It's URLife, Make It A Healthy WWWone!

Everyone who attended our session knows that we had wild experiences playing with different technologies! The session was set up using dual screens - presentation was displayed on the rigth screen; the interactive live text messaging was facilitated on the left!



Then, after the fitness & health behavior change benefits of web-based features such as Flickr and YouTube were discussed - we thought to upload our own Flickr photo, as well as, produce the first IDEA in-session YouTube video!

Flickr: ah, the advantages of Flickr are endless! Not only can you share photos in your account with others for free by sending them to your Flickr page, but you can embed photos directly into a blog (as I've done here with the pictures included in this post) very easily. Check out the slideshow of all of our IDEA photos here or go to Flickr directly and search under my profile name: BeFitt.

YouTube: Let's relive the energy we had in the room through our YouTube video!! Like Flickr, you can also embed YouTube videos into a blog (like I've done below) or go directly to the website and watch my channel (which you can find by searching for my profile): BeFitt.



Remember to turn this into an online conversation by responding directly to this blog (by clicking on 'comments' link below and following the prompts) or by going to the Flickr or YouTube websites and posting feeback there!

Enjoy - you're all globally famous now!!

Thank you IDEA!!

To premiere the session "It's URLife, Make it a Healthy WWWone" at an IDEA WORLD conferece was a remarkable experience for me. To be a presenter at IDEA has been a goal of mine since 2003 and this year's accomplishments marked a personal and professional milestone in my life. To be able to express new concepts and have them be recieved with such a fresh and overwhelming response was beyond my expectations.



A sincere thank you to everyone who believed in my efforts, supported my goals & ideas, and experienced these moments together with me!

I DIGG YOU!!

Reflections from an n00b IDEA Presenter

A beautiful location, warming stories told during the opening ceremonies, educational lectures and workshops, and rooftop cocktail parties....all of this complete dedicated professionals devoted to enhancing the health status of the world around us. Talk about an event that had it all!

Needless to say, I couldn't have asked for more from my n00b (newbie) presenting experience. I am honored to have been extended the opportunity to share my laughter, tears, hopes, and fears with new great friends and respected colleagues at the 2007 IDEA World Fitness Conference and look forward to sharing them in the future - thanks to those who have been a part of my journey!

Our challenge to you is to let the celebration of 25 years of fitness continue by taking the opportunity to connect with your clients/participants using these new mediums we have presented (and keep us posted on your progress)!

Signing off (from San Diego anyway) -

Texting For T's

As noted in a previous post by Biray, we are entirely excited that IDEA is embracing the era of social media by creating a group in Facebook (to which membership has grew 8 members from the start of the conference to the end). In celebration of IDEA's representation in facebook, we custom designed t-shirts (below) and passed them out to those who took advantage of the interactive text messaging componet of our session!

That wasnt our only shirt however. Here's another one of our T's reading -

My online health goals include:

1. Reduce MySpace between my waist & hips
2. Google my fridge for healthier foods
3. Flickr positive thoughts

So Wiki LIVE LONGER!

Speaking of promotional activities, thanks to those of you who humored us by trying your hand at our "online lingo quiz (see below)" or allowng us to ink you up with our "I DIGG U" stamps. For those of you who we didnt meet or greet this time around, we will find you - Its URLife, Make it a Healthy WWWone!

Test Your Online Lingo

1. LOL

Laugh Out Loud

2. T+

Think Positive

3. HAND

Have a Nice Day

4. ^5

High Five

5. n00b

newbie

Getting Ready for the Conference!

As you can see, I am making last minute touches to our IDEA presentation "It's URLife, Make It a Healthy WWWone" (although it appears that I look frazzled, I'm really not...)

Lyndsi is counting our T-shirts giveaways for the conference. We plan on wearing a different T-shirt for every day. Each shirt will feature a different web-based tool that we will reference in our session! We will also have extras shirt-of-the-day, so be sure to find us and get your FREE tees!

I hope everyone is as excited as we are!

Look, I've already printed out my boarding pass!

Stop, BLOG, and roll!!

The editors of IDEA will be blogging about the events at the World Fitness Convention as it unfolds! This way, we won't miss a THING!!

You can check out their daily blogs here and become part of the action by commenting on each post! See you soon!

BIRAY has requested to be added as your friend in Facebook!

Did you hear the great news!? IDEA is now a group on Facebook! Much like MySpace, LiveJournal, and Twitter, Facebook is a form of online social networking (sometimes referred to as "online communities"). The term “social networking” is not new, especially in the business arena. In short, it conveys the idea that professional and/or personal relationships can be an important resource in the development of any opportunity. The internet simply takes the concepts of social networking to a powerful platform, giving individuals significant exposure and greater access to a global audience.

In our IDEA session, It’s URLife, Make it a Healthy WWWone! the importance of online social networking and its influence on the health and fitness business will be addressed. What social networks currently exist? Does it cost anything to join? Is there a community for fitness professionals exclusively?

The good news is that most online communities are absolutely FREE to join and can be incredibly easy to navigate, even for the technically un-inclined. The hard part is determining which community will best suit your personal or professional needs.

I find it really encouraging that IDEA is supporting an online community for our health and fitness professionals. And if you are already a Facebook member, be sure to add me (‘Biray Alsac’) as your friend!! If you’re not networking online – what are you waiting for??


FREE T-SHIRT!! COME FIND US AT THE CONFERENCE AND WE´LL GIVE YOU ONE OF OUR FACEBOOK T-SHIRTS!

Feel free to submit any questions by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of this post!

See you in San Diego!

Still not convinced?
For those of us who are health & fitness professionals, blogs can be an inexpensive method of marketing our services and learning what our clients need in an effort to better serve them. A blog allows professionals to build credibility by establishing themselves as experts in the fitness industry. Similarly, fitness facilities can utilize blogging for the purposes of client acquisition and customer service. Featuring special programs, highlighting outstanding members, employees, or facility features, and allowing customers to provide feedback is an excellent strategy that could ultimately enhance any facility.

Blogging in the fitness industry is currently a differentiation strategy. Sure Biray and I have found social media being used in various fitness-related forms, but a consistent trend has emerged...more of the consumers of our services and expertise are participating in this type of correspondence than those of us who are providing the information. Simply put, this discrepancy creates a marketing opportunity, for you!

Just BLOG it!

Although neither the concepts nor tools of social media are necessarily new, utilizing these tools is new to me (I guess I’ve been so consumed with completing my masters thesis, I failed to recognize the world was evolving around me? I’m back….and ready to blog). Over the past few months I have been researching and experimenting with different social media tools and how they are used. Although I was instantly intrigued, I must admit it is easy to become overwhelmed (don’t feel bad you are not alone - let my experience…or lack thereof, help)!

Where to begin?
Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog. Did I mention blog? That’s what we’ve done. It’s simple, effective, and fun! Plus, there are more than 57 million blogs to date. Why shouldn’t you have one?

What is a blog?
Short for web log, a blog is an easily updatable website designed to allow users to interact with it. To my surprise, blogs are more than an online journal allowing individuals to share their opinions, thoughts, perspective, and experiences. Although there is nothing wrong with a blog that does just that, this tool, from a business or professional perspective creates a ‘human connection’ with competitors, distributors, suppliers, not to mention customers.

Do you have specific questions concerning social media? Let us know!

Who's Coming to IDEA!!

The brochures for IDEA World have arrived and the excitement is brewing!

All the sessions sound fantastic, the presenters are phenomenal, and choices will be endless!

Ah, decisions, decisions!

Who's coming!?

Introduction: Lyndsi

It's a world of laughter
A world of tears

It's a world of hopes

And a world of fears

There's so much that we share

That it's time we're aware

It's a small world after all….

The wonderful world of social media has put a new spin on the phrase “It’s a small world.” The advent of social media has allowed people all over the world to forge new relationships (nearly 60 million blogs exist to date!).

Health and Fitness meet Social Media, Social Media meet Health and Fitness -
With the adoption of this technology by health & fitness professionals, the world can become a fitness studio. I look forward to sharing laughter, tears, hopes, and fears with you not only through this blog but at the 2007 IDEA World Fitness Conference in San Diego! Our challenge to you will be to celebrate 25 years of fitness by taking the opportunity to connect with your clients/participants in a new medium. Our session is designed to equip you with the means to do so!

Introduction: Be Fit With Biray

I thought it might be nice to introduce myself in hopes of establishing a familiar connection with you prior to arriving at IDEA. This way, if we come across one another in the halls of the convention center, we can enthusiastically reminisce about how we met online! LOL.

Below is a peek at my fascination with social media and internet trends...

I remember back in 1994 (when AOL was barely hitting a mainstream audience), I convinced my dad to let me have my first email address! Still in high school at the time, I found this to be a victory in favor of my independence towards connecting to the ‘outside’ world. Unfortunately, my connection was short lived because none of my friends had email accounts back then (nor even knew what AOL was!)

Needless to say, things have come a long way since then.

Cut to 1999: post-college, fresh 20-something fitness professional struggling to find work in Los Angeles. It was a time when web-based technology was evolving to where even the average person with limited technical expertise could create an online presence.

So, that's what I did.

I first explored the idea of using listservs to create a community for over 60 L.A.-based fitness instructors requesting subs for their classes. It effectively eliminated hours of phone calls and avoided the mass-email approach to finding subs. Essentially, instructors would post a sub request online and all instructors subscribing to the listserv would get the post. Simple.

On October 25, 1999, I created “AerobicsInstructorsTalk” on Yahoo!Groups (which is still active today with over 400 members). And eventually, (like so many people) I jumped on the internet 'bandwidth' and created my first official website (http://www.befitwithbiray.com/) which (to my amazement) is still operational today.

Today, email and websites are said to be 'old-school' - can you believe that? Words like wikis, blogs/vlogs, podcasts/vodcasts and virtual communities are part of the current vernacular. How to integrate these social media tools within the fitness industry is just the fun part...