Government Business

With 450 plus exhibitors, a plethora of special feature areas and more than 100 education sessions, this year’s Leisure Industry Week (LIW), the UK’s largest and longest running trade show for out-of-home leisure operators, promises an unrivalled showcase of the products, strategies and latest thinking for public and commercial operators from the family attractions, licensing and entertainment, health, fitness, wellness, pool and sport sectors.
    
Being held 23-25 September at the Birmingham NEC, the show – which incorporates Sports Development Week and the co-located National Licensed Business Show – features some of the biggest names from the sport and leisure industry to enlighten and entertain leisure professionals.

Show features
In addition to the hundreds of products on view, including scores of new product launches, LIW incorporates a number of special feature areas:

• The Vittel Sports Arena provides a spectacular centrepiece to Sports Development Week at LIW - an excellent vantage point to view a series of daily sporting demonstrations.
• The Lucozade Sport Fitness Arena – featuring the latest new activity and exercise programmes.
• Astral Sky Pool – complete with grandstand seating to enable visitors to watch live coaching sessions and demonstrations in comfort
• TheEquip Line Live Kitchen is the place to see, try and taste new ways to drive traffic and secondary spend.
• The Indoor Triathlon supported by British Triathlon and the Amateur Rowing Association
• The Inclusive Fitness Zone – designed to promote inclusive fitness opportunities.
  

• The ‘Meeting the Challenge’ National Sports Conference - focusing on all the key issues for all stakeholders responsible for delivering the  sport participation, infrastructure and performance agendas.
• ‘Improving sports performance through strength and conditioning’ seminars from the UK Strength & Conditioning Association.
• The Sport & Exercise Nutrition Conference featuring world renowned expert Professor Asker Jeukendrup, plus other experts in the Lucozade Sport Science Academy.
• The Wright Foundation exercise referral and rehabilitation forum.
• The Annual FitPro Business Conference.
  

It all adds up to an unmissable leisure extravaganza!
    
Leisure Industry Week (LIW) 2008, incorporating Sports Development Week, will be held at the Birmingham NEC on 23-25 September 2008. Co-located with the National Licensed Business Show, the event is supported by industry-wide trade associations including Sport England, the Fitness Industry Association (FIA), the Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure (ISPAL) and the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions (BALPPA). Visit www.liw.co.uk for details.

Spa policy on parade
When Andy McCabe of Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL) in partnership with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets launched the country’s first fully equipped public sector spa last year, some people said he was either brave or mad. Or both!

The idea of bringing pricey pampering at affordable prices to London’s East End certainly challenged most people’s understanding of the spa market. But having seen the rapid growth that was taking place in this sector, the GLL director was convinced there was room in the market for local authorities to take a share.

“Once people get a taste of the spa experience they want to go back,” he says. “They like the fact that it’s invigorating, that they can relax with friends and enjoy the treatments. It’s a bit of luxury that we wanted to make affordable to as many people as possible.”

Council funding
That Tower Hamlets Council was willing to buy into the vision and help fund the project along with GLL - the leisure trust that manages Spa London - is a testament to McCabe’s enthusiasm for making the high-end spa market accessible to every community.    

“Less well-off members of the community can enjoy a Champneys-like experience for as little as £2 per hour,” was how one member of Tower Hamlets Council explained the challenge. A year later and McCabe’s gamble on getting a local authority to venture into the luxury spa market has paid off.

“It’s been incredibly popular,” he explains. “We offer three components – the thermal spa, a range of treatments including massage, facials and restorative pedicures, and retail. We’ve had a good response to the thermal spa but the treatments have been incredibly popular - so much so that we are planning on expanding our treatment rooms.”

Billed as London’s most successful social enterprise, GLL is fast building on a reputation as a leisure trust that wants to make public leisure centres as innovative and inclusive as possible. A further example of this can be seen in the fact that six of its London Borough-managed sports venues have recently been selected as Pre-Games training camps for the 2012 Paralympics.

Improved services
With government plans to introduce free access to all public swimming pools by the time of the 2012 Games, McCabe is quick to add that local authority and trust leisure providers will need to be innovative in taking advantage of an expected increase in public participation in sports and leisure by improving the leisure services they offer.   

“The quality of services has to improve and this is just one example of higher standards being introduced,” he says. “The thermal spa is a great accompaniment to the fitness experience a lot of local authorities offer, but it also brings in other people who wouldn’t normally use the gym. For example, people who are looking to relive stress or soothe sore joints and muscles or simply to get pampered.  

“We want local authority leisure providers to widen their services so they can appeal to a bigger proportion of their communities.  

“We are a leisure trust with a social conscience but we’re also a business at the same time. Our challenge is to ensure that our social agenda talks alongside our business agenda. Ultimately we have to work out a way of enabling the council to provide better services as competitively as possible.”

Innovative pricing
To achieve this, GLL offers a suite of different memberships that cater for all sections of the community. “No other local authority providers are as innovative in this area as we are,” McCabe explains. Under this pricing structure, less well-off customers would pay just under £7, for example, to enjoy a three-hour thermal spa session. This would include the use of robes, towels and footwear, and free refreshments. A full-paying customer would pay £21 for the same treatment.   

“It’s not that complicated,” he explains. “We’re taking a Robin Hood approach in that those who can afford to pay the going rate subsidise those who can’t.”    

He has, however, a word of warning for local authorities that are brave enough to take this leap: “You cannot just introduce a spa as an add-on to normal gym or leisure centre activities. It needs to be set up as a discreet, separate unit that’s run by people with the right skills.

"The margins are tighter and it’s much more staff intensive, but if you really believe in it there is scope to add value to the services you offer.”

Andy McCabe will be discussing the pros and cons of local authority spas at the Leisure Industry Week Spa Operator’s Day Seminars – which are sponsored by Spa + Leisure Jobs and run on Tuesday 23 September at the Birmingham NEC.   

The seminar programme also includes presentations by Pendle Trust’s Emma Roberts and DC Leisure’s Richard Millard, as well as Suki Kalirai, chairman of the Spa Business Association, Ian Bailey of Elemis and Champneys.

In addition, Current spa trends in the UK, Europe and USA will be presented by David Minton of Leisure Database, Kevin Turnbull of Spa Finder and Suki Kalirai.

For more information
Visit www.liw.co.uk for full details.