By Josh Leve, AFS Founder & CEO
A special thank you is in order for all those at Athletic Business for reaching out and providing me and AFS the opportunity to come and present at the AB Show this past weekend. With over 130 seminars, 250+ exhibitors, and nearly 3000 attendees, I was again honored to present on the fitness studio space.
To be honest, didn't know what to expect from the audience. But as soon as people starting showing up I was quickly reminded of how passionate the audience was to learn more about AFS, our mission and the growth of the fitness studio/gym community.
While my presentation focused on how studios can compete with other studios and low-priced big box health clubs, I also make sure to spend a good amount of time 
providing insights as to how the studio market got to where it is now, where it's going, the trends to be on the look out for and then how fitness studios can compete.
What's interesting to note, based on AFS research is that studios generally don't see big box clubs as their competition, as reflected in the chart to the right. Instead it's other studios (whether they be franchise models or other studios) that tend to keep owners up at night.
Yet, with an audience from all over the country from Florida, Indiana, Boston, Chicago and elsewhere -- there's never a shortage of outstanding ideas passed from one audience member to the other. Just like in the studio space where fitness studio's breed this feeling that, "together we can accomplish anything" - the same goes for those who regularly attend my sessions. It's this camaraderie that's so compelling and proves that this segment of the industry has a bright future.
Aside from my presentation, it was also great to meet up with several other industry leaders from Kevin Steele (President of PTontheNet and AFS Advisory Council member), Kerri O'Brien, Emmett Williams from MYZONE, Anthony Wall at ACE and several other AFS partners from SportsArt, Escape, TRX, Power Systems and more.
Athletic Business is a great way to end the year on another high note for AFS and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity provided from Peter and Gretchen Brown from AB - and I look forward to an even better 2018!
Josh Leve is the Founder & CEO of the Association of Fitness Studios (AFS). AFS’ mission is to provide studio owners and entrepreneurial fitness professionals with the platform to effectively start, manage, and grow their businesses.
With over 60 industry partnerships – Josh’s success with AFS has translated into being featured in all major fitness publications and is also a featured speaker for events such as Club Industry, NSCA, NASM, Athletic Business, EMPOWER!, and more.
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