Find Out What the Hospitality and Retail Industries Can Teach Health Clubs about Technology and Retention

When you think about the hospitality and retail industries, you likely think about customer service and its relationship to customer engagement and retention. However, these two industries also offer technology insights and best practices that the fitness industry can learn from.

That idea is behind the theme of the fourth annual Motionsoft Technology Summit—Cross-Industry Learning and Innovation: Technology Insights and Best Practices Fitness Firms Can Gain from the Hospitality and Retail Industries. Four presentations during the event, Sept. 11-13 in Washington, DC, speak particularly to the theme.

During the CIO roundtable that kicks off the first day of panels and keynotes moderator Rick Caro, president of Management Vision, will address this topic with panelists Garrett Borunda, director of member technologies, 24 Hour Fitness; Larry Carrington, director of IT, Wellbridge; Adam Podber, senior director of technology, Blink Fitness; and Adam Zeitsiff, chief information officer, Gold's Gym.

Another session related to this theme will be the opening panel on Sept. 13, "Winning Long-Lasting Member Retention." Borunda will moderate this panel, which will include Emmett Williams, president of MYZONE Inc.; Dr. Paul Bedford, principle of Retention Guru; ​Kate Golden, director of people and fitness operations at Newtown Athletic Club; and Paul Becker, chief financial officer at Gold's Gym SoCal. The panelists will share hospitality best practices for how to get the right mix of member benefits in term of perks, recognition, and rewards as well as the benefits your health club receives when you have strong relationships with members.

Podber from Blink Fitness will moderate another panel, "Customer Driven Architecture: Capturing Data and Creating Customer Affinity and Loyalty" that will share more insights on retail best practices in this area from panelists Ken Engel, executive vice president of Saberpoint; Mike Morris, founder and principal consultant, Crest Circle Management Consultants; and Doug Jones, senior vice president, chief merchandising officer, The Vitamin Shoppe. ​

One of the last panels of the event, "How Restaurants Use Data & Technology to Drive Customer Engagement to Maximize Customer Value," will offer details from the restaurant industry. Panelists will be Josh Patchus, chief data scientist, Cava Group; Maureen Cushing, vice president of technology, Union Square Hospitality; Adam Williamowsky, director of restaurants, StreetSense; and Michael Katigbak, director of marketing, José Andrés' ThinkFoodGroup. The panel will be moderated by Sam Pollaro, CEO of Venga.

The event will close with a keynote by Dan Cath, partnerships lead for Reserve with Google.  

In addition to Cath's keynote, Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer, CEO of eGym, will offer a keynote on "How to make the gym work for everyone through a connected training experience."

Other sessions of interest will be:

  • "Customers for Life: Design Thinking Your Way to Lifetime Relationships with Members"
  • "How Fitness Technology is Driving Club Transformation"
  • "Innovative Fitness Industry Startups"
  • "Building an Integrated Member Acquisition + Management Platform"
  • "How to make the gym work for everyone through a connected training experience"
  • "Member Data, Mobile + Performance Tracking Best Practices"

Club Industry is the media partner for the Technology Summit.

Motionsoft is one of the sponsors of the Technology and Trends track at the Club Industry Show Oct. 4-6, 2017, at the Hilton Chicago. Motionsoft arranged for four of the speakers in the track, all of whom also are speaking at the Motionsoft Technology Summit:

Dan Cath with Reserve with Google: How Online Bookings Are Changing the Health Club World

Garrett Borunda with 24 Hour Fitness: How to Use Technology to Build Relationships and Loyalty with Members

Adam Zeitsiff with Gold's Gym InternationalTechnology Train Wrecks Tips on How to Avoid Making Bad Tech Investments

Adam Podber with Blink Fitness: Build Your Member Experience with Data Insights + Analytics

I encourage you to attend both of these events to move your health club into the future.