The Club Industry Show Experiences 21% Growth in Its Conference Attendance
Posted: October 31, 2018 in Suppliers
Club Industry Show
BOULDER, CO – The Club Industry Show wrapped its 32nd year, October 24 – 26, 2018, at the Hilton Chicago, hosting fitness professionals from health and wellness facilities of all types as well as large and small fitness brands that continue to launch innovative products in the industry.
The conference program at the Club Industry Show experienced 21% growth in attendance. Attendees took part in more than 90 education sessions categorized into nine tracks: Leadership and Management, Technology and Trends, Wellness, Retention, Marketing, Sales, Personal Training, Active Training and Programming.
“We’ve worked hard during the last three years to refocus our show on the conference program,” said Pamela Kufahl, director of content for Club Industry. “The goal of our sessions is to educate our attendees about the business of fitness and how to implement the trends they see and the trends that are coming into their business. This year, those efforts have paid off. We have also received positive feedback about the quality of the topics and the speakers at our show, but this year, the positive feedback is off the charts. We couldn’t be happier.”
Track chairs helped to put together the education sessions. This year’s track chairs were: Casey Conrad, president of Communications Consultants – Marketing track; Marisa Hoff, general manager of Stevenson Fitness – Programming; Bill McBride, CEO of Active Wellness and BMC3 Consulting – Leadership and Management track; Kevin Steele, president of PTA Global and PTontheNet – Wellness track; Chris Stevenson, owner of Stevenson Fitness – Retention; and Karen Woodard, president of Premium Performance Training – Sales.
New this year, Club Industry implemented a brand ambassador program. The seven brand ambassadors helped spread the word about the Club Industry Show, visiting clubs in their cities to share information about the Club Industry Show and sharing posts about the show on their social media platforms. This year’s brand ambassadors were: Michelle Blakely, founder and owner of See Jake and Jane Train; Luke Carlson, CEO of Discover Strength; Kurt Gillon, owner of Balanced Fit Life Training; Mike Gelfgot, franchisee owner of Anytime Fitness; Suzanne Gray, owner of Right Fit Sport Fitness and Wellness; Tony Maier, director of production and growth at Fit Club; and Cosmo Wollan, senior executive of Synergy Cubed.
Attendees from top facilities, such as Active Wellness, Anytime Fitness, Discover Strength, Fitness Formula Clubs, Genesis Health Clubs, Gold’s Gym, Midtown Athletic Clubs, MVP Sports Clubs and Newtown Athletic Clubs, joined with a variety of YMCAs, university rec centers, Kroc Centers, and parks and rec facilities to explore the newest fitness products from returning vendors, such as DFS/Precor, Matrix, Myzone, SportsArt, Styku, True Fitness and Woodway, as well as 30 first-time exhibitors.
Event highlights included:
- Ford Saeks, speaker and author, engaged the audience with an interactive keynote presentation sharing innovative ways to market their brand and see positive results in their businesses.
- PFP magazine gave its Trainer of the Year Award to Andrea Leonard, founder of Cancer Exercise Training Institute, Portland, Oregon. The Cancer Exercise Training Institute is designed to empower and teach trainers to have an impact in the recovery process of cancer survivors.
- PFP magazine also put on PFP’s Take the Leap: From Fitness Trainer to Business Owner, five business-oriented sessions geared to educating independent trainers who want to start their own businesses.
- The conference program continued its focus on wellness and leadership by expanding the Wellness track and the Leadership track from one day to three days.
- The Club Industry Show partnered with the MedFit Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization, to co-locate the Medical Fitness Tour. The two-day event offered fitness and wellness professionals education in the field of medical fitness.
Also, co-located with the show was Club Industry’s CEO Summit, which brought together more than 80 CEOs from some of the largest revenue-generating clubs in North America, including Chelsea Piers, East Bank Club, Gainesville Health and Fitness, In-Shape Health Clubs, Las Vegas Athletic Clubs, Merritt Clubs, Mountainside Fitness, The Alaska Club and The Houstonian. As a cornerstone of the CEO Summit, Dr. Steven Rogers, Harvard Business School professor, led an interactive case study about how to determine whether a company is worth purchasing. The CEO Summit was sponsored by Motionsoft, MyZone, Ladder, UpShow, Yombu and Zeamo.
Visit clubindustryshow.com to learn more or read coverage of this year’s event at www.clubindustry.com. The Club Industry Show will return to the Hilton Chicago, October 9-11, 2019.
