Welcome to Around the Table, our series of articles on our work to promote and support table tennis around the country. In this edition, we hear from Mark Taffler, who has recently joined Table Tennis England as Head of Commercial, with a remit of growing revenues from the commercial sector. Here, he outlines his role and ambitions.

As a governing body, we are here to serve our valued members and to ensure that the Sport is delivered in a professional way. We are primarily funded by Sport England in order to carry out the work we do, which includes organising the competitions and events, producing Olympic athletes and delivering wonderful programmes such as Ping! And Loop.

In the new Towards an Active Nation strategy released by the government, Sport England have encouraged all governing bodies to become more self-sufficient so that they can re-invest more money into the sport. This will result in more opportunities to play and a better pathway for those that want to play the sport from grassroots through to elite level.

I am very excited to have joined Table Tennis England. Table tennis is a wonderfully inclusive sport, perfect for all ages and abilities, it is highly enjoyable and a great workout at the same time.

Commercially, the number of people who play the sport in the UK makes us a very viable proposition for brands. Our appearance on ITV4 with the PG Mutual National Championships is a statement of intent as to where we see the sport going in the next few years.

I look forward to meeting those that enjoy the sport and improving my serve!

If you work for, own or know someone that works for a company who feel that they could benefit from working in partnership with Table Tennis England please get in touch with me on [email protected] to find out how Table Tennis England could help you achieve your business objectives.