Beyond Activ  APAC took place at the Crowne Conference Centre in Melbourne, Australia from 2-3 December, 2025.

The event welcomed 550 delegates, representing 180 business for two days of networking and business development, with guests attending from across the Asia-Pacific region.

The format involved two stages of panels and presentations, thought leader pieces, networking and business development, with curated meeting tables and exhibition booths across the two days.

There was also an awards ceremony and entertainment in the early evening (and beyond) on the 2nd and a wind-down social to close things out on the 3rd.

Welcome remarks and opening fireside keynote

The event commenced with Beyond Activ co-founder and CEO, Ross Campbell, welcoming attendees and giving an oversight of the running order for the event before welcoming to the stage the chair of the board at AusActive, Emmett Williams, who was joined by recently appointed AusActive CEO, Ken Griffin.

Their talk focused on the sector's ability to save the economy through preventative health interventions and the need for a collective effort to be made in order to reach a potential seven million unengaged Australians. 

The sentiments echo a global tone, with calls for governments to extend greater support to the health and fitness industries and recognise their ability to positively shape the future by alleviating burdens on healthcare systems, improving the lives of populations and influencing a healthy and productive workforce. 

The talk ended with a statement of intent, with the trade body committing to lobbying the Australian government to provide top-down support for the sector.

Aligning and optimising people, purpose, and performance

The opening keynote panel was hosted by Hapana founder, Jarron Aizen, who was joined by Revo Fitness founder and MD, Andrew Holder, Fitness and Lifestyle group executive GM, Andy Chamoun and Viva Leisure CEO and MD, Harry Konstantinou.

The conversation started with speakers sharing leadership tenets before moving on to maintaining business culture during growth and the challenges that come with it. Key points included the importance of understanding and communicating values, celebrating small successes and fostering team camaraderie. Chamoun observed that the role of a leader is to ‘coach and serve, not command and control’.

They all shared their takes on the challenges and nuances of successfully leading multi-generational workforces and how to manage expectations, approaches to leadership and the importance of values-based decision-making, with Konstantinou suggesting that in his experience, motivation remains consistent across generations, but the speed at which it is delivered being the biggest variable.

He suggested that younger generations are more motivated by faster recognition as opposed to older generations who are happy to wait for it – something that was agreed by all the speakers.

Fitness and wellness trends and strategies for 2026

Kinsey Livingston, VP of sales at Playlist, presented data from Playlist’s brands (Classpass, Mindbody and Booker) that gave insight into fitness and wellness trends among Playlist customers for 2025. 

Feedback from operators suggests that, despite economic uncertainty, 72 per cent of operators are optimistic about their business performance in 2025, with 36 per cent of those operators responding as very optimistic, showing signs of strong resilience in the sector.

Data from ClassPass showed reservation growth in both fitness and wellness verticals – up 36 per cent and 37 per cent respectively when compared to last year, (echoing a recent report from the HFA) suggesting that consumers are prioritising their spend on health and wellness, despite a challenging economy.

Holistic wellness was cited as both the top trend to define 2025 and one of the trends predicted to grow the fastest in the next 12 months, with consumers having a greater appreciation for the need to look after their mental health, nutrition, and recovery, not just staying active.

Instagram was the largest driver of traffic for operators in Australia, with word of mouth taking second spot and Facebook and Google search/SEO coming in third. 

The session closed with Livingston sharing strategies for the upcoming year, with ‘whole human design’, operationalising word of mouth, intelligent scaling of personalisation, tactical diversification of revenue streams and collaboration with brands that complement yours being ways to stay ahead in 2026.

Member Experience Panel 

Strategic Sales Manager for Ezypay, Liv Billingham, hosted the member experience panel. Joining her was Michael Ramsey, co-founder and director of Strong pilates, Gail Asbell, co-founder and co-CEO of Upstate, Francis Dowdle, chief business development officer of KX Pilates and Allie Mairs, strategic director APAC at Playlist.

Mairs presented data collected through Playlist’s partnership with marketing software Attentive, that enables pre-sale data capture far before a prospect is ready to purchase. After analysing one million different people in their first 90 days, they found that if they had opted in for SMS and email marketing before attending, they booked 30 per cent more classes in that time. Strong evidence was also presented to suggest the importance of AI in customer service and retention, citing data that showed a 40 per cent increase in booking when using AI predictions and intervening with clients at risk.

Ramsey shared how Strong has used consumer insight to refine its offering and teased tech-enabled personalisation that will be announced soon. He also touched on the member journey and the timeframes and number of visits they’ve identified as crucial to retain members long-term.

The panel also discussed utilising AI to reduce inefficiencies and empower team members in delivering exceptional members experiences. Through strategic deployment of tech and AI, operators can effectively manage large data sets from members that would otherwise be timely and costly to process and deliver personalisation en masse. 

Asbell gave a real world application of this practice, revealing that while Upstate uses automation behind the scenes, it is utilised in a way that facilitates a hands-on approach when delivering the ‘personal touch’, such as hand written cards from staff when members hit milestones or birthdays.

Awards

Beyond Activ’s Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Belgravia Leisure chair, Geoff Lord, and a surprise Industry Appreciation Award was given to the recently outgoing AUSActive CEO, Barrie Elvish, who also teased a new role he will be taking up with Belgravia Leisure.