS Connect! coming really soon! I can’t wait to share with you the rest of our plans for the year!
