Aus Fitness Industry Conference & Trade Show 2023 with Shaun Krenz 💯

The one thing that we all learned through the pandemic is that health and wellbeing is the most important vehicle for society to kind of get through hard times.

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I'm your host, Richard Toutounji, and in today's episode, I wanna talk something that's coming up very soon. So if you are watching this, like, in order of podcasts, this is pretty cool. If you're not, totally fine because you can just plug into the next one. I'm pretty excited about today because, you know, over the last few years, we all know what's happened, COVID restrictions, all these kind of things. And there's one thing that's really, you know, lasted in, that is relationships and that is contact and that is connecting and so forth. And so today on the show, I've got a really special guest. His name is Sean Kranz. Welcome to the show, first of all. And

thanks, Richard. Great to be here.

Awesome to have you, Sean. And, uh, for those who don't know Sean, I just want to kind of recap what is happening in the fitness industry for both, you know, business to business and to consumers as well. So if you, if you are a fitness pro and you want to get your clients kind of invested and connected, this is what you need to listen to in this podcast episode. So Sean has hosted over 400,000 attendees across multiple events in his career, collaborating with 1,500 businesses, positioning them in front of their ideal customer base. And we know that's hard in today's congested marketplace. Sean is bringing out the biggest, the biggest show like this ever. And there's 2 shows that are happening. It's the AusFitness Expo and the AusFitness industry. So there is something for every single person at this upcoming event. It's going to be epic. There's a lot of things happening. And I just want to shout out the website before we even get started so you can follow along. It's ausfitnessexpo.com.au. Ausfitnessexpo.com.au. Sean, how are you, my friend?

Really good, Richard. And yeah, great introduction there, mate. We've certainly got a lot on our plate. The events are now only 6 weeks away. And we're sitting on an absolute arsenal of content announcements that are still to play, which I can touch on somewhat today. But certainly this is going to be the biggest event of this kind that's run in the Southern Hemisphere really since 2019. So it's extremely exciting.

Shaun, I've been exhibiting and speaking and participating in all your amazing events. There's something that you put on magical with them. And I think the magical thing is that you're able to get a lot of people from different walks of life and different, you know, sectors of the fitness and wellness industry, and you put them in one room together over a couple days and magic actually happens. Not many people can do this. Not many people can do this, Sean. I've been in this game for a long time, and to put it all together does, you know, I think that's your secret sauce. So I want to kind of like understand a few things about how you do such a thing and how you put, like, maybe you can take us through a little bit behind the scenes of what's happening because on the front end, it just, you know, it looks like amazing. There's new speaker lineups, the best brands are there, but to put on an event like this is probably pretty epic. I could only imagine. Can you just maybe start off with, I just love to know, like, how do you, you know, as a person, as an individual driving this thing, You know, what's your drive? How do you put on such an epic event? Where does it start, Sean?

Yeah, I think for me, Richard, that, you know, the journey started way back in 2008 or 2009 when, you know, I started in my role heading up the trade show offering for the fitness industry in this region. And, you know, back in those days, it was very much exactly that, just a trade show that was designed to connect suppliers with commercial buyers. So gym owner managers, fitness facility procurement executives, et cetera, et cetera. But from there, my vision, I guess, was to kind of expand and curate the offering to also cater for consumer audiences as well. And, you know, through that journey, it become very much a fitness festival type offering that was a celebration of all the different fitness communities coming together under the one roof and across both the B2B and B2C markets. And I think the one thing that has always been integral for me and my success has been relationships. That's, I guess, my most valuable asset. So I pride myself on how well I've maintained those over the journey and it kind of just builds and builds, right? My mentality is that that relationship's ongoing forever regardless of whether they have an investment stake in the coming events. And so I think, you know, it's an outcome of just nurturing those, but it is also quite relentless. My advice would be if you're looking for a, you know, a 9 to 5 type offering, then don't do trade shows. It's high pressure, it's all on the line. And unfortunately, like, unlike other sectors, you can't delay it. If it's not ready, it doesn't matter. Your doors are being opened anyhow. So, I think just to answer your question really specifically, it's a year-round process of prospecting and nurturing the entire market to ensure that they all come together under this one roof at the one time.

Yeah. I love what you said about relationships don't end. Your business ventures might adjust or you might change careers or industries, but Relationships don't end. And I think that's a really key point, an important point you touch on there, I think. And that's definitely seen with this event, with the amount of relationships that you've built up. Can you take us through a little bit about the event coming up? Because it is coming up soon. What are the dates? First of all, Sean, let's just tick that off the list first.

Yeah. So we've actually got 3 events that we're offering for the fitness sector this coming April, and so the actual dates Friday the 28th of April through until Sunday the the 29th of April. So it's a it's a Friday Saturday Sunday event offering under one roof, but the offering is quite segmented in that we have our Oz Fitness Expo brand, which is positioned as the nation's biggest and and most exciting festival of fitness. Let's call it so. You know whether whether you're into functional fitness, bodybuilding, sports modeling. If you're an elite athlete, AusFitness Expo is for you. It's kind of a massive weekend that's packed full of entertainment, competitions, and inspiration, and you can meet the biggest names and influencers in health and fitness, experience the latest workouts, et cetera, et cetera. So that's the first brand. And then we also have our AusFitness Industry brand, which is our trade show and summit offering. So that one's open to business and fitness professionals only. The general public aren't permitted access to this one. You can walk from one to the other if you're an industry professional. It's just that the general public can't go into the AusFitness industry section because it's really important that we maintain an environment that's conducive to business. And so that brand's positioned very much as the national trade show and conference for the fitness and leisure industry. And what's showcased is all of the new ideas, the new tech, the latest equipment, essentially every type of product and service that you could expect to see procured into a fitness facility or a gym, health club, leisure center, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So the attendees to that one are senior executives from fitness facilities, management teams, investors, and fitness and program directors, along with exercise professionals. as well. Okay. And then the third and final brand, which I want to touch on, is really exciting because it's new also, is our PT Summit offering, which will run on the Friday. Yeah. It's a free-to-event— sorry, a free-to-attend event that's offering countless opportunities for personal trainers and instructors to take in education that's designed to obviously enhance their career so that they can go back into their business and have a positive impact on on their clients and community.

Yeah, there is some serious events and topics. I'm just going through the website, ozfitnessexpo.com.au, and there's a huge lineup of some amazing speakers. And I think this is a good opportunity, Sean, if you are listening to this podcast, guys, and you haven't yet kind of maybe— hopefully you've been listening to this, but if you haven't yet done anything else outside maybe listening to audios and so forth or online training, coming and actually seeing these, probably these experts that you're actually listening to in person, I think that's something. And I think overall, Sean, that's something that probably needs to be touched on a little bit. I mean, let's talk about that for a second. We've all had to learn and understand, and I think online learning's amazing, but the face-to-face environment, talk about that, Sean. I mean, what element? I mean— How do you sum that up in like, okay, I'm going to take my 2 to 3 days out or 1 day out if you're a PT or going to jump there for a couple hours. Talk about the benefits that you've seen over these years of people coming back and what they're getting out of it.

Well, the crazy thing about this, Richard, and why I'm just so proud, I guess, of the value proposition, it's free to attend. So we've literally designed a conference program For industry professionals, for anyone that works in the fitness sector, with over 50 sessions and more than 100 different speakers, okay, which are all experts in their, in their specific field. So if you're a personal trainer, you can come and partake in a program that will be spread across session tracks covering everything from business and professional development to nutrition and behavior change to training science. and also group exercise. We've got some global leaders who are featured within the program offering. Dr. Lay Norton's actually our— he will be our opening keynote for the PT Summit, which is exciting. But there's all types of different session offerings across both lectures and workshops.

Hmm.

And then I think, you know, for business owners, you know, it's everything that's gonna gear you with the tools that you need to go back into your business and run it more successfully and ultimately more profitably. And I mean, again, I really just want to touch on that point. It's free to attend. So why wouldn't you go along? You're going to get 300 suppliers on the show floor and then all of that content as part of your experience.

It's amazing. And I'll just read out some of these topics, guys. Build the team, live the dream, how to grow beyond a solo business owner, How to get strong and jacked. I love that one. Effective functional programming for females. We've got transforming member experience through technology, leveraging the older adults opportunity. That's a huge opportunity. I mean, I've got one here called She Lifts Bro. I mean, how good is that? By Clean Health there. Attracting new talent and retaining your superstars, really important there. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on. I mean, and it's free. This is pretty epic. My next question then, Sean, right? Talk about like the other side of it. You know, you've got a free event for industry professionals, and that's probably who's listening to this podcast. But how do you put a free event on, Sean? Let's talk about the exhibitor side of things and how can, you know, how can the industry support this event, most importantly?

Yeah, so I mean, great question. Obviously, our business model, we butter our bread from revenue attached to exhibitor and sponsor sales, right? So they're the ones that we've got to thank. You know, for this offering ultimately and our value proposition to them, our exhibitors and sponsors is that we will deliver audience, right? So if we do that and we exceed expectations on that, they're obviously going to be happy to recommit to following years because, you know, we absolutely think that we can scale this thing to be even bigger and better in the years to come. And so that's mostly what takes up workload for the, you know, 10 months of the year leading up to the event. You know, it's really being out in the market, meeting with these suppliers, building relationships with these suppliers, understanding what types of people they want to be put in front of, how can we help solve their problems, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, it's across all Product categories as well, right? Whether it's fitness equipment, bathroom amenities, lighting, flooring, sports nutrition, clothing and apparel, etc., etc. So you know we're having thousands on thousands of conversations with those types of suppliers on an annual basis, and a win for us is obviously to get them to invest in taking a stand within these events.

I love these events, Sean, because it's not just so much you know. You jump into the education, but, you know, over my career and, and over going to these events, you, you meet a lot of contacts. And as you said at the start, relationships never end. And I truly believe that, you know, pretty much, let's be honest, most of the industry who's anybody's gonna be at this event. And this is the place to bump into, run into somebody, have that sideline conversation with somebody at this actual event. If it's through the education or if it's, you know, going into the exhibitors and, you know, seeing what their latest products and solutions are in this, you know, in this time. That's what I'm probably most excited about is to be able to meet people that you may do some business with or you talk to, but you'd actually see their products and you can feel what's going on. What's at the moment, Shaun, what's the most interesting thing or the one of the newest things that you are really, really excited about Is it the PT? Is the PT exhibited? Is it a particular session you have running on? What's some of the things that your team are excited about and yourself?

I think it's probably the uniqueness of the model, right? It's the first time where we've done it like this in a sense that it's all happening on the same floor under the same roof. So all of these events come together on that one level, right? There's no separation. There is just a level of walling that kind of separates AusFitness industry from AusFitness Expo. But as I explained earlier, if you're an industry professional, you can walk in and out, right? So I think the logistics of that are quite exciting. I think the fact that we're offering this world-class content program free of charge, it's the first time this has ever happened anywhere in the world. So just the breadth of that content offering, I'm extremely excited about. And then I think within the AusFitness Expo brand, just the juggernaut that that's becoming, um, you know, from an overall, uh, offering standpoint, I guess, in terms of content that's geared for the consumer. I really think we're going to exceed expectations in that regard. Um, we're partnering with Under Armour, who are one of our major sponsors, um, for the AusFitness Expo brand. They're running a 2-day purpose-built competition within AusFitness Expo. Uh, we have grappling competitions as well, because we're also looking to engage the combat community. And that's really what it is, mate. It's a celebration of all the different fitness communities coming together under the one roof. So whether your jam is powerlifting or CrossFit or functional fitness or bodybuilding, et cetera, et cetera, it's literally all there. And I think given what we all went through during the pandemic, that celebration with all those fitness communities and all of us together, um, it's going to feel really special, I believe.

Yeah, totally love that. I'm just going through your, um, your Facebook here. Just realized that Macro Mike's coming down. That's literally my pro— my favorite protein shake, Sean. I just got literally delivered this morning. So, um, yeah, sideline comment, but—

Well, mate, I can, I can tell you there will be thousands, tens of thousands of samples given away from the Oz Fitness Expo floor. Um, you know, RTD drinks and protein bars and, and, you know, all those Macro Mike goodies with cookies, etc., etc. So, you know, that's a big part of the value proposition for consumers.

Yeah. And, um, I think it's interesting because if you were there last year at your event, Sean, the consumers— just want to, you know, recap that— like It's very different to the business professionals. And let's touch on the consumers just for a second there. You mentioned that there's a lot of giveaways and a lot of free things for consumers. How has the consumer market changed over the last 2 years? I mean, from this side of the fence, when we're talking a lot of fitness business professionals, they are definitely feeling that things have changed and the studios that have closed down this time. How is the consumer side of things, the retail, the clothing brands and things like that, Tell us about that side of the game, Sean.

Well, I think it's just overall growth, right? The one thing that we all learned through the pandemic is that health and wellbeing is the most important vehicle for society to kind of get through hard times. And I think the mainstream market, because fitness has always been niche, right? But I think the mainstream market, the wider population now views their health and wellbeing as one of their, if not the, one of the most important aspects of how they want to live their life, right? So I think consumer participation in anything that's health and wellbeing skewed is increasing. And we're seeing that with some of the activewear brands that have just become absolute juggernauts through the pandemic because people live in activewear these days. I think we're seeing that in grocery chains as well, right? Because you've now got whole aisles that are dedicated to health and wellbeing offerings. And, you know, the businesses that supply those products have just gone from absolute strength to strength. So yeah, I think it's a saturated market here in Australia in terms of the amount of fitness facility offerings that we have. And so it's a space to still be in if you are one of those, but it's not through lack of consumers that want to get fit because that is increasing and only going to increase more and more.

Yeah. I think this is a great event to come and see the industry and see what's happening on both sides of the scale, because I think that's interesting what we're saying. Consumers buying's up, people are living in activewear, they're ordering food through their house. online and so forth. And so it's a great way to, to figure out what is the next, you know, what's that next thing that someone's looking for. If you're a personal trainer or a fitness professional and you're going, hey, should I attend? You definitely should attend. And also, you know, bring those, bring your clients down as well to check out what is happening too. Actually, Sean, my father-in-law, just the other day, he calls me up and he says, Richard, do you know about this event in Sydney, and he's in, he's in Queensland. I go, what event is it, Joe? Oh, this is fitness, fitness show. And you know, he's not really— he probably hasn't— I think he's come here a few times, maybe when I've exhibited. But you know, he's telling me from his house, hey, there's this event on, Richard, you got to go down. And I realized it was your event. And I think that's a— That's credit to yourself, Sean. This is definitely getting out there. Everybody's talking about it in industry. Not just in the industry, but also outside the industry as a consumer. So a huge credit to you, Sean. Well done on putting this together.

Yeah, thanks, Richard. I think, you know, it is very much that celebration like I touched on, and for that mass market, there's going to be so many different trends that is displayed on the show floor alongside, you know, the excitement of those different content offerings that I touched on earlier.

Yeah, perfect. And before we leave, Sean, I want to touch on just a little bit in regards to the business. You're a business owner. These people, anybody listening to this podcast, I should say, are business owners and they're going through all the things that every business owner goes through. I want to kind of just ask you off the bat, 2 things that are great about running a business at the moment in today's landscape and 2 things that are challenging that you see running a business. It does have fitness. We're in the fitness space. Love to put your insights on being a business owner and how you felt. So 2 things that you found amazing, 2 things that you found challenging.

I think that I'll start with the challenging part. I think those aspects are well documented throughout media and whatnot at the moment. Number one being staffing. And I think that's particularly prevalent through the fitness industry. I know many of the chains are still having difficulty getting personal trainers and instructors and people with relevant skill sets into their business. That certainly felt throughout our sector as well because the event sector was obviously decimated through COVID. Many of the event professionals that worked within the sector had to kind of move on and do something completely separate, right? Mm-hmm. So having those types of resources that have the logistical skill sets that we're required to put on events at scale like this has been tricky alongside what is a kind of niche marketing proposition as well. So that's probably been the first part. I think revenue right across the board and certainly in the fitness industry is really healthy at the moment. But the challenge is obviously inflation and cost increases and whatnot. There's many areas where costs have doubled since pre-COVID. And for us, we're kind of feeling that with tenancy fees and AV and production fees,

et

cetera, et cetera. So I think the number of exhibitors and the exhibitor and sponsor revenues exceeded my expectations for this coming event. But as you know, Richard, you kind of got to measure that with what converts to actual profit, right? And the challenge is that inflation and cost and whether it's freight, etc., etc. I think freight's probably a big one for suppliers in this market because it is a distribution-based market. So many of them are importers and whatnot. So they're certainly the challenges. I think the excitement is certainly the growth in the category as I touched on. And also the opportunities that were created through COVID. There's many openings in the market. And certainly this was an opening in the market as well that wouldn't have been there if the pandemic hadn't come along. So I think that's been my mentality. I'm grateful for that. And I've been relentless the last 3 years just to ensure that we captured that opportunity because it was a once-off, we hope.

Totally. Well, Shaun, thank you so much, guys. If you haven't yet got your ticket, You're gonna go to the website ausfitnessexpo.com.au, and there's a big red button. It's called Register for Free if you're an industry professional. And that's pretty much all you have to do, Sean, besides marking your calendar free between the 28th and 30th of April in Sydney. Is that correct?

100%, Richard. Thanks for your support. And that seamlessly describes exactly what you're gonna do. Go to Aus Fitness Expo, and that's ausfitnessexpo.com.au. Click on the Trade Visitor button in the top right-hand corner if you work in the industry, and you'll get your free pass. If you're a consumer, you've just got to click on the get tickets button and it's $30 to get in on the Saturday, Sunday. So even that, still extremely valuable. Crazy.

Thank you so much, Sean. I look forward to seeing you at the event. And if you are, if you love this episode and you go, hey, I didn't realize this event was on, definitely share it out on your Facebook, your Instagram, tell your clients about this event because they're going to get some heaps of deals and discounts and things on clothing and food and everything else like that. Share it out and we'll see you down there at The, uh, at the AusFitness Expo, uh, trade and expo. Good to, good to have you on, Sean. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Richard. And looking forward to the sessions you're moderating as well, mate. We've got to remember that you're part of the program offering, which is always a highlight.

Yes, yes, I am presenting and moderating. It's going to be a great event. So, uh, come down and also meet me down there at the, at the event. Uh, look forward to meeting everybody there too. Thanks, Sean.

Thanks, Richard. Cheers, mate.