Community Conversations Follow-Up: The Future of the Scottish Six Days

The fifth session in the SOA’s monthly online Community Conversations series this year took a deep dive into the future of Scotland’s flagship orienteering event — the Scottish 6 Days. This was a very timely discussion, as we look forward to Deeside 2025 whilst also needing to address the significant structural and demographic challenges to its sustainability, if events in 2027 and beyond are to continue successfully.

The Challenges to Address
The session was introduced by Dave Kershaw, Chair of the 6 Days Company Board, highlighting the importance of wide engagement and input from members to shape the event’s future direction effectively. He identified several longstanding issues, including:

• An ageing orienteering participation base, with a trend toward declining
  participation especially among younger orienteers: how do we attract and
  retain new participants, including families and young adults?
• Volunteer capacity, particularly for core behind-the-scenes roles: while on-the-
  day help from clubs is generally strong, securing members for the central
  organising team — especially experienced planners, organisers, and
  controllers — has become increasingly difficult. This has also meant that the
  planning and delivery time-scale has been shortening for events; the Six Days
  company would like to restore a longer-term plan for future events, but
  urgently needs more capacity to drive this.
• Access to suitable areas with necessary infrastructure (travel options, parking,
  accommodation etc) and without insurmountable conservation constraints is
  tightening. Nesting birds, game shooting, and conflicting land use such as
  mountain biking make planning more complex. Long walks to starts from
  Assembly areas are also a barrier for some participants.
• Sustainability: Participants highlighted the need to address environmental
  sustainability, particularly travel demands, as many older orienteers now
  attend fewer events.

Discussion Themes
Participants responded with questions and comments around aspects of the Six
Days and possible developments, including the following.

• What learning can be gleaned from other, similar endeavours, such as the
  Welsh Five Days?
• What is the Six Days’ real focus now? Is it trying to do too much, delivering
  both top quality technical orienteering as well as a fun holiday experience for
  all – and time to focus more on one or the other? At inception, the original
  intention was to help develop orienteering, and this should be kept in mind
  now, for the whole of Scottish orienteering. Whilst high quality orienteering
  areas attract crowds, as these become more constrained, can other areas be
  used better, in innovative ways, to provide enjoyable and rewarding
  orienteering still? It’s not all about attracting the Scandinavians!
• Increasing the paid, professional support for delivery (as for the successful
  WOC 2024), whether for the full organising team or specific services. There
  are pros and cons: while this could, with the right recruitment to roles,
  alleviate strain on volunteers, the cost would likely increase entry fees, which
  must remain competitive with similar events across the UK and Europe
  (particularly to avoid risks of English participants choosing overseas
  orienteering holiday events instead).
• Streamlining Operations: Could the event be simplified without losing quality?
  Ideas ranged from reducing the number of start boxes to minimising over-
  marshalling in car parks. The efficient volunteer use in the Masterplan
  Adventure Series was noted, although there are very significant differences
  between this series and the Six Days.
• Is it time to adapt the format? – e.g., to incorporate sprint or urban elements –
  whilst mindful that the WOC Tour in 2024 in Edinburgh had a capacity of
  around 1000 and few areas could manage a Six-Days level event.
• What about reducing the event to five days now, to allow for a rest day and
  more of a “holiday” feel?
• Widening the geographical spread of the Six Days: could it be rotated more
  evenly around Scotland, especially to consider the south of Scotland which
  hasn’t hosted a Six Days since 1991? (This is actually being investigated
  currently, though downsides include a probable need for two event centres
  with added complications and travel for participants.)
• Engagement and Communication: Calls were made for better communication
  around how the Six Days operates, its relationship with SOA, and where
  funds go. More marketing and outreach will also be vital in sustaining and
  growing the event.

Looking Forward
The session concluded with a warm thank-you to Dave Kershaw for his decade of service as Chair, as he prepares to step down. His commitment and leadership were widely recognised and appreciated.
The comments and ideas raised in both this session and a session held with Club Chairs last month will be fed into the upcoming Six Days Board meeting. There will also be follow-up communication for members to explain how the Six Days is organised and how it and SOA inter-relate.

Many thanks to Nikki for convening the session, and thank you to all who participated — your insights are essential to shaping a sustainable and successful future for Scottish orienteering. Any further thoughts from members can be contributed via email to Dave Kershaw chair@scottish6days.com or Nikki Howard
nikki@scottish-orienteering.org.

Next Community Conversation (7 June): Supporting Inclusion and Welfare. Join us on Monday 7 June for our next discussion, on the vital theme of Supporting Inclusion and Welfare, hosted by Ken MacDonald, SOA Board Director for Welfare, with Nikki Howard, COO. Please join us then – sign up HERE

A Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants. An essential part of SOA’s function is to bring together people from across the Scottish orienteering community, and these monthly sessions aim to provide regular opportunities for sharing experiences and discussing successes, challenges, and
ideas. The 2025 Community Conversations programme can be found here Community Conversation page. For any queries on the series, please contact nikki@scottish-orienteering.org.