ORLANDO – The Club Industry East Conference and Exposition attracted 115 exhibiting companies that filled 250 booths last week at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.
Dr. Dot Richardson and Dr. Ian Smith served as the keynote speakers. Richardson won Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2000 as a member of the U.S. softball team and is now the vice chair of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Smith, a diet expert, is featured on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” and has appeared on another TV show, “The View.” He also is the author of five books, including his latest, “The Fat Smash Diet,” which he signed copies of after his address.
About 30 attendees took a tour of three fitness centers in the Orlando area. The tour, led by Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro magazine Associate Editor Jennipher Shaver, stopped at The Fitness & Day Spa at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, the YMCA Aquatic and Family Center and the Gold’s Gym Dr. Phillips.
Dr. Wayne Westcott led two of the more popular seminars at Club Industry East. Westcott’s presentations were titled “Strength Training for Kids” and “Strength Training Research: Examining the Exercise Variables.” Other well-attended seminars included Sandy Coffman’s “20 Keys to Programming Success,” Ed Tock’s “Developing a Results-Oriented Marketing Plan,” and Scott Chovanec’s “Stimulating, Motivating and Influencing Others: The Art of Effective Leadership.”
The Club Industry national show will take place Oct. 10-13 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The 2008 Club Industry East show will be held April 17-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.
For more on the show, check out the Club Industry East blog.