What does it take to perform at your best, recover effectively, and maintain wellbeing over the long term? And how can the sports and leisure sector use new approaches to help people do just that?
These questions will be at the heart of the Sport & Leisure discussion at the Ireland Portugal Business Network’s 5th Annual Tourism Conference on Thursday, 22 October, at WELL Vale do Lobo in the Algarve.
Bringing together expertise in sports science, elite competition, strength and conditioning, and neurotechnology, the panel will explore the relationship between physical performance, mental resilience, recovery, and sustainable approaches to health and fitness. The conversation will also consider how these disciplines can contribute to the evolving sports, leisure, and wellness experiences offered by destinations such as the Algarve.
With 40 years of experience in health, fitness, and sports training, Graham Morgan has dedicated his career to helping individuals and teams improve their performance. As part of the sports, fitness, and operations at the Campus, Quinta do Lago’s High Performance Centre, he brings a wealth of practical experience to the conversation.
Graham’s philosophy is grounded in structured training, consistency, and incremental improvement. Whether working with elite athletes or people beginning their fitness journey, he believes that lasting results come from disciplined effort rather than quick fixes.
At 60, Graham demonstrated that age need not be a barrier to ambitious physical goals. Following a structured six-month training programme, he set a Guinness World Record for the most chin-ups completed in 24 hours, achieving an extraordinary 7,479 repetitions.
Today, his focus also includes Flomo, a movement game and platform designed to make functional exercise more engaging and help people build lasting momentum through movement.
Lara Dahunsi brings the perspective of an accomplished Gaelic footballer who understands performance from both sides of the training ground: as an elite competitor and a qualified Strength & Conditioning coach.
Having started playing Gaelic football (GAA) at the age of six, Lara made her senior debut at just 14. Her career includes seven Senior Division 1 Club Championship titles, an Ulster Club Championship medal, multiple county and national league successes, and individual honours, including Young Ulster Player of the Year and two All-Ireland Final Player of the Match awards. Here is an invitation to get to know more about the GAA!
Alongside her playing career, Lara holds a Level 3/4 Strength & Conditioning qualification and has experience in individual athlete development, pitch-based performance training, and youth coaching.
Her approach places a strong emphasis on helping athletes develop their physical capabilities while creating positive environments in which they can learn, improve, and reach their potential. Lara’s experience offers valuable insight into the demands of competitive sport, the role of coaching, and the foundations of sustained athletic development.
What if mental training could become something people actively practise, rather than simply talk about?
André Valério brings a perspective shaped by his work at Neroes, a Lisbon-based neurotechnology company that develops interactive mental training programmes. Using games that respond to participants’ brain activity in real time, the programmes allow people to practise regulating their focus and stress as part of the experience itself.
Neroes has worked with professional football squads, high-performance athletes, and corporate teams in Portugal. As Head of Sales and Operations, André leads the delivery of these programmes on site, with an emphasis on helping participants engage with the process long enough to recognise their own progress.
His contribution will bring mental performance and emerging technology into the wider discussion about sport, wellbeing, and recovery, opening up questions about how training approaches can evolve beyond physical conditioning alone.
The discussion will be moderated by Professor Antonia Correia, Associate Professor with Aggregation at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Algarve, President of KIPt CoLAB, and a recognised leader in tourism research.
With an extensive academic career, including her former role as Dean of the Faculty of Tourism at Universidade Europeia, Antónia brings a research-led perspective to the conversation. Her work spans tourism consumer behaviour, marketing, destination image, and tourism economics, with a focus on understanding the factors that shape tourism demand and destination competitiveness.
As President of KIPT CoLAB, a collaborative laboratory focused on tourism, she is well placed to connect practical experience with broader questions about innovation and the future of tourism and leisure.
Her role as moderator will help bring the speakers’ different perspectives together, exploring how developments in performance, mental training, and wellbeing can inform the experiences and opportunities available to both residents and visitors.
Sport and leisure are increasingly connected to wider conversations about health, wellness, and quality of life. For tourism destinations, this creates opportunities to rethink how sporting facilities, training experiences, recovery services, and active lifestyles can contribute to a more varied and compelling visitor offering.
The Sport & Leisure panel forms part of the IPBN’s 5th Annual Tourism Conference, bringing together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, and experts from Ireland and Portugal to explore innovation and new trends in tourism and hospitality.
Join us on Thursday, 22 October 2026, at WELL Vale do Lobo, Algarve, for a morning of expert discussion, knowledge-sharing, and networking with the Ireland–Portugal business community.
Register here for the conference!Conference sessions run from 09:00 to 13:00, followed by a light lunch and networking. Members and non-members are welcome.
| The IPBN is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland under the ESP Grant programme |
