Come visit W.A.
To all my NZ and Eastern State buddies, in case you haven’t heard, I’m now living in Perth (Boorloo), Western Australia and having a swing at organising some fitness industry conferences here. The last WAFIC one run in Perth was in 2015, since then we’ve been a bit very forgotten! Due to border closures I think it’s more important than ever to get some local ones off the ground with the vision of keeping them running long term. Border closures also mean that I’ll be sticking to using local presenters for the first one in August of this year, but for 2023 and beyond, everyone will be welcome.
Apply
If you would be interested in presenting in Perth in May 2023, I’d love to know sometime before August 19th this year.
To apply, simply email me (hello@FICseducation.org) details about one or more 50 minute sessions you’d like to run. Include a session title for them as well as a short bio and a link to your website.
Submitting your ideas now doesn’t lock you in to delivering them. I will touch base with you in October/November with details about how much we can pay you and/or reimburse you for flights and accommodation. You’ll then have until January 26th, 2023 to decide if you want in.
Magic May
May is a brilliant time of year here in the west. The southerly winds drop off and the turquoise waters of this coast are still warm. Locals call it Magic May and it’s still a good month to swim at Salmon Bay in Rotto, snorkel the Ningaloo Reef or go surfing and visiting the famous wineries and mountain bike tracks around Margaret River but the weather is cool enough, without the rain, to walk around the incredible National Parks north of here and comforting knowing you can sleep outside, under the stars, without the risk of snakes swallowing you. Don’t just come for the conference come for a holiday. (By the way the 2024 conference is in March, for those who like it hot hot).
Joining us in the excitement already…
Dave Liow – A kiwi in Queensland
An exercise physiologist and a holistic movement coach, Dave holds a Master of Physical Education Kinesiology and Exercise Science. He is the co-owner of the Kaizen Health Centre and the founder of the Holistic Movement Coach Programme based in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, Dave has a long history in elite high-performance sport conditioning and has worked with a wide range of world-class athletes (Dave was the Head trainer for NZ Black Sox in 2 successful world series, NZ Hockey Olympic and Commonwealth Games trainer, S&C coach for NZ Titleist Men and Women’s Golf Academy). He also specialises in working with clients with chronic pain and injuries. He currently mentors and presents internationally to health professionals on integrating a holistic approach, and cutting-edge movement techniques into health and fitness.
Proposed sessions
1.Sleep – more regenerative than anabolic steroids!
You can have the best training programme and diet in existence. If you’re not sleeping you won’t recover, adapt, or get any result apart from getting more tired. Optimising sleep is your key to optimal performance and gains. Learn the science and field-tested techniques to help you and your clients sleep better.
– Understand sleep science
– Understand techniques used to measure sleep
– Learn key techniques used to improve sleep with client examples and how to put it all together
2. Balance training revamped
Balance training needs to be more in depth than seeing how long you can stand on one leg. Real life balance training involves moving body parts in all directions. This session will teach you how to incorporate cutting-edge balance training concepts into your programmes. Be prepared to move and experience revamped balance training in this practical session.
Understand how we balance
Understand how movement platforms relate to balance
Learn practical exercises to train balance
3. Glutes Galore
Athletic performance, keeping injury free, and the ability to look buff in a pair of jeans are seriously compromised when your glutes aren’t working well. Squats, dead lifts, and lunges are great for glute development, but we’ll show you more tools to get your glutes working well. This session will help you create buns of steel for your clients.
The importance of glutes
Why glutes don’t work
Practical glute training techniques
4. The plank is dead wood
The plank has become the go-to exercise for core training. Discover why we think that it’s overused and overrated. We can do better – so much better. This session explores the concept of “core training” and how we can train more effectively. Come away from this session with a new to bag of core conditioning exercises to add in your workouts.
5. Is your client’s foot function kicking your programme’s butt?
The foot is a massively underutilized movement resource that we have wrapped up and shut away in a dark, sensory deprivation chamber (shoes). Poor foot function will sabotage your training results and can derail your clients. This workshop will show you what to look for and will teach you what to do with feet that aren’t dancing to the right tune.
Read more about Mish at mishwright.com
Session ideas
- Periodisation for periods
- Inclusive practices
- How to work with the reluctant exerciser
- How to build an online course
Richard is the CEO of the Exercise Association Of NZ and there’s probably no-one else who has their finger on the pulse of the industry both at a micro and macro level as this guy.
He’s also out there walking the talk, with both his own fitness and his efforts of supporting our industry. In 2021 he won a Special Award for his outstanding contributions where it was said:-
“Kaitiakitanga: He has at all times offered guardianship and protection to the exercise industry. “Whakawhanaungatanga: The process of establishing relationships. Our recipient not only continued to uphold and honour the relationships within the exercise industry, he also forged new relationships with Government and Government Departments to safeguard exercise in New Zealand, Aotearoa.
“Manaakitanga – His expression of kindness and respect for all, showing at all times his ability to hold the responsibility of our industry whilst ensuring reciprocity across all stakeholders in our industry and outside of it.”
Proposed sessions
PT retention 2.0
The last few years has played havoc with both the exercising public as well as the model many PTs use to generate clients and income. Even before this many successful PTs set up their own studios, meaning gyms are in a constant circle of acquisition and training for new PTs. Explore unique ways to both attract and keep PTs that is sustainable for both the facility and the PTs.
Global trends
What has changed for our industry in the last 10 years and what hasn’t?
Let’s look forward 5 to 10 years. What will the consumer expect and what do we need to deliver?
(I’ve asked Richard to deliver the Global Trends topic as the opening keynote. Can’t think of a better topic or person to kick the show off and he’s agreed).
Wendy Sweet, originally trained as a nurse and went on to be the national director of Les Mills personal training for more than 10 years. In more recent times she sat on the board of Skills Active, won the REPs New Zealand award and completed her Ph.D. She now runs the highly successful My Menopause Transformation.
Proposed session ideas
- Menopause Weight Loss
- ‘A Job to Love’ – launching an international online business selling into 50 countries.
Mike’s focus is peak performance, for individuals, teams and companies, and he excels at it. Check out the reviews here.
His workshops are engaging, entertaining and impactful.
If Mike’s sessions get the thumbs up from our attendees, he will be flying in from Aotearoa, New Zealand to deliver them.
Proposed session ideas
Peak Performance Under Pressure
How we perform under pressure can be the difference between passing and failing exams, winning or losing competitions, making good or bad decisions, being confident or not for meetings, presentations and social occasions. While everyone’s pressures may be different the negative impacts can be the same including poor performance, feeling overwhelmed, impatient and anxious, wanting to give up completely, run away and hide, to eat too much or not enough, to sleep all day or not at all. In this session learn some of the tricks used with high level athletes for excelling under pressure. This fun interactive session will lift your game in business and life.
Otherwise known as Happy Hils, Hilary is keen to present a couple of senior sessions for us. Hil’s senior sessions in Aotearoa pull in more than 100 participants, to the one class! She won the up-and-coming PT award when she first landed in the industry and has gone from strength to strength recently co-presenting at the national FitEx conference.
What else?
Be included in the 2022 goodies bag
Attendees at the 2022 conference will receive a digital goodies bag, showcasing some of the presenter’s businesses that couldn’t be here or be fitted into the day. If you would like to donate something to it, like a link to one of your videos, an e-book, a discount voucher to use on your products or course, etc. then fire it on through and I’ll be sure to include it. I’ll start promoting the bag’s contents end of March and in the meantime can include you as a supporter of the conference, with your logo and a link back to your website.
Spread the word about the 2022 conference
Please consider sharing the August 2022 details (which you can find here) with any others you know involved in the Perth fitness industry. Getting this first one off the ground will go along way to helping me gain sponsorship, funding and a healthy number of attendees to float next year’s and beyond, which is what I’m planning for.
Sponsors
If you know someone doing great things for our industry and who’d love a bit more great value coverage please hook me up with up with them. At this stage I’m more focused on forming good partnerships than charging anyone big $ to join us.
By way of reassurance, in NZ my sponsors included the likes of Macpac, Kathmandu, Elite Fitness and Horleys and over 60 other wonderful people and their businesses who liked what we did enough to come back year after year. My business Catch Fitness also got to sponsor the Exercise Association of NZ up-and-coming personal trainer award for several years and was one of the Association’s preferred suppliers.
Am I missing something?
All ideas, suggestions and advice hugely appreciated.
Any questions anytime drop me a line – Broni – hello@ficseducation.org or text/call 0406 882 025.
