004 Daniel Waide: Omnipresence With Digital & Virtual Fitness

Daniel Waide has been a Fitness Operator and entrepreneur for 15 years. His fitness career began as a mobile Personal Trainer while completing a Bachelors degree in Applied Science (Human Movement) in Melbourne, Australia.

He first worked technology into his fitness career when pre-apps, he created a web based text messaging tool to help his Personal Training clients train between sessions. His implementation of technology was key to the growth and success in his roles as National Fitness Manager with Genesis Fitness in Australia and as a Fitness Director for Town Sports International in Manhattan & Brooklyn.

Now working with Wexer, Daniel is helping fitness chains in the Americas and across the globe execute successful digital strategies. With a deep understanding of fitness and technology, Daniel aims to help more people get active, one digital fitness experience at a time. Wexer Virtual started with installations in Denmark and Norway, and has now expanded to more than 40 countries.

Listen To Episode 003 As Daniel Uncovers

• How virtual and streaming fitness is being used in studios with top instructors to drive member engagement
• Digital ecosystem: what is the seamless experience that makes a difference?
• The history of WEXER in the fitness industry
• What the new group fitness member really wants and how virtual creates member success stories
• Gamification: why should trainers and club operators care and how will technology support it?
• Why most clubs are losing money without virtual and streaming when the GroupX room is empty
• How to create a fitness experience outside the 4 walls of the club using technology
• The evolution of virtual fitness: using collected data, what motivates a new member for the long term?
• Daniel's featured contribution in the 2017 FIT-C Tech Trends Report
• How virtual and digital fitness tools are serving the ever-expanding omnipresence gap
• How AI will integrate into virtual fitness in the next 2-3 years
• How clubs can balance both technology and people for smarter, more intuitive touch points

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show

• There is now an digital attack on the 4 walls of the club. Owners, trainers, and operators need to get clear on their digital strategy to compete with the reality of members being able to get both training and fitness anywhere.
• As the consumer choices become more empowered through new technologies, successful clubs will need to use virtual and streaming as a key part of their digital ecosystem to provide convenience and flexibility in their memberships.
• For both reducing attrition and increasing member satisfaction in the age of non-committal members, trainers and operators must use the applicable digital tools and apps to shine for their membership base.

Power Quotes From Daniel

"More recently we are seeing an increasing amount of club groups combining virtual with live instruction. Either to make the live class even more engaging or to free up the instructor to enhance participant interaction." - Daniel Waide on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"People want personalized programs. It's something that the fitness industry went away from as we started to direct people more towards personal training. New technology can help build these personalized programs, at scale." - Daniel Waide on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Daniel

• Turn Your Data Into Actionable Insights
• The Evolution of Fitness, article by Daniel Waide
• How Google is going from mobile-first to AI-first while competition heats up
• Behind every fitness center, is a much more complex digital fitness solution that keeps your members motivated, right?
• REI's omni-channel winning customer experience
• WEXER's new "gym floor player" coming soon
• Youtube - WEXER Digital Channel
• 002 Bryan O'Rourke - The New Era of Exponential Technology Pt 2
• 001 Bryan O'Rourke - The New Era of Exponential Technology Pt 1
• Samsung's purchase of VIV - a next-gen AI assistant built by the creators of Apple's Siri
• Digital Transformation: How Chatbots, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence are Redefining How Retailers Reach Customers
• WEXER digital website

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• Download the 2017 Tech Trends report