Ep 119 - Future of fitness: Technology leaders at CES

The third and final part of our CES special from Las Vegas sees Matthew Januszek speaking to three icons bridging the gap between contemporary fitness and the technology of the future.

 

Hear how thought leader Emma Barry, Emmett Williams of Myzone, and David Shaw of Growth Fitness Design see the years to come. Discover what you’ll be seeing more of, such as clothing sensors and even Bluetooth digestibles that you swallow for recording bodily metrics.

 

And how will the industry use all this big data collected? We have the key info to lead a happier and healthier life but we don’t know how to implement the knowledge – that’s the difference.

 

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

 

Emma Barry is a global fitness authority that consults to the fastest-growing segments in the sector: boutique studios, budget clubs, digital workouts and fit-tech start-ups. A founding member of group fitness programming juggernaut Les Mills International, former Director of Programming for Equinox, Emma has held senior roles in group fitness programming, product development, global training, people and culture.

 

Emmett Williams is group president and a founding partner in the global wearable technology brand Myzone – a hardware, cloud-ware, and software mix that drives exercise adherence for the end user, and customer engagement metrics for the network partner.

 

David Shaw has been involved with tech for years, through a military background having worked on infrared, night vision, thermal imagers, computer and laser systems. Today, he’s CXO of Growth Fitness Marketing & Design, a boutique firm specialising in creating the next generation hospitality, multi housing, and corporate fitness center guest workout experience.

 

Episode highlights -

 

• How everyone gathering so much data is a huge trend, but there are still many key players and consumers alike that don’t really know what to do with it once they have it.
• Why you need to acknowledge that you’re going to lose audience attention once they leave your facility if you don’t have a digital offering, but the gamble is in not setting budget to keep their attention may mean you lose them forever in the long term.
• Why behavioural change is so important and how fitness not only has a big share of global wallet for the industry, but how all what so many companies are doing is still not shifting the needle on true health.
• How technology has changed over the years and how companies are applying it to benefit commercial fitness spaces or the service that operators can offer.
• The fitness giants that have lead the technological trend at CES, why they’re no longer attending and who has taken their place.
• Why the sleep and recovery trends are on the rise through wearables and measurement of numerous different metrics.
• How proper sleep hygiene not only recovers the brain and the body depending on the type of rest, but has been found to be causal to lower health risks such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
• What the developments are going to be between traditional fitness and the tech industry, and which sector will be influencing the other in the years to come when it comes to commercial and consumer fitness.
• How companies and club operators need to follow up their data initiatives of benefiting the consumer/customer, by implementing a regression analysis with other data to correlate information and then predict future behaviour.
• How wearables and sensors have become smaller, more integrated in clothing, needing less power but still detecting more.
• Why CES may not be the first thought for gym owners and operators when it comes to show attendance, but how it leads innovation and unveils niches that will trickle down into any aspect of the industry in the years to come.
• How VR and AR is going to influence the fitness industry, and how the tech even affects perceived exertion during a workout.
• Why tech companies are concentrating more on the consumer rather than appealing to the trade.