IDEA World Fitness Convention and SHINE 2019

Hi friends! I’m coming to you still on a high from the weekend after attending the IDEA World Fitness Convention in Anaheim, California. You may have seen a peek into what my experience is like on Instagram (check out the IDEA highlight!), and there’s so much more I could have documented. Aren’t conferences the best?

Longtime readers might remember me posting about this conference ages ago (circa 2014 and 2015!), and I was more than excited for my return this year, thanks to an influencer program called SHINE that covered my ticket. I have attended the conference through BlogFest in year’s past, and it was an extra treat to have a sub-conference within the event. SHINE enabled me to connect with other fitness professionals and influencers and learn a ton about the industry and myself. It was so good!

For those who have never heard of the conference before, IDEA is the highest attended event in the fitness industry for personal trainers, fitness instructors, studio owners/managers, nutritionists, and more. I go for multiple reasons that include earning my continuing education credits for my CPT, networking with other fitness bloggers, connecting with brands, focusing my goals, and more. I always leave with a more structured sense of purpose and a renewed motivation to strive for my full potential. It’s truly the best motivation!

This year over 14,000 like-minded health and fitness professionals gathered for four days of workouts and workshops at the Anaheim Convention Center, and I took the most that I could out of three of them. I’ll be back to share my biggest takeaways from the experience soon (there’s a lot of them!), but for now, I hope you enjoy a peek into what it’s like to attend a fitness convention and see if it’s a right fit for you.

You can expect to have a mix of lectures, workouts, networking sessions, outings, and access to hundreds of brands at the EXPO throughout the weekend. This year’s convention included a variety of special events including SHINE (what I attended), Les Mills Live, Nutrition and Behavior Specialist Summit, ACE Mover Academy, and more.

There are hundreds of sessions to choose from in a wide range of topics from nutrition and recovery to workout tips and specializations. I hope I am able to take advantage of the certification opportunities next year and would love to come a day early to earn something to expand my expertise! Wednesdays are the day for full certifications and all day workshops that enables you to get certified in Indoor Cycling, Functional Aging, Spartan Strong Instructor Training, and other NASM specialties.

Thursday begins the start of shorter sessions and when most people are ready to go! I flew in on Wednesday night and took the first night to settle in with my roommate, Ashley. We had a casual dinner at the hotel restaurant and ran into our friend Giselle, and the three of us thoroughly enjoyed our nights out together after the long days were over. It’s always so nice to catch up with blogging buddies and meet new ones, too!

I usually sign up for a loose itinerary, as the sessions that I want to attend usually change after I get there. I like to include a mix of both lectures and workouts, and I was pleased to see the line up of SHINE speakers, panels, and events that I was automatically enrolled in this year.

I thought the presenter panel for this event was great. A variety of topics were covered from inside tips on running on online business and how to streamline your purpose and platform to reach out to others to nutrition advice from the pros. It was all so interesting!

My favorite sessions of the weekend included:

• an hour of nutrition talk and insights with Precision Nutrition’s co-founder, John Berardi
• online business and brand techniques with Vito La Fata (husband to Anna Renderer who you might know from POPSUGAR)
• tips and techniques for hosting circuit training workouts (something I’ve wanted to do ever since I left training in Michigan)
• workouts with Nike Training Club and Brian Nunez (2019 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year), POUND Fit, BootyBarre, and a vinyasa yoga flow that left me pretty sweaty
• a Mega Circuit workout that had us switching stations every six minutes to try new equipment in the industry
• Influencer talk with Emma Barry (one of the founders of Les Mills)
• The Fitness Marshall: Live Cardio Concert which I only caught the tail end of, but it looked like an absolute blast and his videos are SUCH a fun way to work out!

I’ll be sharing more on other sessions I attended in my next post, but I’ll sum up the rest of my time in the conference center with lots of food!

Our SHINE agenda provided several morning snacks, coffee, and time with vendors who were more than generous in sampling. I absolutely loved the new-to-me concept of FitVine (sold at Whole Foods!) and CateredFit healthy prepared meals. Both provided just what I needed after a long day of sessions, and I was able to sip on my glass(es) of wine without the guilt of how I might feel the next morning — the no added sugar life is where it’s at!

One of the biggest must-sees at IDEA is the Expo Hall with over three hundred vendors ready to excited to have you sample their goods and test out their products.

There was a ton of cool equipment, and I kept getting pulled towards the recovery tools — specifically the vibrating ones!

The Theragun placed as my top new find, but runners up quickly followed with the Hyperice Hypervolt and Hypersphere ball. I’ve tried the Hyperice Vyper Vibrating Foam Roller before at an Equinox event, and they had those as well as TriggerPoint GRID Vibe PLUS RumbleRollers.

We took an express rolling session during the Mega Circuit with RumbleRollers and other notables included indoor cycling bikes that leaned from side to side, water rowers, water bags, resistance bands that replace battle ropes, gripbells, and more!

There were a ton of Les Mills workouts happening on the showcase floor, but there was a special sign up to get into those. I’d love to try more of them in the future!

Overall, I always leave these conferences feeling incredibly inspired and ready to take on the world. Is that going to happen? Probably not the world, but I am ready to make some serious changes to my everyday routine, my focus on this blog, and I am excited to share some updates with you soon enough.

Are you still not sure if attending a fitness conference is for you? I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you that it’s an investment that I’ve made three times and always wish that I had more time at them. As a certified personal trainer, a conference like this is a huge learning tool and I love that I can also expand my education and earn my continuing education requirements. If you’re serious about wanting to grow your education and/or business in the health and fitness industry, I can’t recommend the IDEA World Fitness Convention enough! It’s set to take place in Anaheim again next year July 8-12.

Thank you so much to SHINE for inviting me to attend the conference this year! I’ll be sure to share more of my takeaways and things I hope you’ll find interesting in a follow-up soon.

Do you have any more questions about the IDEA World Fitness Convention or SHINE? Feel free to ask them below in the comments section, and check out my Do’s and Don’ts of Attending the IDEA World Fitness Convention post that might cover some.

I hope to see you there next year!

Disclosure: As SHINE influencer, my ticket to attend this conference was covered by IDEA. My travel and accommodations, however, were not sponsored. Anything I chose to share about my days at the conference is up to me. Thank you for stopping by and supporting this space by reading about my experience!