The Swim School Edge 2026 Programme
Thursday November 5th
9:00 Meet. Greet. Mingle and check-in.
9:45 TSSE opening
10:00 Building a Moat in a Pool: John Mitchell.
How to build a sustainable competitive advantage - and actually execute it. Most swim schools compete on timetable, price, and pool temperature. That's not a strategy - that's a shopping list. In this session John unpacks what a real competitive advantage looks like in a children's activity business and why most operators never build one.
11:15 Leadership isn’t defined by title. Leading teams with confidence and credibility: Ashleigh Pushon
Ashleigh show’s trust, consistency, and clear expectations shape team performance, and why breakdowns in these areas often lead to communication issues, low accountability, and inconsistent results. She will share how leaders can strengthen team culture, improve performance, and lead with greater confidence and clarity - a real story from DGSS.
12noon Lunch with colleagues
12:45pm The Squeeze: Rebuilding the Value of Swim Teaching: Stefan Jans
Stefan explores the “retention squeeze” facing swim schools, where rising minimum wages have reduced traditional pay premiums for skilled instructors. He’ll share his thoughts to reposition swim teaching as a high-value profession and how tools can reduce administrative workload to unlock efficiency gains that support stronger career pathways
1:45pm The Sea of Sameness
How to find your swim school's point of difference when everyone sounds the same, especially for parents who are exploring LTS for the first time.
This session takes a fresh look at how swim schools communicate their offer and challenges us to think beyond the traditional "learn to swim" story. Drawing on a review of swim-school messaging across New Zealand, we'll explore why so many organisations sound remarkably similar, what actually creates meaningful differentiation, and where there may be opportunities to tell a more compelling story.
Because perhaps the question isn't simply "What do we offer?" but "Why should a family choose us?"
Come ready to look at your own swim school's story through a different lens and leave with some ideas for making it clearer, more distinctive and more memorable.
2:45pm Refuel and conversations
3:15pm Ask Any Question: Straight talk from the sector’s leading voices
Your chance to put questions directly to sector leaders. Get honest insights, fresh inspiration, and takeaways to drive your success.
4:15pm Thursday wrap and happy hour
Friday November 6th
8:30 Kicking off the day
8:45 Transforming the Team That Transforms the Kids: John Mitchell
Why your team is the product - and how to lead one worth staying for.
In a Learn to Swim business, the quality of the experience walks out the door every afternoon at 6pm. Your instructors are your product. So why do most operators spend more time on marketing than on the people who actually deliver the thing being marketed?
John will share how Delta transformed from a founder-dependent business into one where the team drives the growth - the hard lessons, the systems that made it repeatable, and the shift in the founder's own role that had to happen first.
This is not a session on rostering or retention hacks. It's a session on what it takes to lead people who will outgrow the job you hired them for, and why that's the goal.
10:00 Leading Yourself First: Clarity, Confidence, and Connection in Leadership: Goldie Feinberg
Running a swim school, a gymnastics club, or any business built around kids and families is people work, all the way down. The families, the staff, the culture you're trying to hold together while also trying to grow something. It's genuinely demanding, and most of the hard bits don't come with a manual.
This session is a practical look at the stuff that doesn't always get talked about - what happens to your thinking when pressure goes up, how to get on the same page with people who operate very differently to you, and how to make a call when everything feels equally important.
The first session focuses on you: your patterns, what steadies you, what throws you off, and how to lead from a clearer place even on the hard days.
10:45 Refuel and conversations
11:15 Goldie – session 2:This session is more outward: understanding the different people in your team, having the conversations you've been putting off, and finding a bit more ease in the decision-making
12:00noon Leading with Kindness: Unlocking the Potential of Your Next Generation Team: Fabian Hauschild-Rogat
Today's swim school leaders face a very different workforce to the one they entered themselves. So how do we create workplaces where young people feel valued, challenged, and inspired to stay? Fabian shares why modern leadership is no longer about authority: it's about connection.
You'll hear how leading with empathy, authenticity, kindness, and a growth mindset can transform your team culture and develop confident, capable employees. Whether you lead a team of five or fifty, this session will challenge the way you think about leadership and provide practical ideas you can implement immediately.
Leadership isn't a title: it's an opportunity to shape people, build culture, and create the future of the NZ swim school sector.
12:45pm Lunch with colleagues
1:30pm TSSE People . . . The Edge
Not all of the best ideas come off a presentation slide, they’re sitting around the table with you. These 20-minute round-table conversations are designed to get talking, sharing and learning from each other. Each table will focus on a practical topic, with a table leader kicking things off with their short real-world way from their own swim school. Then it opens up: your questions, your experiences, challenges, ideas and opportunities. Choose your tables (3) to hear, to contribute, challenge your thinking and grab at least one ‘The Edge’ idea for home.
3:00pm The Swim School Edge 2025 wrap