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My main work at the moment is in the development of the fascinating young sport of VX. I'm Managing Director of VX International which is the commercial side of the sport and I also (for the moment) head up Global VX which is the international administrative body. My role entails overseeing the development of new National Governing Bodies, the running of tournaments and the overall growth of the sport. I am also developing a sideline in photography - but it has been a long and winding road to get here

My first degree was in German with Italian subsidiary. From there I didn't know what to do so did a PGCE to teach German with a sport subsidiary. Then I got a job as a teacher in York teaching German with French. As part of my time there I developed Italian Graded Tests, developed a Foreign Languages at Work course (German), ran regular trips to the Rhine and developed and ran the region's first Work Experience Exchange. I lasted 11 years and then moved into sales. I did OK at that and managed to maintain my income at the same level but it really wasn't for me so I went back to university and did a conversion MSc in IT. This was a fascinating but highly intensive and pressured course but I loved it, got a distinction and stayed on to do a DPhil. The focus of that ended up being the role of Virtual Communities of Practice in Knowledge Management.

Having finished my three years of the DPhil I got a 3-day a week job to help with the technical implementation of a grant-funded programme to set up a CRM system for business advisers. This allowed me 2 days per week to finish the write up of the DPhil. Once I had graduated however I didn't want to go full time as I wanted to develop my own business. Unfortunately however the job had now developed into being a Knowledge Management Consultant, Network Administrator and CRM sales consultant - each of which was practically a full-time role.

In the end I was made redundant so could focus on the sideline business which had now moved into technology transfer - ie helping people bring innovative products to new markets. We had products from the UK, from Europe, from the USA, from New Zealand and from Australia.

We were making some progress but then one of my clients brought a device to me and from that the sport of VX was born. It grew so fast that I had to close down the technology transfer company and focus on the sport - and I'm still there, still doing that!

Publications

Hildreth P. and Kennedy S. (2023) Have You Tried VX? Physical Education Matters 18 (3) pp50-51

Hildreth P. and Mackenzie H. (2015) These Girls Can - and Do! VX and Gender Equality. Physical Education Matters 10 (3) pp32-35

Mackenzie H. and Hildreth P. (2014) Using VX To Increase Participation and Develop Cross-Curricular Links: Ripon Grammar School's Experience of VX. Physical Education Matters 9 (3) pp14-16

Kimble C, Hildreth P & Bourdon I (2008). Communities of Practice. Creating Learning Environments for Educators Vol 2. Idea Group Publishing

Kimble C, Hildreth P & Bourdon I (2008). Communities of Practice. Creating Learning Environments for Educators Vol 1. Idea Group Publishing

Kimble C & Hildreth P (2006) The Limits of Communities of Practice. In Coakes E and Clarke S (Eds) Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management. Idea Group Publishing

Kimble C & Hildreth P (2005). Communities of Practice. Going one step too far? The ICFAI Journal of Knowledge Management

Kimble C & Hildreth P (2005) Dualities, distributed Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management Journal of Knowledge Management Vol 9 No. 4

Kimble C & Hildreth P (2005) Virtual Communities of Practice. In Khosrow-Pour M (Ed) Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology. Idea Group Publishing

Kimble C & Hildreth P (2004) Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far? In the proceedings of the 9th AIM Conference, Evry France

Hildreth P. Going Virtual. Distributed Communities of Practice. Idea Group Publishing

Hildreth P and Kimble C (2004) Knowledge Networks. Innovation Through Communities of Practice. Idea Group Publishing

Hildreth P (2004) Was der Instandhalter wissen sollte - Wissensmanagement in der Instandhaltung. Paper presented at Weinheimer Instandhaltertage of the Kompetenzzentrum Instandhaltung Weinheim GmbH

Kimble C, Hildreth P & Wright P (2001) Communities of Practice: Going Virtual In Malhotra Y (ed) Knowledge Management and Business Innovation. Idea Group Publishing

Hildreth P, Kimble C & Wright P (2000) Communities of Practice in the Distributed International Environment Journal of Knowledge Management Vol 4 No. 1

Corney K & Hildreth P. (1990) Herein 1 Macmillan (Book 2 of the German course with resource pack and audio cassettes)

Corney K & Hildreth P. (1989) Herein 1. Macmillan (This was a beginner’s course book in German for use in schools. Also with teacher’s resource pack and audio cassettes)

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