Kristen Walsh looks ahead to the 14th Annual IHRSA European Congress, which takes place on 16–19 October 2014 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

More than 500 health club industry professionals from around the world will convene in Amsterdam next month for the 14th Annual IHRSA European Congress.

The event will feature presentations delivered by executives from inside and outside the health and fitness industry, providing thought-provoking commentary on trends shaping both business more broadly and the fitness sector specifically.

Meanwhile networking events, focus groups and evening and lunch receptions provide the opportunity to build relations with colleagues from across Europe.

In addition to hearing from notable speakers, attendees will have the opportunity to meet with suppliers of fitness equipment and services. Delegates are also invited to tour some of Amsterdam’s leading health clubs, including a walking tour on 16 October and a bus tour on 19 October.

“The Congress itself, the networking opportunities and the club tours were invaluable, and will without a doubt have a significant impact on shaping the future of Fitness First UK,” commented Martin Seibold, MD of Fitness First UK, at the end of a previous IHRSA European Congress.

Petro Hameleers, owner of Anytime Fitness in Benelux, agrees and is returning to this year’s congress. “The presentations were incredibly valuable at the strategic, tactical and operational level,” he explains.

Business insight
General sessions speakers this year will include Jonas Kjellberg, one of the creators of Skype, and Annemarie van Gaal, a financial columnist in the Netherlands.

Kjellberg will speak on Friday 17 October on the topic of ‘Entrepreneurship & Creating a Winning Sales Culture’. In addition to co-creating Skype, Kjellberg was the founder of Player.io, which was sold to Yahoo, and chair of iCloud, sold to Apple. He lectures on entrepreneurship and creating a winning sales culture at Stanford University and the Stockholm School of Economics. He is also an avid investor and coaches entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, van Gaal’s session takes place on Saturday 18 October and is entitled ‘Doing Unconventional Business’.

In 1990, van Gaal co-founded the media company Independent Media in Russia. Due to its unconventional approach, Independent Media rapidly grew from a company with a turnover of US$1.5m and 15 employees in 1992, to become market leader in Russia by 1998, with a turnover of US$80m and 700 employees.

Since 1998, Independent Media has
been the leading publishing house in Russia and the Ukraine in the field of consumer magazines, newspapers and trade publications. Consumer titles include the Russian editions of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar and Men’s Health, as well as several newspapers, including English language daily The Moscow Times, The St Petersburg Times and Vedomosti – a Russian language daily run in a joint venture with The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

In 2001, Independent Media was sold to Finnish company Sanoma Media and van Gaal left Russia for the Netherlands, where she now manages her own companies, is active as a private equity investor and is a columnist for the leading financial newspaper Financieel Dagblad. She’s also the author of several bestsellers on financial subjects and was one of the ‘dragons’ in the Dutch version of TV show Dragons’ Den.

Many of her activities and much of her time and profits currently go towards projects that are helping to eliminate poverty in the Netherlands.

In addition to these two keynotes, the congress will offer a wide range of concurrent sessions. These will include a CEO panel discussion on the future of the industry. There will also be seminars on topics including retention (Paul Bedford, Retention Guru); leadership (Brent Darden of Brent Darden Consulting); virtual classes (Rasmus Ingerslev of Wexer Virtual); wearable technology (Dave Wright of MYZONE); and membership sales (Doug Miller of Sales Makers International).

The keynote sessions, as well as all concurrent sessions, will be simultaneously translated into Dutch, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

Recognising excellence
The 2014 European Club Leadership Award will be presented during the European Congress. The award recognises the European club leader who has done the most to advance his or her company and the industry through strong leadership and performance. Last year’s recipient was Nick Coutts, CEO of Portugal’s premium low-cost operation Fitness Hut.

Worth your while
Not sure you can get away? Listen to what Robert Steijn of Your Life Sportsclub in Voorschoten, the Netherlands, has to say: “I always find it hard to get out of my club to go to the IHRSA Congress, but every time I attend I return with excellent ideas, more knowledge and, most important of all, lots of new inspiration and enthusiasm.”