The IHRSA 2008 Convention was held in San Diego March 6 – 8. I and members of our sales team attended. This convention is one of the largest in the fitness industry, and it showcases products from hundreds of vendors.

The convention was terrific. Many customers stopped by to say “hi”, and many more club owners stopped by to pick up a free trial version of the software. Club owners from more than 15 different countries stopped by, including Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Ireland and more. Many were wowed when I showed them how easy it was to run the software in their language (currently available in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek, Turkish, Dutch, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic).

There was also quite a buzz about our two newest features:

1. Integrated online scheduling – allows club owners to set up an online schedule of classes, personal trainers, or anything else they want to schedule, and members can sign up for and pay for classes online through the scheduler.
2. Door/access facility access module. This allows clubs to set up 24 hour access that allows members to access the facility with their membership card. It can also be hooked up to a turnstile.

Joe Ochoa, owner of Family Gym in Coronado, CA and a long time customer of Go Figure, was the first to have the door access module installed. I had the chance to visit his club while at the convention – great facility and great equipment.

We also ran into the folks at Retention Management. Rich and Jack said for me to tell everyone they said “Hi!” For those who don’t know, we integrated their member retention service to the iGo Figure Software about a year ago, and many of our customers who have tried love it. If you have not signed up for it yet, you should. Check it out under the iGo Connect tab at igofigure.com.

The booth was so busy that we really did not have time to visit all the other booths, which was a little disappointing because I wanted to check out all the new products being showcased; oh well, maybe next time.

The show was a great success, and we’re looking forward to attending the 2009 Convention (in San Francisco). Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Matt Z

I attended the 1st Annual International Franchise Expo in Athens today. Great convention. I had an opportunity to meet many different franchise owners from many countries who were very interested in applying Go Figure’s member and customer management software to their business. The fact that its now translated to 10 different languages was very appealing to franchisors who operate in several countries.

Cheers

Matt