Tag: Tradeshows

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Why Conventions are Good for You

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It’s almost that time again, folks—IHRSA convention and trade show time. The upcoming event, slated for the mid week of March in San Diego, will mark IHRSA’s 37th year of gathering industry members for discussion, exploration, learning, marketing, and all-around celebration of the health and fitness world. Here’s why, if you haven’t registered already, you should consider doing so; if you have registered, here’s why you’ll be happy you did.

1) Connection. First and foremost, attending a convention or trade show—any convention or trade show, but especially the industry’s largest—gives you the opportunity to connect with others in the field. Sure they may be competitors, but your competitors have something to teach you. Happily, participants who choose to attend events like conventions generally do so with an open attitude. Through casual conversations, over meals and beverages, meetings and introductions, ideas are transferred and transformed. Want to know how the gym down the street handles retention issues? Want to understand why that other baseball center is so successful at attracting new customers? Here’s your chance to find out.

2) Education. The latest industry news comes out during conventions like IHRSA’s. Statistics on the health of the industry, trends to keep an eye on, threats to look out for, and the most up-to-date word on major players all get talked about here first. Also, conventions can be an invaluable source of information about best practices. How do other clubs handle issues like employee training, member retention, locker-room cleanliness, and difficult clients? Every topic is fair game for discussion at such conventions, and you might find yourself going home with ideas you want to implement immediately.

3) Relationship-building. Okay, this is a lot like the first item in this list, but what I’m talking about here is bigger and deeper than a mere connection. Connecting with others in the industry is important and building relationships with them is crucial. I want to emphasize this. As with any endeavor, you’re more likely to succeed with your business if you’ve got a solid, reliable support system; this is true on all levels. The salespeople looking to sell you products at a trade show are not merely trying to fill their pockets. They really want the opportunity to meet you, get to know you, understand your needs and desires as a customer. Industry reporters, trade organizations, fellow business people—everyone is worth considering as the source of a potentially valuable relationship.

4) Sharing. Even if it’s easy to forget for most of the year, conventions and trade shows can serve to remind you that the difficult work you do is the same as the difficult work others do. And just as you can gain ideas and tips from other facility folk you meet at such events, other facility folk can gain ideas and tips from you. You might even seek to take part in a panel or give a talk. The pay-off might not be immediate, but eventually they’ll become clear, in tangible and intangible ways, you’ll reap the benefits of having been a part of a major event for months to come—at least until next year’s convention.

Making Sound Decisions

Making Sound Decisions

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IHRSA’s 2014 33rd Annual International Convention and Trade Show offered up so much food for thought that you’re probably feeling stuffed right about now. But it’s worth really digesting what author Dan Heath had to say in a general session discussion during the event. His talk, “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work” took a close look at the foundation upon which all business are built: decisions. Good decisions can make you; bad ones can break you. How can you be sure you’re making sound decisions?
Heath identified four elements — or, as he calls them, “villains” — of bad decisions: (1) narrow framing, (2) confirmation bias, (3) short-term emotion, and (4) over-confidence. He also offered a strategy for countering each of these villains; he calls it the WRAP strategy.
If you’re framing out an issue too narrowly, you have blinders on; you can’t see the full picture, so you can’t make a sound decision. To counter this villain, use the “W” in “WRAP”: Widen your options. Try to see more than just the two possibilities of making the decision or not making it. If you’re working with a confirmation bias, you’re not gathering enough information before making your decision — you’re seeking reassurance about your preconceived notions rather than the truth about the issue. To counter this one, use the “R”: Reality-test your options. Find a real-world way of testing your options before you make a decision. If you’re relying on short-term emotion, you’re not taking time to think things through. The remedy? “A”: Attain distance before you decide. If you feel emotional about a decision you have to make, give yourself time, or take a step back. You can act more rationally with distance. Finally, there’s the problem of over-confidence. If you’re too confident, you think you know more about what will happen in the future than you really can know. You counter this “villain” with the “P” in “WRAP”: Prepare to be wrong. To make such preparations, you set up what Heath calls a “decision trip-wire,” something that makes you, at some future point, go back, assess the decision you made, and alter or undo it if necessary.
As a gym, health club, fitness center, or sports facility, your business relies on dozens or scores (or more!) of small decisions each day. Do you schedule a cycle class in the morning or the evening, or both? Do you hire a trainer who specializes in HIIT workouts or more of a generalist? Do you purchase Vibration Training machines? White towels or beige ones? And are you going to fire that employee who is slacking off every time you look at him? There are these and so many more, and it can be hard to know what’s right. Having a rubric that helps you know when you might be making a bad decision — and what you can do to turn it into a good one — can be immensely empowering. Heath says his scheme isn’t right for all kinds of decisions, and it might not be right for all businesses or all managers, but thinking about it can help you come up with your own plan. Then you’ll be able to make decisions with confidence (but only just the right amount of it!).

The Benefit Is Clear

The Benefit Is Clear

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With one of the fitness industry’s central players — IHRSA — priming for its annual convention and trade show in a couple weeks, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the general benefits of attending such events. For companies selling machinery, equipment, gear, software, and other products, the benefit is clear: Easy access to many potential customers at one time.

What about for health club or sports facility owners and managers? What’s in it for you? Is it worth the investment of time and participation fees?

In a word, yes. Attending a convention and/or trade show is beneficial to facility owners first and foremost because of the opportunity to connect with others in the industry. Sure, they may be competitors, but the old saying holds true: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Your competitors, other clubs in your industry, are the ones from whom you have something to learn. Happily, participants who choose to attend events like conventions generally do so with an open attitude: They’re there to share. Through casual conversation, over meals and beverages, by chance meetings and introductions, ideas are transferred and transformed. Want to know how the gym down the street handles retention issues? Want to understand why that other baseball center is so successful at attracting new customers? Here’s your chance to find out.

Also, those guys out on the floor trying to sell you stuff? They’re not just looking to fill their pockets. Most of them attend with ideals of relationship-building in mind. They really want the opportunity to meet you, get to know you, understand your needs and desires as a customer. From their point of view, the better they know you the better they can serve you — and the better they can serve you, the better off you are. And it’s a lot easier for a salesperson to cut a deal for someone with whom he or she has a personal connection than for a stranger.

Finally, there’s the whole pay-it-forward idea. As a business owner or manager, and specifically as the business owner or manager of a fitness or sports facility, you’re part of a community. Even if it’s easy to forget for most of the year, conventions and trade shows can serve to remind you that the difficult work you do is the same as the difficult work others do. And just as you can gain ideas and tips from other facility folk you meet at such events, other facility folk can gain ideas and tips from you. You might even seek to take part in a panel or give a talk — because business, as you no doubt know, is as much about giving as it is about receiving. There is no better opportunity for giving than to share what you know, what your best practices are, and how you meet day-to-day demands than at a large gathering where so many industry-mates are all at once. You might not see immediate returns, but eventually your paying it forward will pay off. In tangible and intangible ways, you’ll feel the benefits of having been part of it all.