F
itness Australia CEO
Bill Moore shares the
story and the evolution
of FILEX - the largest fitness
education of its kind in the
Southern Hemisphere.
In 1987, inspired by the success of
Aerobic Championship events, group
fitness instructors Nigel Champion,
Lisa Champion, Greg Hurst and Suzee
Miller ran the first educational event
for aerobics instructors in Sydney. It
was an instant hit and it gave them
the insight and confidence to run their
first education convention on the Gold
Coast in 1988.
And that’s where it all started – the
convention was so successful that from
those humble beginnings through to
1995 they powered on to run conventions
on the Gold Coast, moving from a
series of hotels to the newly established
Jupiters Convention Centre.
The event originally had a strong focus
on aerobics and group fitness, attracting
up to 600 delegates and approximately
15 trade exhibitors including Life Fitness,
HF Industries and TRAX music. In 1995,
the team under the parent company
Network acquired the fledgling ‘Sydney
Fitness Expo’ and merged it with the
education convention and moved it to
its new home at the Sydney Convention
and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.
It was at this point the event took the
name FILEX – a loose acronym for Fitness
Industry and Lifestyle Expo - which it still
keeps today.
all three events through 2016, attracting
audiences upwards of 2200 attendees.
During this evolutionary time the event
grew to 1500 delegates with up to 300
exhibitors taking up an extraordinary
three trade halls at the cavernous
Sydney convention centre.
For Nigel and Greg though, they felt it
was time to move on and this incredible
convention along with the naming rights
was sold to a joint venture consortium
led by Fitness Australia who as the peak
national fitness body leading the way
in continuing education were always
keen to call it their own and to keep the
tradition and the vision first imagined
by Nigel, Greg, Lisa and Suzee all those
years ago alive and prospering.
In 2004 Les Mills Asia Pacific hosted its
first of many Super Quarterly Workshops
at FILEX, which over the years has grown
to bring in excess of 1500 group fitness
instructors to the convention and trade
show.
As the event steered towards
education and the appetite for further
learning by fitness professionals grew
commensurately the Fitness Expo
component was sold to exhibition
management company Diversified
Exhibitions, allowing FILEX to focus on
delivering world class educational
conferences.
FILEX 2018 once again boasts a truly
impressive line up of speakers and
presenters – Thomas Plummer, Jill
Miller, Todd Durkin, Emma Barry, Glenn
Mackintosh all represent pinnacles of
thinking and strategy in the fitness world.
FILEX 2018 is not to be missed.
This set the tone for a very strong
relationship between the education
convention and the trade show towards
concurrently growing the joint events,
which continues to this day.
In 2014, due to renovations of the
Darling Harbour precinct in Sydney,
FILEX, the Fitness Expo and the Les Mills
Super Quarterly Workshops moved their
combined events to Melbourne where
it stayed for three years at the newly
expanded Melbourne Convention and
Exhibition Centre.
Registration for FILEX is open now
with package discounts available for
all Fitness Australia members. View
packages here.
This led to continued growth in the
number of registrations and attendances
from a Victorian audience excited to see
the convention in their home town for
Annual FILEX Business Summit - an
incredible opportunity to learn first-
hand from the mistakes and the
lessons endured by some of the world’s
most successful business owners and
operators. Register here.
In the first few years of moving to Sydney
the event grew exponentially to over
1000 delegates and up to 80 exhibitors,
and in the late 1990’s FILEX was the
platform that global brand Les Mills
International used to launch its program
‘Bodypump’ to the world. This started
a tradition that continues to this day,
of global brands partnering with FILEX
to test and launch new initiatives and
programs.
From the period early to mid 2000’s,
recognising the increasingly diverse
nature of the contemporary fitness
industry, the event continued to grow
and diversify with the introduction of the
FILEX Business Summit – a specialised pre
convention event designed to attract
key buyers to the trade show - and a
new stream for Personal Trainers.
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - AUTUMN 2018
VIDEO HERE
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