The FIA Welcomes Mark Talley & ‘Making a Difference with Better Variety!’

The FIA is please to introduce Mark Talley, Fitness Director at LA Fitness as one of its key speakers, and special guest bloggers in the lead up to the 'FIA Health & Fitness Conference at LIW 2010' (21st - 23rd September, NEC Birmingham). Welcome!

Everyone tells us we don’t do it well enough, so just how can we start interacting with and engaging our members more effectively? My session on ‘Member Interaction & Engagement - Making a difference with better variety’ will draw upon established research and my practical experience gained over the last 20 years.

As an operator, not an academic, I will provide you with some practical tools and advice to help you create and manage a more engaging experience for your members. In particular I will reveal the new LA Experience, designed to enhance the experience of existing members through increased meaningful interaction, increase engagement of its people and improve sales and membership yield.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Mark Talley

Mark’s session will be taking place on September 22, 11.30am at Leisure Industry Week 2010. For further information about LA Fitness please visit www.lafitness.co.uk.

Introducing TV Life-Coach Pete Cohen & ‘What It Takes to Be Exceptional!’

The FIA is please to introduce TV life-coach Pete Cohen as one of its key speakers, and special guest bloggers in the lead up to the 'FIA Health & Fitness Conference at LIW 2010' (21st - 23rd September, NEC Birmingham). Welcome!

During my session at the ‘FIA Health & Fitness Conference at LIW 2010’ I will be looking at ‘What It Takes to Be Exceptional!’.

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. So what are the secrets of exceptional people?

Talent has little or nothing to do with being exceptional. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great or even exceptional.

The first major conclusion I will look to draw during my session is that nobody is great without work. It is nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you will be great from day one, but this just doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It is activity that is explicitly intended to improve performance that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

But how do we translate this into business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, selling, negotiating, delivering - you can practice them all!

Maybe we can't expect all people to achieve greatness, it’s just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that being exceptional isn't reserved for the few. It is available to you and to everyone, and this is what I will be exploring with you at the ‘FIA Health & Fitness Conference at LIW 2010’.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Pete Cohen

Pete’s session will be taking place on September 22, 11.30am at Leisure Industry Week 2010. For further information about Pete Cohen please visit www.petecohen.com.