What a thrill today to give the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2007 to Alan Schwartz, chairman of TCA Holdings. Alan has been in the health club business for almost 40 years since opening the Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago in 1969 with his father, Kevie.

The room was full of well-wishers for Alan. I spotted several veterans of the industry there. Prior to the start of the presentation, Alan and his wife, Ronnie, made their way around the room chatting with old friends. It was great to see so many there. Also in attendance were many people from TCA, including Alan and Ronnie’s son, Steven, who is now CEO of TCA.

Alan gave a great speech, which we hope to run on the podcast section of our Web site soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to read the profile of Alan from our September issue, click here.

Alan spoke for about 10 minutes about how the industry has changed in the 40 years that he’s been involved. He commented about the increased professionalism of the business and the people in it. He also commented about how the financial industry takes the health club business more seriously now than in the past. He gave much of the credit for the health of his business to the people who work for TCA, including his son. He also gave a heart felt thanks to his wife for being a sounding board for him.

He did take issue with the award he was receiving being called a Lifetime Achievement Award. He preferred to think he was just entering the third set of his match (being an avid tennis fan, he likes to use tennis references). He says he has plenty more to contribute to the industry. After hearing him speak, I’m certain that he does, too. - Pam

If you’ve ever attended a trade show, you’ll know one thing: Wear comfortable shoes. Yesterday, I made the mistake of wearing a fairly new pair of shoes. I thought I had broken them in but apparently not well enough for a trade show.

After my flight landed in Chicago at about 10 am, I caught a shuttle and headed down to the hotel, where I then grabbed a bite to eat and caught the bus over to the convention center. Shoe status was good at this point. No blisters, no pain, just cute shoes.

Then I attended a session led by Pam Conner, fitness director of the Sarasota (FL) Family YMCA, about youth fitness programs. The session was very informative and very interactive as Pam pulled a lot of the attendees’ experiences into the seminar. She also stressed the importance of having good, quality staff members to run any youth fitness program, even though individuals with these qualities can be hard to find.

After the session, I hit the trade show floor to check on our booth (which looks fabulous! Our art director Jennifer Ray is here and taking pics of it, so we’ll have to post some shots of it later).

That afternoon, I caught a cab and buzzed over to the East Bank Club to meet our Step by Step columnist Jasmine Jafferali (here’s a link to her most recent article about joining forces with the spa industry). She gave me a complete tour of the 450,000-square-foot facility. The club was amazing. My jaw literally dropped a number of times. Here are a few of the club’s features that I saw: an indoor running track, eight indoor tennis courts, a 20,000 square-foot cardiovascular room, a free weight room, five aerobics studios (heaven for me!), a Pilates and Gyrotonic studio, physical therapy room, a 60-bike spinning studio (60!), four swimming pools (two indoor, two outdoor), an indoor golf driving range, a pro shop; a dry cleaner, a full-service salon and spa, a children’s activity center, a car wash, a deli, a high-end restaurant, and a 60,000-square-foot sun deck. Impressive, no?

While there, I also chatted with Tony Swain, who we recently quoted in an article about vibration training.

After my tour, I headed back to McCormick Place where I met up with Pam and Stuart for the show’s welcome reception. There, we mingled with many in the industry including our 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Rick Caro and Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro’s columnists Bruce Carter and Michael Scott Scudder. At this point, after two glasses of red wine, the feet were still good.

It was a different story though after we “crashed” the IHRSA party. Maybe God was punishing me for attending a party I wasn’t invited to; I’m not sure. But, my feet started screaming. I had not one, not two, but three blisters. Yes, God was teaching me a lesson.

Today, I’m in different shoes, and so far, so good. My blisters have been covered in band-aids, and I’ve been on my best behavior. I’ve learned my lesson! No crashing parties and no wearing shoes that aren’t entirely broken in! –Jennipher Shaver

When Laila Ali strode down the center of the ballroom to the podium today as Club Industry‘s keynote speaker, the first thing I noticed was that she‘s not that big of a person, even though she proclaims to be a “big chick.”

Laila Ali, of course, is the daughter of perhaps the biggest person in the world (figuratively speaking). In his prime, it was said that Muhammad Ali was the most famous person on the planet, and that probably holds true today. As we learned from his daughter, The Greatest of All Time will still remind you of how famous he is.

Laila Ali has made a name for herself, too, and like her dad, her fame initially came from the sport of boxing. At 15, Laila Ali was diagnosed with Graves ‘ disease, a thyroid condition that required radiation treatment. By 18, she had gained weight, so she decided to go to a boxing gym. It was for that reason–not because of her dad–that she gave boxing a try.

Today, Ali is the women‘s super middleweight boxing champion of the world with a 24-0 record, 21 by knockout. Although she has not retired from boxing, she did say she is not currently boxing because “there are no challenges in the sport.”

Laila Ali used to be known as just a boxer or the daughter of a famous boxer. Now, a whole new group of fans know her from her time as a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.” She didn‘t want to participate in the TV program at first, but she eventually said yes and went on to become a finalist. She told us her partner wasn‘t all that nice and that the outfits she wore on the show were designed specifically for her.

Keeping off weight has always been a struggle for Ali, whether it‘s for boxing or for “Dancing with the Stars.” She admittedly loves to eat, and even came to the podium with a Starbucks in her hand. For one of her fights, she had to drop eight pounds and wound up spitting just to lose extra ounces to make weight.

Ali made a great impression with the standing-room-only crowd by saying that you have to be comfortable in who you are. She‘s working on a kids program for Nickelodeon that focuses on getting obese children in shape. The show is being filmed in Decatur, IL, which Ali mentioned was “The Obese Capital of the World.” A couple of people in the crowd said they were from Decatur, but they didn‘t seem to take too much offense with her comment.

Industry veteran Norm Cates stood up and had a request rather than a question, which made the crowd laugh heartily about what they thought his request was. But Norm got everybody on the same page when he told Ali, “Will you please tell your dad that we love him?”

“Yes,” Laila replied, “I love him, too.”

Muhammad Ali is now living in Arizona, close to where his daughter lives in California with her husband, former Chicago Bear Curtis Conway (who was dressed to the nines as he quietly stood near Laila Ali at the front of the room as she spoke to and took pictures with attendees after her speech). Laila said her dad still travels a lot despite his ongoing battle with Parkinson‘s disease and that he “looooves people.” With her recent fame from “Dancing with the Stars,” people come up to him and ask about her. That‘s usually not how it works with the most famous man on the planet.

In addition to the kids show, Laila Ali has a workout video with another boxing legend, Sugar Ray Leonard. She said it was a little hard to keep pumping herself up on camera so that she could get other people pumped up, too. Someone from the crowd asked if she wanted to do a talk show. She said it would be too much work, and she doesn‘t want to be on TV just to be on TV.

She is doing some promotional spots for Vaseline, and here, you can see more of the tattoo on her right shoulder that she displayed at the show once she took off her jacket. Judging by her arm(s), if she wanted to get back in the ring anytime soon, she‘d handle herself just fine. -Stuart

Wednesday got off to an unusual start for me. Unusual in the fact that I started the day with a walk, and it cost me big-time.

Let me explain. On Monday morning, with the Club Industry show looming, I decided I was going to start walking every day. And so I did that on Monday and Tuesday on our treadmill in our basement. With a mid-afternoon flight on Wednesday and no reason to go into the office, I decided to take the time and walk on the trail behind our house.

But in doing my part to join the fitness world, I lost out on a running back I really wanted to get for my fantasy football team. Right before my walk, I checked to see if the first-come, first-serve free agent period had started for my fantasy football league. When it hadn‘t, I went for my walk. In hindsight, I should have waited just three more minutes before my walk. In double hindsight, I should have just picked up the player in the silent auction period the day before.

I told Pam and Jenn this story, and Jenn made a good point that I may have lost in fantasy football but I got a win in the game of life. I weeped openly after she said that.

I touched down in Chicago a little after 2 p.m. at Midway Airport, where we flew right over the houses in the neighborhood and landed on the runway. I wonder what the value is of those houses right next to the airport runway. It can‘t be more than $79.49. Sure, you‘ll get a nice-sized house at an unbelievable rate, but you might get hit by an airplane every once in a while.

It took me a good 1 ½ hours to get from Midway Airport to McCormick Place. I still had my luggage with me, and at one point Wednesday, I had both my luggage and my work bag in a not-so-secure area of the convention center. Thankfully, all my white T-shirts were accounted for when I picked up my bags.

I attended a 4 p.m. seminar on corporate fitness, which I‘ll delve into more in another post here on the blog. Our November issue will include a Trend Watch on corporate fitness, so stay tuned.

After the seminar, it was time for our welcome reception. We grabbed one of the few standing tables, and wouldn‘t you know it, everybody we knew or worked with came by to say hi, as well as every server with a tray of hors d‘oeuvres (had to look up the spelling). Mmm, mmm, those corn dogs were tasty.

The real drama of the night came when the Club Industry group decided to go “crash” the IHRSA party at a nearby hotel. You needed a badge and perhaps a reservation, but a lot of the folks who had been at our party were going there, so we followed suit. Surprisingly, no one stopped us from going in, which was a little disappointing in a way. A few minutes after we got in there, Pam, Jenn and I decided to head out. The fun was in crashing the party, not the party itself. And we didn‘t even drink anything there, either. (OK, so I had a little hors d‘oeuvres. Again, tasty.)

We headed back to our hotel and later out to a nearby establishment, Miller‘s Pub, where I could see how everybody would know your name. If I can work it out, I‘d like to go there for every meal. When I saw that they serve eggs and omelets there, that includes breakfast, too.

That about sums up our first day in Chicago. The show floor looks great, our booth looks great, and we can‘t wait to see what tomorrow brings. -Stuart

I met earlier with the IT guy here at McCormick Place. The wireless Internet access in our booth is set up and ready to be used. This is the first year that we’re offering this service to attendees, and we hope its valuable to the busy professionals who want to check their e-mails and conduct business back home while they’re in Chicago. We set the home page on each of the three computers to our Web site’s home page so people can check in on news in the industry while they are here.

A huge thanks to KI Software for sponsoring the wireless Internet access. If this goes well, we hope to provide this service at future Club Industry shows. -Pam

The one session I was able to attend today was part one of “Health Club Industry Trends & Working with Them,” which was presented by Michael Scott Scudder, owner of consulting company MSS FitBiz Connection. Michael is one of our columnists, and he always has provocative things to say about the industry. This seminar was no exception. I only wish I had had time to sit in on the second part of it.

In part one, Michael listed 10 “predictables” now and/or in the future. One of the main points that struck me was that Michael suggested that 30 percent of a club’s total revenue per annum should be nondues related. This led to a discussion about whether memberships should remain bundled or whether clubs should go back to the “old” way of charging members for each program that they use. One attendee asked about how a club is supposed to track people to ensure that they are only using the parts of the club or the programs that they’ve paid for. Michael suggested tracking software, but he said he is still working on ways to unbundle effectively and profitably. He says that clubs who unbundle should actually see higher revenue than those who do not.

Another attendee mentioned that Microsoft’s philosophy is that the more a company bundles services, the less clients value the services. Or, in other words, companies often think it’s an advantage to a client if they bundle services, but few clients want all the “advantages” being offered so the bundling often has a negative effect on customers rather than the desired positive effect.

Another thing he suggested is that clubs in the mid-market should practice divergence rather than convergence. He said that a club can’t be everything to everyone. However, a club can be everything to a select group of people.

Too bad I couldn’t make it back for the second part of his seminar, but other responsibilities called. However, I’m sure Michael will be writing about some of these thoughts in his upcoming columns so keep reading! -Pam

We’ve arrived! All three editors made it to Chicago today and we’ve started our coverage of the Club Industry 2007 show for you.

The set-up for this year’s show seems much less confusing than in previous years. It’s pretty simple to get to the registration area and the exhibit hall is right there. Our booth is also right in the registration area. We’re calling it the Resource Center this year. It has a map of the exhibit hall with all the exhibitors and their booth numbers, a list of sessions and room numbers, Internet access for attendees at three computers (courtesy of KI Software, which is also sponsoring the blog for this show), a SportsArt Fitness T650 treadmill that attendees can sign up to win (SportsArt Fitness is also sponsoring our Best of the Best awards ceremony and seminar on Friday), tables to sit at and, of course, copies of the magazine. It should create a great place for people to hang out and mingle or meet friends while at the show.

I arrived early this morning and took the courtesy bus from the Palmer House Hilton to McCormick Place Convention Center to check on the booth set-up and other details. I had a great conversation with Karen Woodard, owner of Premium Consulting and a member of our advisory board. We chatted about the magazine and our Web site. Later in the day, I spoke with Casey Conrad, president of Healthy Inspirations and a member of our advisory board. Both of them had some great suggestions that I can’t share with you now, but in the near future, I plan to follow through on some of the ideas so you should be seeing some changes soon. - Pam

I love going to Chicago each October for the Club Industry show. It’s just a great time to meet up with people that I talk to on the phone but don’t get to see in person. I’m trying to schedule some time to meet with some of these people this year, but honestly, my schedule is getting so full that I’m not sure I’m even going to have time to get something to eat most days.

Club Industry 2007 Conference and Exposition is occurring Oct. 10-13 at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. Beyond meeting with the people I talk to on the phone, I’m most excited about our Lifetime Achievement Award presentation to Alan Schwartz, founder of TCA (11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11 in room N227b) and our Best of the Best presentation (2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12 in room N226). This week, I’m getting the introductions ready for both events, and I should be receiving the presentations from the Best of the Best winners today and tomorrow. I know they’ve put a lot of effort into their presentations so I’m excited to be at the awards seminar (sponsored by SportsArt Fitness) as they share with attendees the details about their award-winning programs.

I hope you can join us at the show, but if you cannot, please come back to the blog from Oct. 10-13 to see what seminars, exhibitors and events we’ve attended. We’ll be blogging about as many of them as we can. –Pam

Pam, Stuart and I recently learned that due to personal circumstances, Dr. Mike Nichols, CEO and founder of TempusClinic, will not give his keynote address during Club Industry 2007. Thankfully though, Les Mills came to the rescue and suggested that Phillip Mills, CEO of Les Mills, speak about sustainability and how clubs should embrace a “green” agenda. Because the green movement is such a hot topic, the show group is thrilled to cover it at the show.

Mills will give his keynote address at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 12 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. –Jennipher