A presentation held at the Gaiety Theatre on Wednesday 12th November by the thought provoking Jamil Qureshi, created a huge buzz amongst the local audience of sport enthusiasts and business leaders.

Jamil Qureshi is one of today's foremost practitioners of performance enhancing psychology. His expertise is utilised by some of the world’s leading sports people, as well as businesses around the globe.

In the event which was organised and funded by Microgaming, Jamil presented his five principles of High Performance to a sold out crowd. Jamil also provided a Q & A session at the end and the audience were clearly engaged given the number of questions they asked. And he even gave out his email address for those that wanted extra advice!

Not only did the event, which was free of charge, provide the audience with food for thought, it also helped to raise funds for Isle of Man Sport Aid; donations collected at the end of the workshop totaled ?217.22.

Chris Quine, Sports Performance Co-ordinator at Isle of Man Sport Aid, comments: “Firstly, thank you to Microgaming for organising this excellent evening - we were delighted to be involved. We see events such as this as a great opportunity for athletes, coaches and others involved in sport to develop their knowledge.

“The importance of psychology in all sports cannot be underestimated. Therefore, it was so pleasing to see such a large turnout from the sporting community including a number of sixth form students from our schools. There have been lots of positive comments on social media since the event and I am certain that everyone managed to take away something useful from the evening.”

Janine Woodford-Dale, Head of Marketing, Events and PR at Microgaming, comments: “Bringing Jamil Qureshi to the island for this event was a real pleasure. I was lucky enough to spend some time with Jamil at a recent management session, and his methods and way of thinking are very inspiring. What’s great is that whilst so many sports people can benefit from his expertise in the sporting world, his insights are equally relevant to businesses. He exceeded our expectations and we look forward to working with him again in the future.”

This workshop was the first event that celebrated Microgaming PlayItForward – a new initiative which brings together Microgaming’s extensive CSR programme. Microgaming PlayItForward has had the best start possible; just a week after this event, Microgaming won the award for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence on Thursday 20th November 2014.

More information about the initiative can be found on the Microgaming PlayItForward website.