Innovation from Fluidra Australia helped the $25 million Inverell Aquatic Centre located in Northern NSW, secure the Excellence in Innovation Award at the prestigious Aquas Awards Gala, hosted by Royal Life Saving in early May.

The Aquas is Royal Life Saving’s night of celebration that honours the contributions and dedication of individuals and organisations working to prevent drowning and promote aquatic participation for everyone across NSW and the ACT.

For the aquatic centre, Fluidra Australia provided a bulkhead capable of insulating half of the 50 metre x 8 lane pool into a 25 metre x 8 lane pool in wintertime while meeting World Aquatics regulations.

This was achieved through an innovative design that has seen a moveable boom – supplied by Fluidra Commercial – placed at the 25 metre mark of the pool (at the boundary between the main pool hall and the outside) with the ability to be locked down to separate the water areas.

Fluidra also provided a movable warm water program pool for swim lessons, hydrotherapy and much more. Including movable stairway and access lift built into the AKVOSpiralift movable floor. They also supplied SRSmith starting blocks, stainless steel anchors and lane ropes.

Representatives from Belgravia Leisure accepted the award on behalf of Inverell Shire Council, recognising the innovative design elements integrated into the recently constructed aquatic centre.

Inverell Shire Council worked closely with Royal Life Saving throughout the development, construction, and accreditation phases of the Inverell Aquatic Centre, ensuring industry-leading safety standards and innovative aquatic design elements.

Belgravia Leisure’s Business Operations Manager Liz Stranix, presented the award to Inverell Shire Mayor Kate Dight at the Inverell Aquatic Centre where it will be displayed as a testament to the facility’s commitment to excellence.

Click here to contact Fluidra Commercial via their listing in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

Images. Credit: Fluidra Commercial

Related Articles

3rd May 2025 – Parramatta Aquatic Centre secures top award at The Aquas

1st March 2025 – New Inverell Aquatic Centre open to the public

2nd January 2025 – Inverell Aquatic Centre to host Swimming NSW regional championship event in 2026

27th November 2024 – New $25 million Inverell Aquatic Centre counts down to opening

8th May 2025 – Fluidra acquires SaaS platform Pooltrackr

29th April 2025 – Fluidra Commercial backs mature-aged athletes at National Masters Swimming Championships

2nd April 2025 – Fluidra invests in Lynxight anti-drowning technology

28th February 2025 – Fluidra Commercial moves to strengthen business development team and marketing leadership

31st January 2025 – Inaugural Fluidra Australia Cup water polo tournament a resounding success

4th December 2024 – Fluidra announces Managing Director appointment for Australia and New Zealand

21st November 2024 – Fluidra takes on naming rights for water polo’s inaugural Australia Cup

19th August 2024 – Fluidra to acquire Chadson Engineering in Australia

8th July 2024 – Fluidra maintains support for Royal Life Saving WA’s Swim and Survive program

19th March 2024 – Fluidra sponsorship with Water Polo ACT benefits grassroots and competitive levels

19th February 2024 – Fluidra welcomes Valentina Tripp as new Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you’re here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that – if you don’t already do so – you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.

By Puneet Dua

Advertisement

New Delhi [India], June 2 (ANI): A gamer breaks down strategies, a startup founder shares hard-earned lessons, a golf coach helps improve your swing, and a motorsport enthusiast decodes every turn on the track. There’s one thing that’s fundamental about all successful content creators: authenticity always wins.

The Indian creator ecosystem is one of the most dynamic in the world. With over 2.5 million monetised content creators and influence over nearly 30 per cent of consumer decisions, according to a BCG report, the creator economy is no longer a side hustle, it’s a formidable industry. But even within this booming space, a shift is underway. The most trusted and impactful voices are no longer the loudest ones. They are the ones who provide context, experience, and real outcomes.

This shift is especially evident in the real money gaming (RMG) space, particularly in fantasy sports and emerging skill-based formats. Influencers who once focused on entertainment or click-driven content are now building credibility through deep analysis, predictive modelling, and historical insights. Many have developed strong domain expertise over the years, studying player form, venue stats, weather conditions, and anomalies, and are now sharing that knowledge through high-value content.

These creators are not just entertainers but educators and tacticians, making fantasy gaming more strategic, data-driven, and skill-focused. With new-age platforms emphasising real-time decision-making and user skill, such creators play a key role in steering the RMG narrative away from luck and toward legitimacy.

The viewers and consumers of these content creators have also become more vigilant about the content they are consuming, constantly analysing and gauging overproduced content and mere marketing pushes. Today, they gravitate towards creators who practice what they preach. These creators are hardened veterans of their industries who have spent years learning, practising and building their craft and are now packaging their knowledge into content that people can learn from.

Consider the Indian gaming industry, which is now experiencing a revolution as new formats that are based on real-time events are picking up speed. Creators who simply showcased their analytical prowess by completing random challenges are no longer the ones people look up to. Instead, they now look up to the ones who are analysts and former pros who understand the nuances of strategy, skill, and real-time decision-making.

This pattern holds true across disciplines. In golf, followers flock to creators who break down the science of putting or help correct a slice. In motorsports, niche YouTubers who dissect telemetry data or tire strategy gain more credibility than influencers showcasing lifestyle montages. In the startup world, it’s the founders who share raw fundraising decks, failed experiments, and honest growth stories who are gaining loyal followings, not those merely celebrating funding rounds.

What unites these creators is their deep focus on problem-solving over promotion. They aren’t here to sell dreams. They are here to teach, mentor, and elevate. They recognise that content can be a service and that service builds trust. With attention spans shrinking and scepticism rising, users reward creators who offer tangible takeaways. And that trust, in turn, creates economic opportunity.

The days of chasing views are long gone. Today’s creators understand that authenticity lies in monetising depth over reach, so they offer private coaching, host paid webinars, and build relationships rooted in credibility. The creator becomes a partner in the audience’s growth journey, not just a performer in their feed.

The communities of these authentic creators are relatively small, but that’s by design. Instead of catering to everyone, they stick to their niche audiences who are passionate about their content. The result? These micro-communities often outperform broader audiences in terms of loyalty, engagement, and conversion.

The magic lies in how these creators compress years of experience into simple, digestible content. In a three-minute video, they might pass on a principle it took them three years to master. This efficient transfer of knowledge is the creator economy’s superpower. In an era of information overload, creators who curate, contextualise, and simplify have become invaluable.

Importantly, the best among them is abandoning misleading hooks and clickbait titles.

They no longer need gimmicks to pull people in because their value speaks for itself. Their success is not accidental. It is the outcome of consistency, craft, and care. Audiences are responding by showing up, sticking around, and paying up.

This shift is also opening up new paths for platforms and brands. When creators build content around trust, learning, and results, it becomes the most effective form of organic marketing. No one feels like they are being sold. Instead, they feel informed and empowered. Whether it’s a viewer becoming a better sports trader, a founder making smarter business decisions, or a young athlete learning how to improve, the outcome is meaningful. And when the content delivers real results, conversion becomes a natural next step.

The industry is witnessing the rise of skilled creators: new-age professionals who blend insight with impact. They are educators, entertainers, coaches, and community builders all rolled into one. And they are proof that influence built on trust, not just reach, is the real currency of the digital world.

As India’s digital economy grows and content becomes increasingly democratised, this creator model will only gain momentum. The future belongs to those who not only know their craft but are generous enough to share it. In this ecosystem, the most powerful kind of marketing is simply showing up, being real, and helping someone get better at what they love. (ANI)

Disclaimer: Puneet Dua is the Chief Marketing Officer at SportsBaazi. The views expressed in this article are his own.

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)

(Credits: Cannes Film Festival)

There is nothing more confusing than the experience of being a teenager, something that is only worsened by the lack of sympathy from adults while in the throes of puberty, social growing pains and crippling anxiety about the way you look and everything that comes out of your mouth. Your head becomes an echo chamber full of unchecked negativity and self-deprecating thoughts, growing critical of parts of yourself you never noticed but now suddenly loathe, whether it be a dimple, spot or the way you pronounce a certain word. The playground becomes a battlefield, and nothing is more concerning to you than the idea of standing out, pleading with benign higher forces to be cool, popular, invisible.

VARDEN — Western Wayne has struggled a bit the past few years on the local boys volleyball scene.

MILFORD, Mass. (WBZ) – An 18-year-old high school student, who is undocumented but has lived in Massachusetts since he was 5, was detained by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the way to volleyball practice.

Four Milford High School students were on their way to volleyball practice Saturday morning when three unmarked vehicles carrying ICE agents pulled up behind them. At least two of the students in the car were undocumented, including the driver, 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes.

The other undocumented student in the car at the time spoke out about the incident. He asked to remain anonymous. He says that they weren’t doing anything wrong to warrant being pulled over.

“An ICE officer stepped out of his vehicle, knocked on the window and asked what his documentation was,” the student said.

The agents interrogated the car full of students about their documentation before taking Gomes, who is a high school junior, into custody. The other undocumented student says he was not taken into custody by ICE because he is underage.

“That’s kind of when emotion hit, and I started crying… Tears just started coming down my eyes,” the student said.

The student says he is now afraid all his hard work in school and being a good member of the community is in jeopardy.

“I always knew this to be a system that kicks out undocumented people for committing crimes, and now, it’s a system that will just kick you out based on your status,” he said.

Milford Police say they were not informed ICE would by carrying out this operation, and Milford Public Schools Superintendent Kevin McIntyre said the following in a statement:

“The Milford Public Schools play no part in immigration enforcement and support all of our students and families, including those who are immigrants to the United States. They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends, and neighbors.”

Family members say Gomes has lived in the Milford area since he was 5 years old.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking, and Marcelo is such a kind person. He’s the last person that this should be happening to. His siblings are so young, and they’re asking questions like whether they’re ever going to see him again,” said Gomes’ cousin, Ana Julia Araujo.

Araujo says Gomes is currently being held at an ICE detention center in Burlington.

Hundreds rallied Sunday in support of Gomes, including members of Milford High School’s Class of 2025, who marched down the street in their caps and gowns after graduation. Gomes is a member of the school band and was set to play drums at the ceremony.

“Marcelo was a good kid. He was excited for his future. He did absolutely nothing wrong. He was innocently going to a practice, and he was targeted,” said Gomes’ girlfriend, Julianys Rentas.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, also spoke out against Gomes’ detention.

“I’m demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he [Gomes] was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected. My heart goes out to the Milford community on what was supposed to be a celebratory graduation day. The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe,” said Healey in a statement.

Copyright 2025 WBZ via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey took to social media Sunday evening to demand answers after ICE agents arrested a high school student heading to volleyball practice over the weekend.

The student, 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes, is a junior at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts. 

In her post, Healey says she is “disturbed and outraged” and that she wants answers immediately explaining why the student was taken into immigration enforcement’s custody.

“I’m demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected,” she s.

BLUE STATE GOVERNOR SOUNDS OFF ABOUT ‘DISTURBING’ ICE OPERATIONS ON AFFLUENT LIBERAL ISLANDS

People walked to Milford High School’s graduation ceremony on June 1, 2025. Several ICE arrests were made in Milford on Saturday, including a Milford High student who was detained on his way to volleyball practice.  (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

In the post she blames the Trump admin for what she describes as an attempt to create fear.

“The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe,” her post states.

In her statement, Healey claims that the student was detained on Saturday without any warning or subsequent explanation provided to state officials.

“Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions,” she said.

The community gathered to protest outside of Milford on Sunday. Hundreds demanded Gomes be set free and that ICE stop harassing members of their community.

Milford High School graduates protest outside of Milford Town Hall a day after 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice.  (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

DEM GOVERNOR BACKS ICE ARRESTING ‘CRIMINALS’ DESPITE VOWING TO USE ‘EVERY TOOL’ AGAINST TRUMP DEPORTATIONS

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat who represents Milford in Congress, attended the protest and made note on X that Gomes was “enrolled in honors classes, a coaching assistant for girls volleyball [and] player for boys volleyball, and a member of the school band.” 

“This administration has its public safety priorities backwards. It pardons cop-beaters from Jan. 6 but detains high-school volleyball players. It makes gun-purchaser background checks harder while pushing for tax breaks to buy silencers for pistols. This reckless behavior does not make the residents of Milford safer, and I stand with the community in support of law [and] order,” he wrote.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat who represents Milford in Congress, attended the protest and made note on X that Gomes was “enrolled in honors classes, a coaching assistant for girls volleyball [and] player for boys volleyball, and a member of the school band.”  ( Rep. Jake Auchincloss on X)

Milford School District Superintendent Kevin McIntyre says that Gomes’ detention is one of many apprehensions to take place in the southern Massachusetts community.

McIntyre says the district cannot take any role in immigration enforcement, but they will “support all of our students and families, including those who are immigrants to the United States.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends, and neighbors. We will do everything in our power to support our students and families during these difficult times,” he said in his statement.

Sunday morning was Milford High School’s graduation and Healey says a day of celebration has now been tarnished.

“My heart goes out to the Milford community on what was supposed to be a celebratory graduation day,” she said.