FICs Presenter Applications FAQs
Dates: May 12th and 13th, 2023.
Location: Perth, most likely at the beautiful ARC in Cockburn
Closing date: Applications close November 7th, 2023.
How to apply: Email to hello@FICseducation.org the following info:
- Your session titles.
- Your session descriptions. Clearly explain what you will be covering. Including how people will be able to apply what you teach them.
- Describe the audience you are targeting; newbies or advanced exercise professionals; outdoor group fitness instructors or club managers.
- Your bio. Include your relevant qualifications, experience and accolades.
- A photo of you. Check out the types we used in 2022 here.
- The equipment you intend to bring and/or require us to supply.
Session duration: Presentations will be 75 minutes with a 15 minute break.
Number of sessions you can deliver: We ask internationals and interstaters to present two sessions but feel free to submit suggestions for three or more for us to choose from.
Presenters in W.A. should submit two or more session ideas of which one will be selected if your application is successful.
When will we advise you if you have been selected? In the first week of January 2023 we will advise everyone that has applied. If you have been selected you will then have until January 26th, 2023 to confirm with us if you wish to present at the conference and provide any other details that we don’t have on file.
Equipment: Aim to deliver your session with as little equipment as possible (both exercise and technical equipment like projectors). Be flexible in this respect and prepare back-up options.
If you intend to bring your own equipment you will need to advise us of that in your application, including specifics around type, quality, when you would want to deliver it to the venue.
Who should apply?
a) Experts from a diverse range of fields are encouraged to apply if they have something of value to impart to personal trainers, gym instructors, group fitness instructors, community activity providers and other exercise professionals.
Examples: You may be a physiotherapist, a podiatrist, a lecturer, the designer of a new piece of fitness equipment, an Olympic coach, a CrossFit instructor, a doctor, the winner of the NBA nationals, a ballet dancer, ex-SAS, a sprint coach or an awesome personal trainer who works with new mums, or prisoners, or at the local drug and rehab centre.
You must be suitably qualified and be highly experienced in the field you are delivering on.
b) Presenter skills. We want engaging presenters who can get their messages across clearly. We require you to be well prepared, with slick sessions that are presented professionally.
c) Excited. We want presenters who are excited and proud to be on board.
d) Professional and easy to deal with. Most everyone is busy, we get it and for that reason we don’t inundate you with emails or requests, we generally give you plenty of notice for what we need, and go out of our way to accommodate you to provide what you need. We really want to make your experience presenting with us as easy and enjoyable as possible, but we do expect it to go both ways. So, think back. If it seems like event co-ordinators are often re-sending emails to you, asking you the same question 2 or 3 times over, advising you that you have missed deadlines, then this is not the conference for you.
e) If you are flying in to Perth and you are booking your own flights then we will need to see evidence at least four weeks out from the event, that you will be landing in Perth on the day before your session.
Session content: Sessions need to be content rich. They need to be delivered as a stand-alone session, complete in themselves, and not something where the learning outcomes require attendance at an additional course.
They also all need to have a hands-on practical element, where attendees get to feel and do, be coached or have an experience that simply isn’t possible via online delivery. Get creative with quality activities and exercises that allow attendees to apply your information, in a memorable way that wouldn’t be possible via an online only delivery. Hit me up if you need ideas.
All sessions need to provide hardcopy handouts on the day. This is the responsibility of the presenter to organise, pay for and bring along on the day, but the notes can be as simple as a one page, black and white list of points you have covered as well as your contact details. You can also use these notes to promote any of your products or services. Note: This was the most commonly mentioned ‘improvement’ point in our 2022 feedback form, i.e. that attendees wished they had notes handed to them on the day for the session they attended.
Promoting your own brand: Yes you can promote your own brand and business. We will link to your website on ours and include mention of it in our social media posts and you can include your logo and deals on courses, books, etc., in your notes. Any verbal mentions of your brand, courses, books, services or other products, inside of your session must however be left until the last 5 minutes of your session, at which point we encourage you to do lots of blatant promotion of where people can get more of you.
Pro’s of being a presenter
- Get paid! Okay, it’s not a lot of dosh to be fair but we will advise you the exact minimum you’ll get paid in January, before you agree to present.
- And ‘Paid Presenter‘ looks pretty swish on your CV :-)We will also set you up with a presenter logo that you can flash to the world.
- Receive two free tickets to both days, one for yourself and one to gift to someone else or do as our presenter Brooke Turner did last year and run a competition using it as a prize
- Promote your business, in the lead up to the conference, during and after, on our website, Facebook Group page, in your notes, and in our Attendees Resources Portal which remains in place for 6 months. Plus, we recommend blatant self promo of yourself in the last 5 minutes of your presentation.
- Film your session. You can set up a stationary, unmanned camera, filming you delivering your session, (not class attendees) and which you can then use/sell via your own business 6 months after the event.
- Share your knowledge and help strengthen our local community. If you are a local you will know only too well how much we need this, and that the benefits of it extend well beyond what we can put down on paper here.
- Flying into Perth? Want to make the trip even more valuable? Run workshops/courses on Sunday May 14th or in the week following and we will promote that too.
Keen? Please get in touch before November 7th, by emailing hello@FICseducation.org
Some topics we are looking for presenters for.
- Seniors
- Gait analysis
- Warm up and cooldowns
- Cardiovascular fitness testing options
- Training ideas from working with high level athletes
- Motivational tools
- Postural analysis
- Meditation
- Yoga – with transferrable elements to other exercise professionals – aspects they can use in their sessions
- Aqua
- Knee injuries
- Sports psychology – high performance tools
- Hi-lo freestyle group fitness ideas
- Spin
- All things running
- Bootcamps
- Programming ideas for gym members
- Mental health
- Working with clients and members with disability
- Nutrition (behavioral change tactics as well as latest research)
- Prescreens – from perspective of health and safety, client care and business building
- Retreats – how to run them, where and why
The above is not a definitive list, they are literally what came in on our feedback forms. So, if you’ve got an idea, fly it past us, even if it could only be run for say 6 people. Some of the most successful sessions I’ve organised have been very left of field, from slackline and parkour sessions, a circus skills and training session, burlesque, self defence sessions, indigenous dance, a session covering the warm up of professional dancers, drumming sessions and a 2 hour workshop on Olympic Lifts with an Olympic coach, and full body assisted stretching sessions, workplace wellness programs, from their content, to design and roll out as well as how to master transformation challenges. A lot of those sessions were so popular they were run again or resulted in second session.
Keen? Please get in touch before November 7th, by emailing hello@FICseducation.org