What brought AFL coaches Alastair Clarkson, Kevin Sheedy, Nathan Buckley, Ken Hinkley, Brenton Sanderson and Guy McKenna together for two days last week 20,000 kilometres from home?

Why were key club personnel such as Gary Pert and Rodney Eade (Collingwood), Darren Burgess (Port Adelaide), Dean Bailey (Adelaide), Stephen Schwerdt (Gold Coast), Alan McConnell (GWS), Glenn Stewart (West Coast), Brendan Fahrner (Richmond), Dave Rath (Hawthorn), Greg Hutchison and Adam Kingsley (St Kilda) there with them?

They were all there to attend the Leaders in Performance conference held at the Chelsea FC stadium Stamford Bridge in London.

This was the fifth annual Leaders conference and brought together experts in the fields of coaching, management, sports science and performance analysis. Delegates listened to presentations from legendary soccer coaches Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid) and Sam Allardyce (West Ham), NBA general managers Danny Ferry (Atlanta Hawks) and Sam Presti (Oklahoma City Thunder), performance directors Simon Timson (UK Sport), Paddy Upton (South African cricket), Tony Strudwick (Manchester United), Scott Drawer (English Institute of Sport) and former Victorian Institute of Sport scientist Troy Flanagan (US Ski and Snowboard).

As well as speakers from the sporting world, organisers always bring in outsiders and this year Bernard Petiot from Cirque du Soleil, and cardiac surgeon and former British health minister Lord Ara Darzi gave interesting perspectives on performance from their worlds.