Bryan O'Rourke

It is wonderful to be here in Chicago for Club Industry ! A real treat was being on a panel with my partner Robert Dyer, my friend and colleagues Michael Scott Scudder and Bill Rodgriguez of Snap and Mike Grondahl of Planet Fitness, who I met for the first time today. We were talking about where the fitness industry is headed. It was really interesting and the room was completely full. To give you an idea of how entertaining and real the discussion was,  I'll quote Mike Grondahl, who in describing the Planet Fitness Model said: "I don't know what customer satisfaction really means. How can you measure it ? At Planet Fitness we say hello, goodbye and provide a clean club. Its busy so just deal with it." I think hat kind of honest feedback to a room full of health club industry players went over well . I give a lot of thanks and credit to Michael Scott Scudder for ... (more)

12 Important Trends For 2012 And Beyond

Emerging, Human Feel, City Lights, Right Here Right Now, Decide & Discover, Seamless, Known, Interact, Price, ECO, Enduring and Mass; these are the 12 trends that leaders should keep a close eye on. With over 100 pages of examples inside and outside of the health and fitness industry, this content is meant to be thought provoking and helpful in getting leaders to think about the future that is happening NOW. I hope you enjoy it. Please tell me, Bryan O'Rourke, what trend of the 12 do you find most interesting ? 2012 Trend Report - What Health And Fitness Leaders Should Keep Their ... (more)

The Fitness Industry - Doing Something That Matters In New Ways

The Fitness and Health Club Industry is changing . New economic models are emerging that create questions for the future of upcoming fitness professionals to be able to make a living. While forecasts indicate increased demand for fitness professionals, turnover rates for personal trainers, group fitness professionals and others in the traditional health club industry are very high. Many of these professionals have a deep commitment to helping others and doing something that matters, but it can be very difficult with the low pay they make.  The good news is that technology and a ... (more)

Personal Data - Driver Behind the Revolution

Elliot Van Buskirk had a recent post on Caterina Fake's (pictured on right) recent talk at the Wired Business Conference titled, "Mapping Desire, Exploring the Science of Online Recommendations." Her observations on personal data and new web functionality are interesting: “One of the things that we saw with the efflorescence of Web 2.0 was that there are now exobytes and exobytes of data online. The future of the internet goes to whosoever is able to make all of this information work for the benefit of people out there who are trying to find things and are standing on the corner... (more)

iPad on Ulitzer - Steve Jobs' Misunderstood iPad

iPad on Ulitzer For all the controversy around the recently introduced Apple iPad, one thing is certain. This is but one in a long series of devices which will continue to be introduced to the market as part of a computing revolution. The advent of these technologies combined with demographic shifts and global ism will fundamentally change everything about our world. Love it or hate it, the IPad is just one example of many more highly functional internet connected devices with more features delivered at lower and lower prices to come. These devices are highly mobile and will get ... (more)