Fitness + Technology

On this week's Fitness + Technology podcast, Bryan joins us direct from the 2019 IHRSA Conference for a member roundtable entitled "Club Technology: Trends, Opportunities & Threats." IHRSA is a global community of health and fitness professionals representing 8,000 member clubs in over 70 countries, whose goal is to grow, protect, and promote the health and fitness industry. This year, IHRSA members flocked to San Diego to learn from and network with the best and brightest in the industry, and Bryan, after a brief presentation, takes questions from club owners and operators in the audience, while other participants and audience members chime in with their own experience as club owners and operators.

This week, on the Fitness + Technology podcast, Host Bryan O'Rourke welcomes Cory Brightwell, co-founder and CEO of Chuze Fitness, a low cost – high value business model that started in California and has expanded into multiple states. Cory has been in the company for over a decade, and he talks with us about hospitality and the challenges of technology adoption.

This week, on the Fitness + Technology podcast, Host Bryan O'Rourke welcomes Dean Giamundo, the national director of sales at Jonas Fitness, Inc., which recently joined the Fitness Industry Technology Council. Dean has a background in the technology industry and at Jonas Fitness he helps teach management and facility owners how to apply technology to the industry.

Host Bryan O'Rourke welcomes the Retention Guru, Dr. Paul Bedford, to the Fitness + Technology Podcast. Dr. Bedford is the leading expert on retention in the world, and they waste no time delving right into Paul's area of expertise. How do gyms and health clubs regard their members, how can they use technology and analytics to customize and enhance member experience, and how can they retain members while maximizing their bottom line? Paul, who is based in London, travels the world sharing his passion and keeping up with breaking industry trends, and we're glad for the opportunity to welcome his wisdom.

On this week's Fitness + Technology Podcast, host Bryan O'Rourke shares a webinar he presented to the International Council on Active Aging: "What are the future trends and current possibilities in technology." Regular listeners will remember a recent podcast with Colin Milner, founder and CEO of the ICAA. Bryan spends time discussing technological breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence and describes not only how technology is more relevant and beneficial to active agers than most people might realize, but also how these technological developments will provide further business opportunities for entrepreneurs.

This week, on the Fitness + Technology Podcast, Host Bryan O'Rourke welcomes David Minton, founder and director of The Leisure Database Company, purveyors of customer profiles, market data and site analysis for the fitness industry . The pair speak to us from the Grand Majestic Hotel in Bologna, Italy, where they have just spoken on a panel at ForumClub entitled "New consumers, new tools, new businesses" with other industry leaders, and they share their key takeaways from this star-studded panel.

On this week's Fitness + Technology Podcast, Bryan discusses the Fitness Industry Technology Council's 2019 Tech Trend Report. Established in 2008 as a nonprofit membership organization, FIT-C's mission is to promote the responsible and effective adoption of technology in order to enhance user experience and improve business models for operators. Their annual trend report is a great way to keep an eye on the trends that will impact the market for years to come.

On this week's Fitness + Technology Podcast, Bryan welcomes veteran Australian fit-tech entrepreneur Deborah Goldberg to the podcast. Deborah came into the fitness industry ten years ago, with a focus of bringing Zumba to Australia, a nation with one of the world's worst obesity levels. Today, she works with AirFitness, designing tech products specifically for the fitness industry. She also launched Sub A Class, a free app that connects fitness instructors with one another to fill in or cover other instructor absences, as well as Morfis, an app that promotes business for fitness professionals.

This week, Bryan welcomes Australian fitness leader, Justin "JT" Tamsett, Managing Director of Active Management. Bryan first interviewed JT seven and a half years ago, at the FILEX 2011 Fitness Convention in Sydney, Australia. Despite the time that has elapsed, the pair find that many of the subjects they discussed then are still relevant today, from exploring ways to modernize the fitness industry, to how exercise can be used to tackle disease head-on, and why JT believes the fitness industry should come together to get people moving.

This week, Bryan welcomes to the podcast Sharad Mohan, co-founder and CEO of fitness company Trainerize. Founded in 2008 as a consumer fitness app, Trainerize has pivoted to become an industry leader in fitness technology, allowing trainers to more easily find clients and provide them with custom meal plans, exercise routines, and much more. With three-hundred thousand active users and more than seventy-five thousand fitness businesses using Trainerize, Mohan shares his thoughts on what it takes to be successful and to truly engage with clients using technology in the fitness industry.