Expo to meet the needs of discerning fitness industry buyers

When discerning members and potential members choose a gym or health club their decision is often based on the facility's range of equipment and how up to date it is.

Backing this up, in a survey conducted at the end of March by the organisers of the Australian Fitness & Health Expo, 73% of respondents agreed that they like to try new types of exercise to keep them motivated.

With the Australian Fitness & Health Expo to be held in just a few weeks, from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st April at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, the very latest commercial gym equipment to hit Australian shores 2013 is set to be on display.

The largest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, the Australian Fitness & Health Expo is set to showcase a range of new equipment designs and innovations, reveal the latest fitness trends and educate on innovative training techniques.

With its fitness trade-only day on Friday 19th April, and throughout the weekend, here is a taste of what's on show:

Frevola fitness: technology without the touch of a button!
Distributed by Synergy Fitness, the new Frevola T7 and T510 series of treadmills feature an 'intelligent' speed adjustment system that, unlike traditional treadmills where a user must press buttons to adjust the speed, automatically adjust its speed based on the person's body position. 

The real-time Automatic Speed Control technology enables the user to move naturally and at a pace that is always comfortable. 

The Frevola treadmills also maintain interest and excitement when exercising with the Frevola T7A & T510A models combining fitness with fun interactive computer game workouts. 

Networking capability allows users to compete against other users in the gym, or even compete in online contests.

These models include 17' HD Digital TVs and USB connectivity. 

The treadmills are also 'Future Proofed' with a built-in computer operating system making it very straight forward to introduce new software. 

Synergy Fitness can be contacted on on 1800 219 622.
Exhibiting at Booth: X25

Centaman brings the complete solution
Centaman will be exhibiting their award winning venue management software solution for aquatic, fitness and recreation facilities and will be able to demonstrate how their industry leading software can manage and streamline Point of Sale, Access Control, Locker Management, Membership Retention, CRM, Email Marketing, Swim School and Mobile Member Validation.

Centaman NSW State Manager Bryn Whales explains "it is going to be exciting to demonstrate our end to end solution – we will be able to show how we sign members up and issue RFID cards or wristbands so they gain access to the facility and use the key features of the facility such as lockers or self-serve kiosk for booking classes. 

"We can (also) show how monitoring members' activity can help with their retention and how Centaman can manage the follow through action of CRM and marketing to membership databases with easy to build email marketing campaigns to create greater loyalty and awareness of activities at the centre." 

Centaman can be contacted on 02 9906 7522.
Exhibiting on booth: X50 

Silence is golden for Hush Fitness
Offering a unique combination of group fitness, the outdoors and popular music, Hush Fitness participants are provided with their own pair of headphones with individual volume controls. This enables them to hear both the instructor and the music for a fun and energetic fitness experience in nature while removing any noise impact on other park users or neighbours. 

Adapting technology used in 'silent discos' that allows dance parties to be held in complete silence, the 'silent discotechnology' concept presents many opportunities in fitness.

Hush Fitness can be contact on 0433 082 541.
Exhibiting at Booth: J48

Precor gets clients fully mobile
Leading fitness equipment manufacturer and supplier Precor has launched a mobile app in Australia – the latest addition to its networked fitness package, Preva. 

Following the recent launch of Preva Personal Accounts, a cloud-based software solution available on Precor's innovative P80 touch-screen consoles, the new mobile app will allow exercisers to integrate their gym workouts with other non-gym exercise into one central hub. Preva Personal Accounts allows exercisers to set fitness goals, track progress, earn achievement reward badges and save their favourite workouts. Users can access their account from any Precor equipped facility in the world that has Preva Personal Accounts. 

Now with the Preva mobile app, exercisers will have access to their personal account anywhere, anytime, making it an all-encompassing exercise management tool.

Precor can be contacted on 1800 651 872.
Exhibiting at Booth: U46

Technogym Kinesis Stations
Since its highly acclaimed launch, Kinesis, the discipline developed by Technogym for strength, balance and flexibility training, has become increasingly popular and the company is extending the range with the introduction of the new Kinesis Stations. Kinesis lets users rediscover natural movement using a system of free cables for unrestricted body movements in three dimensions. Kinesis Stations, like all of the equipment in the Kinesis range, also use full gravity technology, patented by Technogym for moving the body in three dimensions. 

Technogym Australia can be contacted on 1800 615 440.
Exhibiting at Booth: V28

Cage Fitness
Cage Fitness is a complete workout program that is designed to cater to people at all levels of fitness. Cage Fitness™ is based on the structure of a championship mixed martial arts (MMA) bout but involves no contact with another person. What this means is that Cage Fitness™ will give exercisers a total body workout in just 5 x 5 minute rounds. 

Cage Fitness focuses on four key elements: endurance, strength, power and core. This is accomplished through a five round fitness system which is broken up into the following categories: Warm Up, Upper Body, Lower Body, Combo Round and Cool Down/Core. The best part about Cage Fitness™ is that an individual can customise their workout by adjusting their intensity level to best suit their personal fitness goals. 

Cage Fitness can be contacted on 03 5434 7474.
Exhibiting at Booth: F46

Using a 'full cycle' sales and marketing approach
Gladstone MRM, a worldwide provider of software solutions to aquatic and recreation centres and fitness and health clubs, has added another module to their impressive Plus 2 system. 

The Contact Manager module uses some of the latest technology to help facilities create a 'full cycle' approach to their membership sales and marketing operation. 

It is a simple, user friendly module that manages a prospect from initial contact to conversion, tracks activity including booking tours and visits, integrates with the email and SMS, and offers reminders with prompts for staff to action tasks. 

In addition, the same communications tool can be utilised with existing or lapsed members while managers can use the module to better understand conversion factors and monitor staff performance levels. 

Features of this solution for sales, marketing and membership communications include:

• Import Lead lists.
• Recording of all sales staff activity.
• Reporting on sales conversions by staff and globally.
• Manage process from lead > prospect > member.
• Controlled data input via data field controls; mandatory, advisable or read-only.
• User defined statuses and fields allow tracking of customer enquiries.
• A full history of correspondence stored behind every record including notes, messages, letters and emails.
• Track prospects trial visits and tours.
• Branded Email templates for personalised emails 
• Send single or bulk SMS messages
• Customer marketing preferences can be stored for data protection compliancy and permission marketing.

Gladstone MRM can be contacted on 1300 242 067.
Exhibiting at Booth: X43

Worth the weight
The Les Mills SMARTBAR, one of the biggest innovations in barbell technology is finally available in Australia. The ergonomic design of the multipurpose weights system means that, in addition to being used in a traditional manner, with weight plates easily locking onto the bar with a single manoeuvre gator, it can also be used in the same way as dumbbells and kettlebells.

The special handle-like design of the Les Mills SMARTBAR's weight plates allows users to hold two plates in one hand and users can also slide a resistance tube handle into one SMARTBAR gator and attach the other resistance tube end to an anchor point to enjoy sports inspired, plyometric core training. 

Les Mills SMARTBAR is distributed in Australia by HF Industries.

HF Industries can be contacted on 02 9531 6700.
Exhibiting at Booth: U36

Carrots make Links Modular Solutions' business clients healthy
With the advent of mobile technology, Links Modular Solutions' latest innovation 'Active Carrot' takes account of consumers constantly looking for the web option.

Active Carrot provides functionality for members, freeing up staff time, and providing a powerful retention tool.

Links Modular Solutions can be contacted on 03 9938 4567.
Exhibiting at Booth: T41

Dynamic Strength
Dynamic Strength's functional and dynamic group fitness program challenges participants' limits as they work at an average of 70% of their heart rate maximum and burn up to 440 calories within the 45 minute functional resistance training workout. Choreographed to powerful music, Dynamic Strength brings the intensity and feel of a personal training session to the group fitness studio. It involves resistance training and the latest functional and dynamic lifting techniques, with free plates and benches.

Dynamic Strength can be contacted on 1800 651 872.
Exhibiting at Booth: U46

In addition to viewing the latest products, trade visitors to the Australian Fitness & Health Exp you can also access the latest business advice at the Fitness Australia Fitness Business Advice Centre - offering guidance on important aspects including recruitment, insurance, online marketing and lead generation.

The Australian Fitness and Health Expo is open only to those in the fitness/health trade on Friday 19th April, with general and trade admission on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st April. 

Trade visitors can pre-register online for free entry. For details go to http://bit.ly/XZrCUc