Hooray for Hollywood…

I’ve just stepped off the plane, back from a brilliant week at IHRSA in not so sunny Los Angeles.  My IHRSA highlights included Simon Sinek’s session on leadership to inspire action, and the debut of ground-breaking new fitness equipment offerings including the Life Fitness  Synrgy360 and the Les Mills SMARTBAR.

The FIA hosted a packed schedule of social events for delegates, including a relaxed welcome reception on the first night and a day out in LA, taking in Beverley Hills, Mulholland Drive and Universal Studios (not forgetting lunch at the Hard Rock Café, sponsored by LIW). The week culminated in a ten-pin bowling session at the sophisticated Lucky Strike LA, where over 70 industry peers joined us to celebrate the end of a great week.

In addition to our annual trip to IHRSA, the FIA has had a very busy couple of months since my last blog post.

On the public affairs front, we marked one year of the Government’s Responsibility Deal and our efforts to promote physical activity through working with corporate partners. I also gave evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image on the role of the FIA and physical activity in promoting body confidence and self-esteem. The FIA also hosted the Vanguard Council and Conservative Party Dinner in February, where FIA members were joined by Parliamentarians plus delegates from key organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, Chartered Socity of Physiotherapists and the Big Lottery Fund.

Les Mills UK have come on board as Vanguard Members and I joined Les Mills International CEO Phillip Mills on a UK Roadshow last month, which culminated in hosting a panel discussion at Lords' Cricket Ground about ‘The Future of Fitness’, with panellists including Carl Liebert, Fred Turok and Craig McAteer We visited some iconic sporting venues and have had some great feedback from those who attended.

At the beginning of March the FIA also hosted its quarterly Communications Forum, which this time focussed on the speakers' dos and don’ts of using social media; look out for a guest blog post from Comms Forum chair and FIA board member Sue Anstiss next week.

Finally, we have just opened online booking for the 2012 FIA Flame Conference, which will be taking place in Sheffield on 26^th and 27^th July. Watch this space for blogs from some of our inspiring speakers, including keynote speaker Chris Ryan, who will be giving a taster of their conference sessions.

Sprinting into 2012

Well, our Olympic year is finally here. And whilst it we may only be three weeks in to January, it’s all systems go at the FIA, where we already have lots to look forward to over the coming months.

Amid the predictable media flurry of January fitness fad stories, the FIA has sprinted into the new year, with the nationwide launch of a health and wellbeing programme with a difference.

A fantastic corporate partnership kicked off this month between the FIA’s Shift into Sports programme and the UK’s largest entertainment and communications company, Sky - a partnership that delivers a newly engaged audience to health and fitness operators across the country. 

We launched Shift into Sports in 2010, in partnership with Sport England, the Mayor of London, Addison Lee and our technology partner Haulmont. The programme offers sport and fitness activities supplied by FIA members, at reduced cost and off-peak hours to suit shift workers. The involvement of Sky now takes this nationwide – rolling the programme out to nearly 17,000 Sky employees.

It really is a win—win situation for all: employees can access brilliant fitness deals which fit around their shifts; their company benefits from happy, healthy and productive employees as a result and FIA members gain the opportunity to increase their footfall during off-peak hours.

Partnerships such as this will be key to the work of the FIA and our industry over the coming year, as all eyes turn to the UK to see whether we can deliver on ambitious Olympic legacy targets. Watch this space for announcements about future projects and partnerships which will mean we can rise to the challenge.

This month we also announced the dates and venues for the FIA’s annual Flame Conference, which will take place on 27th June. Any previous Flame Conference delegate will tell you – this is an event not to be missed! This year Flame is coming to Sheffield – where the magnificent Magna Centre will host the main conference. Of course, there is also the FIA Golf Day on 26th June (start practising that swing now!) and the Ball of Fire – I am already looking forward to being on stage to announce the winners of this year’s Flame Awards.

Finally, as the now world-renowned and instantly iconic London 2012 brand takes over the UK as the Olympics hots up, the FIA’s rebrand exercise will be in full swing, as we look to better position ourselves for what the physical activity sector can achieve in 2012 and beyond.

I hope you will follow myself and guest bloggers from the FIA team over the next 12 months. You can also join me on Twitter and LinkedIn – remember folks, the future is digital!

Are you the crème de la crème?

There is only a week left to get a 10% early-bird discount on entry to the FIA & Matrix Flame Awards 2012. Have you entered yet?

Established in the 90’s and receiving more and more entries year on year, the longevity and desire to win a Flame award is plain to see. But what is it that makes these the hottest awards in our industry?

Delivered by the FIA for over 15 years, the Fitness, Leadership And Management Excellence (Flame) awards are our crème de la crème industry awards that recognise excellence and best practice within the health and fitness sector.

The strict Flame award criteria and in-depth three stage Flame assessment process offers clubs and centres a rigorous independent business assessment to help benchmark their facility and honour the people who make such a profound contribution to their communities and organisation.

The assessment process may be tough going but this gives the Flame awards their credibility and therefore any club or facility who succeeds in getting a Flame award knows that they are delivering the best quality service in their category.

The 2012 FIA and Matrix Flame process encompasses; stage one qualifying information through an online entry form and participation in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, stage two, the formal assessment through an onsite visit by an independent auditor, Leisure-net Solutions in partnership with Right Directions and stage three a customer satisfaction survey. The winners are announced in front of a large audience of over 800 industry peers at the prestigious Ball of Fire at the Flame Conference in the summer.

You may have seen that earlier this year the Health Club Awards, run by HCM and the National Fitness Awards, run by Workout magazine were launched. These are consumer awards voted by members, which are valid in their own right but do not follow the in-depth and diverse Flame award assessment process. 

To enter or to find out more about Flame, visit www.fia.org.uk

Together we can build an Olympic health legacy

I am still on a high following the great success of the FIA & IMSPA Industry Summit: Winning in 2012 and Beyond, which was held at the Congress Centre in central London this week.

Over 350 delegates from 241 organisations came to discuss, debate and network with their industry peers, and I am happy to say that the venue was buzzing throughout, as we engaged on the subject of working together as an industry to create a health legacy post 2012 Games.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we were lucky enough to be joined by a great selection of high-profile guest speakers from the worlds of sport, fitness, politics, medicine and economics.

Highlights of the day included the brilliant John Inverdale, who expertly hosted proceedings, an announcement from the Public Health Minister Anne Milton about the Government’s national ambition for physical activity, and a fascinating talk from the Chief Medical Officer for the Olympics and Paralympics  Dr Richard Budgett, who provided an insight into looking after our athletes as well as our nation’s health during and after the Games.

Also, for the first time at an FIA event we had a Tweet Wall, which was a tremendous hit. Over 200 Tweets were sent in the run up to and during the event with the hash tag #LegacyReady. I hope that you will continue to keep in touch with me and the FIA team using #FIA and #LegacyReady to tell us how you are preparing for 2012.

The theme of partnership was highlighted by all of the speakers, and I look forward to the FIA collaborating with new partners in both the public and private sectors in the New Year. The next twelve months really will be key for establishing priority status for our sector on the political agenda, and we must all work together to achieve this.

With 40 million adults in the UK still not taking part in just one 30 minute session of exercise each week, we really do have our work cut out; but I am game for the challenge, and I hope that you are to.

The feedback on the Summit from those who attended has been extremely positive, and we look forward to welcoming this year’s delegates and plenty of new ones as well to our next Summit and other key events in 2012.

New Website Launched - Feedback Please?

Well Leisure Industry Week is over for another year and following months of hard work from the staff at LIW and the FIA I think we can confidently say it was a true success. In fact don’t take my word for it:

‘I just wanted to say a really big thank you to the FIA team for all the hard work at LIW...really well done chaps and pass on our thanks from the Trixter team’ Patrick Murray, MD Trixter Europe Ltd.

Luan Underwood, MD of Fitness TV had this to say, ‘We had a thoroughly enjoyable time and have made some extremely promising leads and useful contacts. The stand and supporting signage were super and exceeded expectations. I would also like to extend an applause to the rest of your team who all, without exception, seemed to work really hard, entirely professionally and with an unfailing smile on their faces.’

Launched at LIW was the new FIA website to be found at http://www.fia.org.uk/. So what is new on the site?

• Well the FIA gym finder now has the functionality to allow the general public to directly send an enquiry through to an FIA member club/centre. Great news to help generate more footfall into our industry and an added benefit of FIA membership.
• The marketing doughnut is also up and running on the site which allows all members to access expert knowledge on how best to market their club in these tough times. The doughnut is updated twice a week with new ideas and best practice and should become a major tool for club owners and sales managers in their business strategy.

Over the coming months the FIA website will continue to evolve to attract both the consumer and the industry and increase the information and tools available for everyone. But far from thinking we know it all I would like to hear from all sectors of the industry about what you would like to see on the site and what would help you in the day to day running of your club or centre.


I received valuable feedback from independents, trusts, multi site operators and suppliers while at LIW and now we can start use that feedback to ensure your trade body is offering what you need. However let’s not let it stop there if you have positive or challenging comments (I actually love these because it directs me the way you want the industry to go) please contact me and let’s continue to ensure the FIA offering improves and you get value for membership.


Richard Blackmore - FIA Sales and Marketing Director

How is the FIA assisting its members?

So this is my first entry into the world of blogging and it offers me the fantastic opportunity to open a two way conversation with FIA members.

Over the coming months I will be talking about the successes FIA member benefits has delivered to our members both operators and suppliers and also ask what more the industry is looking for from it trade body.

Over the last year we have seen members benefit substantially from the FIA collective purchasing scheme that is now place saving thousands of pounds on business services ranging from stationary to utilities. FIA Business Services is currently finalising a basket energy agreement that will help all members large or small access even greater savings on their electricity for the future.

We are now also coming to the end of the first moreactive4life campaign. For those of you who do not know this is the industry’s sub brand for the department of health’s change 4life campaign.

Over July and August over one thousand FIA members have taken advantage of the free collateral and national exposure to generate hundreds of extra enquires for the facilities as well as using the campaign to manage retention.

Now we are starting to build for year two, looking to develop new marketing channels to expose moreactive4life to an even wider audience. I will keep you updated on how this develops and more importantly how you can be involved.

Richard Blackmore - FIA Sales and Marketing Director