Leisure Industry Week
for the SPORTA Health Improvement Conference was a major highlight. Public Health England’s Dr Mike Brannan kicked things off with a discussion on ‘the challenge of getting everyone active’ in an insightful day. Wednesday saw the likes of East of Riding Leisure’s Kevin Hadfield doing a case study on GP referrals, Hayley Jarvis discussing ‘the role of physical activity in tackling mental health issues’ and Dr Dane Vishnubala of Core Fitness looking at how ‘the fitness industry can get more involved in the physical activity agenda’. THE FITNESS STREAM Certainly the busiest and arguably the most talked-about area of the show, however, was the Fitness Stream. Covering three distinct zones, the Fitness Business School, Practical Coaching and Tropicana Wholesale Nutrition Zone, there was a wealth of knowledge and expertise that impressed both speakers and delegates. Standout names included Americans Sol Orwell and Mark Fisher, as well as Ben Coomber, Dr
Gary Mendoza, Phil Learney, Jamie Alderton, Paul Mort, Luke Johnson, Chris Burgess, Martin MacDonald and many, many more. The Fitness Business School offered fitness professionals the ability to learn from the most prominent coaches and educators that have developed their own businesses successfully, whilst Practical Coaching targeted personal trainers, fitness managers and nutritionists to deliver a world class line-up of industry figureheads discussing the practical application of training and nutrition. Other noteworthy areas included the sight of over 300 Pure Gym Personal Trainers converging on the closed Pure Gym Personal Trainer Conference that attracted top name speakers, whilst the likes of Sosa Dance Fitness, BhangraBlaze and Hulafit all provided energetic demonstrations in the Studio to showcase the latest classes. Urban Attack ran an extremely popular assault course over the two days and the Trampoline Park was once again a great place to let off steam. All that education was complimented by a packed show floor that saw over 150
exhibitors get some excellent sales leads with some engaging visual displays. Steve Orton commented: “We were confident that LIW would be a superior event to 2015 with a full run-up of event promotion and that opinion has only been reinforced during a two packed days. Our tailored educational programmes, excellent features, exciting interactive areas, ground breaking product launches and hundreds of exceptional brands made the show a clear success. “We’re already planning next year’s event and we’ll have some fantastic new additions to make LIW 2017 even bigger and better. We’ve seen growth both in the number of visitors and exhibitors and the show will keep being nurtured by our team. I’m proud of the event and I hope it was as enjoyable for everyone who attended as it was for us as organisers.” L
Leisure Industry Week will return to Birmingham’s NEC 12-13 September 2017. FURTHER INFORMATION www.liw.co.uk
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