Episode #576: Bringing Together Health, Wellness, and Tech-Kisaco's Connected Conference

0:01 This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks nyc. I have the pleasure of bringing from across the pond, a good friend of Integrity Square at Kisako Research. Rika, welcome to your first Halo Talks. Thank you so much for having me. Awesome. So I was at one of your shows back in the day before you joined the company in Los Angeles at the Connected Fitness event. It was a great event connecting some of the bigger high tech companies at the time that might have had a very small presence there and then turned into big companies. So I feel like it was a great place to go for me as a potential advisor and investor and for companies to go to see, hey, what's around the corner in the Halo and health and fitness and connected parts of the industry. So talk about your background, why you got involved and how you're running this and why we should all attend the show in February. Yeah, of course.

0:57 So my name is Rekha for everyone who, who doesn't know me and I'm actually quite new to the industry. I joined the fitness, wellness health industry just very recently, last February. I was always super passionate about wellness. So actually back at university I ended up studying business marketing and management. However, I was very passionate about biology and chemistry and so a lot of the subjects that I took were SC based and so really after university I wanted to start working at a company that will allow me to bring these two worlds together and for me to start working on something that kind of brings together my business acumen and my entrepreneurial mindset with the, my passion for sciences. Right. And so really being a conference producer off a large scale wellness event is a perfect place to do that. So this is kind of how I, how I got into the industry and I've been loving it since last February. I spoke to the most amazing people and it's, I'm just very grateful to be able to be part of the, the journey. Well as, as we say in the Halo sector, which will get you to use our acronym at some point is once you get it, once you get into this industry, you will never get out. So welco a long time career in

2:27 the health, fitness, connected wellness or whatever you want to call it, but our passion for this business, you know, to try and help solve loneliness, obesity, diabetes and having people like you come into the industry, you know, to start your career is special to us because we are all, you know, solving big issues. And I think it all starts at the micro level of operators that are, that are in the sector that are doing things in their community. So welcome aboard and talk about you know, talk, talk about how the event is kind of morphed in some of the things that people might have gone in the past that you're, that you're changing and upgrading.

3:07 So really our mission stays the same. Right. So we've been running Connexus Health and Fitness for six years now. Next year is going to be our seventh iteration, which is amazing. And the, at the very beginning the event was more focused on purely the connected health industry. Over the years we have seen a change in the general global wellness industry and so we're keeping up with that. Really our new mission for 2026 is to bring together health, wellness, fitness and tech in order to help brands thrive. Right.

3:48 So our key mission is to bring all of these different parts of the ecosystem together in order to enable operators to deliver science backed, holistic and tech enabled solutions. Right. Those are the three keywords that we're going for and that's great. Really what sets our event apart is threefold. So first of all you have the seniority. I know a lot of events in the industry go on and on about seniority. We have historically had 50 to 60% sea level attendance at Connected, which is unheard of. Look at the statistics.

4:32 The second point is the ecosystem. As I have mentioned before, we don't only bring together the operators, the big boutique gyms, the high value, low price operators, but also we tap into the hotel and spa industry now, the longevity industry. And around 15% of the audience is from healthcare. Right. This is a massive growth area for us. When I say healthcare, I mean pharma, I mean insurance, I mean your large healthcare providers like Mayo, like Cleveland, all of these people you're going to hear from at Connected 2026.

5:13 We're staying true to our connected heritage. Right. So you'll still meet the variables, the apps, the digital platforms at the event, investors. You have said that the, at the beginning of this, this call are, have always attended and will always attend at around 10%. So there's really a lot of coverage. Also just smaller lifestyle brands, for example, that are not necessarily present at other events. We have historically had Nike, Adidas, apparel brands, nutrition brands. Right. So it's very a place where different sectors of the industry can meet and connect and create partnerships. A lot of the times Connected is being quoted as the place to come and create partnerships because so many different industries converge.

6:14 And really the last point that I wanted to get through is the research, right. And this is super close to my heart. This is what I do day after day. All of our Conferences. At Kisako, especially at Connected, we focus on content and all of our content is based in hours and hours of research with the industry and most importantly the primary market. So the gyms, the boutiques, the wellness clubs, the hotels, the spas, the longevity clinics we spoke to, I speak to the sea level at these, at these organizations. And all of the different topics are based on the key challenges that they are experiencing in the industry.

7:01 And what we're trying to do over the year is find potential solutions to these key challenges. So it's not your high level panel conversation where four people talk about kind of general points in the market, but it's very much diving deep, digging into the details. This is Pete Moore. I want to let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault and what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and one month free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value and that doesn't discount your own products and services. So here's the deal.

7:52 There's something called Rewards Vault. The Rewards Vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions, you are going to get those answers, you're going to be able to target those members and you're going to reward them inside your club, inside your spa and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be Promotion Vault, your answer, trust me, this is real. Yeah. When I went to the conference three years ago, actually met with head of M and A at Nike, which I was pleasantly surprised that he was in attendance. And also there were a lot of people that did have name tags that had big companies and the word partnerships associated with it. And I think one of the most important parts of the next phase of growth, I think for bricks and mortar operators is for them to understand that they are the authority on anything related to what you just talked about, whether it's longevity, whether that's technology that people want to use, whether that's the type of supplements that you want to put into your body. You actually, your first line of contact or relationship is typically with somebody in person that you have at the gym or at the studio. And I feel like, you know, a

9:25 company to give you an analogy of like a Dick Sporting Goods as an example. Like there's no reason a Dick Sporting Goods is not powering the E commerce for a health club that has treadmills and is training people for boot camp events and and there's an 8% affiliate fee going back to the health club from Dick's Sporting Goods or somebody from Nike not being on alert that there's a big 5K or that there's a high rocks promotion going on and that Nike is not involved at the local level. So I think that's the future is going to be local based businesses that might be owned on multi unit operations that have the ability to tap into these larger brands that have marketing funds that are in the billions of dollars that we have historically never really been able to tap into because there's been this bifurcation of well this is what happens in the real world and this is what happens in the bricks and mortar health and fitness world.

10:21 So I'm pleasantly surprised pleasant that this is happening. We need both the big dogs and then the smaller companies in order to work towards preventative health. Yeah, when you talk about format related, you know, not having a panel, talk about what you do at other events that you're bringing here because I've always been one to question people's attention span unfortunately and, and also you know, having a four person panel and I've run many of these and I enjoy doing it but there's also the value in actually structured one to one conversations or small group discussions where people are actually scanning each other's cards and there's an intent to follow up. Yeah, no worries. I can definitely talk about that. So for 2026, just boring logistics. So we're having a.

11:16 The 18th of February is a pre date which is more hands on workshops both for hotels and spas and for fitness operators. And then the 19th and 20th February are our main conference days. So during the two main conference days we're basically covering four major themes. So on day one we have two stages running simultaneously. The first stage is dedicated to your growth and strategy. So this is all your revenue diversification topics. We're talking GLP1 and how to adapt your offerings to GLP1 using customers oral GLP ones for example. What do they mean for the.

12:05 For the market for 2026 we're talking about insurance and how to develop effective relationships with insurance companies. We're talking about corporate wellness and how do you get the most out of your corporate wellness partnerships in terms of roi and we're talking about general scaling challenges. So a lot of the franchising operators, for example, have telling me that keeping the same brand over tens of locations is incredibly difficult. So how do you keep up with that? How do you balance human touch points versus technology? So what we're doing on this stage is really, and on all other stages is really having rapid fire 20 minute sessions or 30 minute.

12:56 Even if it's a panel, it's mostly 30 minutes long. That will really keep it specific and short. Right. So we're not. The first two, three sessions on day one are going to be talking about the industry in general, but then all the other sessions after that are basically rapid fire talking about super specific challenges and the solutions to those challenges. So that's stage one. Stage two is I'm biased, but it's my favorite one. It's our science bagged stage. It's our longevity and health stage. So here we have brought in a lot of representation from health care, from doctors and medical professionals. We're going to hear from Mayo Clinic, from Cleveland Clinic, from Stanford Medical, etc. Etc. What we're trying to achieve on the health and longevity stage is twofold. First of all, we have created our first ever women's health symposium.

14:04 So usually we talk about women's health for like half an hour, 40 minutes during a panel. Really what we're doing for next year is we're dedicating around two to three hours of the agenda to women's health and to figuring out the science behind women's health. So we're going to have Mel Strong, she's fantastic talking about capital flows in the women's health industry followed by a super science based session on female physiology and what the newest science will be in 2026. We'll be, we'll be talking about hormones, fertility, menstrual cycle training, perimenopause and menopause. And then to close it off, we'll have a couple case studies from operators who are already ahead of the game and who have implemented women's initiatives within their company and have successfully done so.

15:12 And so we'll hear how they have done this and hopefully walk away with some blueprints as to how other operators can, can do the same within their organization. And then later in the day in the health and longevity stage, we'll be talking about the industry in general and how can we, how can we work towards preventative health? So we have very exciting panel on, on gyms turning into health hubs and how companies like Lifetime or Canyon Ranch or smaller longevity Clinics like Extension Health are trying to replace the the hospital. Right. And healthcare providers.

16:06 However, we're going to have healthcare providers involved in the conversation as well. So it's very much balanced conversations happening on stage about holistic health, about longevity and about science on day one. Great. And then on the 19th and 20th, what hotel is this going to be at? It is the Fairmont Century Plaza in la. So expect five star hotel experience. And I'm not sure, do you want me to talk about the 20th as well? Just quickly run through what we're covering there. Yeah, sure, that'd be great. No worries. So the 20th is going to be again, two completely different themes.

16:58 So on stage one, we're covering data and tech and we're actually opening up with a panel conversation that Google is sponsoring for the first time. Very excited about that. We will be talking about data, the data value chain and Health 3.0. Right. So we talk about interoperability in the industry all the time. But what companies are forgetting is a lot of the time you need to figure out your own data within your own company first before you can make it interoperable with a whole bunch of other companies and a whole bunch of other systems.

17:42 So this is basically reflective of what we'll be learning at Connected. We'll be talking about how to tidy up your own the data in your own organization, how to make it available, actionable, timely, etc. Etc. And then continue on to talk about Health 3.0 and how can we achieve a truly connected ecosystem, data ecosystem in order to serve the customer. And then we're going to talk about AI. Of course our AI symposium is a bit different for next year. I've heard time and time again that we, the industry needs external opinion and the industry needs actual use cases. So that's what we're going to do. Every single one of our AI sessions is going to be a AI use case rather than a hard sell.

18:36 A general topic about why AI is important. I think we can all agree we're all for that. And then the last stage is by far my favorite one. It is a very human stage. It's our community and member Experience Studio which basically talks about as you have touched on social isolation, how do you speak to your audience, how do you speak to your customer, how do you tap into Gen Z, prepare for Gen Alpha, how do you create a seamlessly connected ecosystem for your customer to go through from the beginning to the end? Right. And we have some very exciting brands like Hyrox, the Athletic Clubs, Barry Solidcore involved here. So that's going to be definitely a very exciting stage as well. Foreign.

19:36 This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called higher dose higherdose.com they are the leader in workout recovery products, infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as PEMF mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You got to get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for 200 bucks per month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery. If we are already an authority in workouts, Higher Dose, check it out. There's a wholesale code and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And hey, let's get people happy, healthy and sweating. And the recovery should be just as good as the workout.

20:47 You know. So Rika, from a standpoint of, you know, this conference I feel has a lot of actionable takeaways from the one that I went to and then from other people have talked about this. So, you know, in closing here, how do you feel that this, this conference kind of changes somebody's 2026 and 2027 strategic plans after they, you know, leave on the 20th? What do you expect things to, what do you expect to happen? I think it's different for every single stakeholder group, really. But what I can promise will happen is one, you will walk away with very specific, actionable insights on a lot of the challenges that the entire industry is experiencing.

21:38 All of the insights that you will walk away with is going to be data and science bagged. I have made it my personal mission for the last year to make sure that every single session brings clear ROI to the listener. We are actually going to have multiple bullet points of key takeaways that you can refer to during the sessions just so that we're super clear as to what we are getting out of it. And the second thing I can promise you is you will meet a lot of friends and you'll make connections that will last forever. You know, Connected is an event attended by 700 people. It's still friendly enough and intimate enough for you to meet everyone and for you to have actual conversations and not just the 35 minute quick kind of report. Right. And the third thing is that you're going to have fun. You're gonna have a lot of fun. We are bringing a workout room. We are gonna have a media lounge next year where interviews and podcasts will be recorded. Our workout room will be running six or seven workouts so we currently have Natural Pilates signed up. Hyrux is gonna do a session.

23:10 Burn Bootcamp is going to do a session and we're still working on bringing more people on board and our pop up gym and our pop up recovery zone is something brand new for 2026. This is where you can experience all the fun equipment, recovery and strength equipment that is going to change the 2026 market. So there's a lot of fun things happening and awesome. Yeah, awesome. Well, if you're on the fence at the beginning of this podcast, you will now enter to register the event. To get qualified, please bring your brain, your workout shoes and if you want to throw a football with me, I'll be there on the 18th, 19th and 20th in LA. So thanks for Rika convincing me to attend the the LA event after a couple years of being busy and now I will make the time for it and we will let everyone go. Halo and go to Connected 2026. Thanks for coming on and we talk to you. Thank you so much.

24:24 This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks, your captain speaking. I am the Founder and Managing partner at Integrity Square. We've been around now for 15 and 1/2 years. We have been helping people like yourselves get capital, do mergers and acquisitions, consulting, strategic advice in the health, active lifestyle and outdoor halo sector, trying to help as many entrepreneurs as possible get to the next level and take that inflection point to be the force behind your growth. We are helping companies that have at least $3 million of EBITDA, around $10 million of revenue and we are positioned to help you get institutional growth capital or to negotiate deals with strategic partners. If you go to integritysq.com isq you can see our capabilities. Deck Happy to set up a consultation at any time that is free of charge and we look forward to you helping solve obesity, loneliness and diabetes and go healing.

25:46 Sat.