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Twitter Highlights from IHRSA 2018, Featuring MYZONE, Life Fitness, Augie Nieto and More

By Anthony Dominic - Content Producer Mar 27, 2018 4:30pm
The Club Industry team arrived bright and early March 21 for the 37th annual IHRSA conference in San Diego. In addition to exhibiting on the show floor, our team sat in on conference sessions, visited with vendors and attended various networking events over three (mostly sunny) days in Southern California.
Like last year, Chicago-based Myzone on March 22 hosted a breakfast event at which executives Dave Wright and Emmett Williams discussed the latest developments within their heart-rate-based technology platform.
March 22 keynote presenter, Leah Busque, founder and executive chairwoman of TaskRabbit, spoke on “Making Ideas Happen.” Her advice to fitness industry entreprenuers was:
  • Keep an idea notepad by your bed.
  • Share ideas aloud as they occur to you.
  • Surround yourself with support.
  • Never try to outguess the serendipity of the moment.
  • Always be in an entrepreneurial mindset.
IHRSA's robust trade show floor opened at 10 a.m. on March 22.
Club Industry visited with Life Fitness reps to learn more about their Halo Fitness Cloud—an all-encompassing software solution for club operators.
Bill McBride and Active Wellness hosted the Active Connections 2018 networking event on March 22 at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego.
In his March 23 keynote, "Harnessing Innovation: Turning Raw Ideas into Powerful Results," entrepreneur and ePrize founder Josh Linkner encouraged attendees to "adopt the role of the disruptor," especially in the rapidly evolving fitness industry.
Management Vision President Rick Caro hosted the 22nd annual IHRSA Finacial Panel, featuring Brian Wood of Imperial Capital, Mark Grabowski of TPG Growth and Rob Sjoberg of Perpetual Capital. Topics included the fragmentation and segmentation of the health club industry, as well as the increasing number of clubs and memberships across the United States.
Power Plate, Northbrook, Illinois, hosted group exercise demos on March 22 and March 23 that highlighted the pre-workout and recovery aspects of their products.
The health club and fitness vendor community joined together on March 23 for the 13th Annual Bash for Augie's Quest to raise money to help fund a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that has affected Life Fitness co-founder Augie Nieto. More than $6 million was raised at the event, including a $4 million donation from Orangetheory Fitness.
Social media highlights from last year's IHRSA event can be viewed here.