This year’s Elvate will also run alongside COPA Series and the Elite Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Expo; attracting an audience of over 8,000 purchasers, specifiers and potential partners.
Thought leaders’ conference
With growing support from the industry, organisers of the trade show have invested this year in creating an inaugural Elevate Conference, sponsored by MIND BODY. The conference will cover subjects from social prescribing and active urban design through to digital disruption and community-wide behaviour change initiatives – with a goal to facilitate bigger picture thinking that can unleash the full power of the physical activity sector as a force for good in society.
Thought leaders from a range of sectors confirmed for the conference to date include MP Tracey Crouch, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society, Sir Muir Gary, Dr Michael Mosley, This Girl Can architect Tanya Joseph, World Health Organisation’s Alana Officer, National Obesity Forum’s spokesperson Tam Fry, NHS England’s clinical lead for social prescribing Michael Dixon GP, Sport England’s strategic lead of campaigns Kate Dale and Parkwood Leisure’s Managing Director, Peter Fitzboydon.
Seminars
In addition to the new two-day conference, this year’s seminar programme continues to develop, and will include four streams focusing on physical activity for health and wellbeing, strategies for an active nation, the business of physical activity and performance: maximising potential.
In total, the programme includes 40 free to attend seminar sessions with over 230 leading speakers, representing organisations including: Department of Health, GLL, World Health Organisation, NHS England, Sport England, ukactive, Virgin Active, Park Run, DCMS, MacMillan Cancer Research, David Lloyd Clubs, England Athletics, Places for People, ECB and British Gas.
In the strategies for an active nation stream, speakers will examine how the physical activity industry and its wider stakeholders can reach and influence the inactive, exploring how to create opportunities for people to be active in ways that fit with their everyday lives and interests. Kate Dale, Strategic Lead – Campaigns, Sport England will chair a session exploring two examples of how traditional sports have been redesigned to attract and target new audiences and re-engage those who may not have participated for some time. Featured campaigns will include England Athletics’ ‘Run Together’ and the England & Wales Cricket Board’s ‘Last Man Stands Cricket and Women’s softball cricket’.
Kate said: “I’m really excited to be chairing this session and I’m looking forward to hearing more about these two great case studies. Those of us who work in the sport sector understand the physical, mental and social benefits that getting active can bring, and hopefully get to experience them first hand. If we want to make sport and physical activity relevant and appealing to those who ‘don’t see it as something for people like them’, we need to try new approaches. Elevate is a great platform for us to have those discussions – learning from others’ mistakes and successes.”
Exhibition
Together with Elite Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Expo and COPA, over 300 exhibitors will be showcasing the latest products and innovations designed to help private and public-sector gym operators, local authorities, healthcare professionals, personal trainers, schools, sports clubs and universities get the nation moving more. Exhibitors include Matrix, Clubright, Core Health & Fitness, eGym, Gerflor, Gympass, Jordan Fitness, Power2SMS, Total Gym, Willmott Dixon and Xn Leisure.
New for 2018 and situated in the Exhibition Hall is the Hutchison Technologies Studio, which will feature a variety of group exercise live performances and fitness demonstrations to offer inspiration for gym operators, educators and personal trainers, including ((BOUNCE)), Ten Health & Fitness, FLexercise and Aspire & Instructability.
Awards
A popular addition to last year’s show, the Elevate Innovation Awards return in 2018, recognising the best products and services in defined categories, linking to the show’s themes of inclusivity, performance, health and wellbeing and business. Judged by a panel of industry experts, the five categories are: Best Health and Wellness Innovation, Best Workout Innovation, Best Facility Innovation, Best Innovation for Human Performance and Best Start-up.
Max Quittenton, Founder and Director of Elevate, said: “With so much product innovation, new entrants to the market and content, Elevate is the must-attend event for every operator, supplier and physical activity professional. The physical activity sector has much to look forward to and we are committed to creating an industry event dedicated to innovation, networking and growth.
“With over 300 suppliers represented within the exhibition hall, there are many new products to suit all truly innovative facilities. The entire event – including the conference and seminar sessions – is completely free which makes it an ideal opportunity to bring along colleagues and simply dip in and out of sessions and exhibition networking.”
The visitor statistics so far have shown a continued enthusiasm for the event with over 50 per cent increase on pre-registrations year-on-year. Organisers of COPA and Elite Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Expo are also expecting to achieve record figures of attendees.
To find out more information about the exhibition highlights, speaker programmes and register for free passes across all three events, please visit: www.elevatearena.com, www.expoelitesports.co.uk and www.copashow.com.
