FITNESS TREND:
CORE TRAINING AND GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING

Los Angeles recently hosted the IDEA Health & Fitness Convention and Conference. 5000 people from the fitness world showed up - from gym owners, to product manufacturers to coaches and fitness trainers. They all gather yearly. It the biggest such convention of its kind in the world - 150 companies took part. People gather from all over the world, from about 60 different countries. IDEA overall is an association. There is over 70 000 people that read their journal. The event is their way of coming together to learn the trends to find out the latest and to be able to get their continuing education so that they can do their job better I sat down at the show with the CEO Peter Davis to talk trends.

 

The impact of the economy continues to affect the choices of fitness enthusiasts and health clubs. Gyms are altering programming and training to better serve the needs of the cost-conscious member.

Strength training is an essential part of a complete physical activity program.

Exergames continues to climb in popularity and are being taken to the next level: fitness clubs.  By integrating fitness-based video games into their programming, clubs will offer unique exercise sessions for game-lovers and those looking for variety within their workouts.  This includes Nintendo’s Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the PC-based Dancetown.  

Core training is big. Different from strength training, this type of training specifically emphasizes conditioning of the middle-body muscles, including the pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen - all of which provide needed support for the spine. 

Finally, a big trend going into this fall - group personal training. Perhaps the most surprising top -10 trend - group personal training involving small groups. It combines the benefits of a group workout with the personalization of a personal training session.  

SOCIAL COMMERCE TREND:
GROUPON

The latest trend in social commerce is a new online shopping trend and a brilliant business concept. It’s a website called Groupon. 

The name is derived from the words group and coupon. It helps you save money on anything you could imagine. It is the fastest-growing company in Web history.

The company was recently valued at 1.35 billion!

If you haven't heard about it yet, here's what it is.

Discounts come via email for members. It's a free to sign up. A business offers a product or a service at an extreme discount and people sign up. As long as at least 100, sometimes its 500 people sign up - the deal takes place. The bigger the group, the bigger the savings. Once enough people have signed on, the discount coupon is emailed to you.

29-year-old Pittsburgh native and Chicago resident Andrew Mason is the CEO and the brains behind the concept. Andrew ranked recently 96th in the top 100 most creative people.

Business owners are loving it - it’s getting customers they would have never had at their door. Customers are loving it - they're getting huge discounts. It's a win-win for both parties.

Groupon now has more than a million and a half users.  It began with just three cities a year ago: Chicago, New York, Boston.  It will be in 100 cities by the end of the year in North America. It now has 230 employees, compared to 20-30 when they first started.

Talk about a success story!

STUDY:
MONEY DOESNT BUY HAPPINESS

Guess what? Money does not buy happiness.

When it comes to happiness it turns out - we are not just comparing ourselves with the Joneses, but the Wongs and the Kumars as well, according to the biggest ever international survey of what makes us happy.

The study, which surveyed 136,000 people in more than 130 countries that account for about 96 per cent of the world's population found that:
rich people in rich countries were much more likely to say they were satisfied with their life than rich people in poorer nations. The study also found that while people who are relatively well-off tended to feel more satisfied than poorer people with the way their life was going, 

Social and psychological factors account for people's feelings of happiness. These include being treated with respect or having friends and family they could turn to in an emergency.

Turns out the old real-estate slogan “you should buy the worst house on the best street” is actually wrong. If you want to be satisfied you should buy the best house on the worst street. That way you can look at all the other houses around you and think 'mine is better.’

Here is the best advice:
The findings show: if you DO have money - you are better off spending it on experiences rather than objects because. People adapt to new objects very quickly.

HOW TO:
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL WRITING

Here’s what the experts are saying about How To Write An Effective
E-Mail.

They say: Get to the point, keep it short, and assume it's public.

In July, 2008 South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford e-mailed his Latin lover, praising "the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night's light." Much to his dismay, the information went public.

All must assume that an e-mail is public. Even if you're sending it over a secure server or to an account you think you've set up in secret, if people want to read your notes and share them with the world, they will.

There are e-mail rules on which experts agree.

Among the most important: get to the point immediately. Keep your notes as short as possible. Avoid extended blocks of text by breaking up your writing into short paragraphs or bullets.

Also, keep in mind what we all already know: everyone is busy and gets too much e-mail.

One more caveat: When you receive a rude or angry note, do not reply right away. Negative emotions can escalate all too quickly in e-mails.

Or here's a novel idea: Pick up the phone

ENERGY DRINKS:
TOP 4

The drink that continues to gain popularity: energy shots.

The energy shot business revenue is expected to reach $500 million by the end of the year but beware - sugar and carbohydrate contents in energy drinks average at an alarming 27 grams per can, leading to a "crash" after the effects wear off.

One drink, ROCKSTAR Punched Guava, has an astounding 102 grams of sugar. That's four times as much as a glass of chocolate milk.

The leader in the energy market today with zero sugar content and only four calories per serving is the 5-Hour Energy shot. When it comes to energy shots, 5-hour has everyone playing catch up. 5-Hour Energy outsells its competition combined by a rate of 2.5 to 1.

Other highly ranked energy shots:

Stacker2 6 Hour Power: it comes in a variety of flavors and is a distant second to 5-Hour Energy.

NOS: NOS enjoys the benefit of having the Coca-Cola machine behind its product.

ROCKSTAR: ROCKSTAR's energy shot with the backing of  Pepsi-Cola, has already generated significant sales.

STATE-OF-THE-ART:
COCA-COLA FREESTYLE


Coca-Cola's new Freestyle machines are redefining business intelligence.

It is a hot a new item available for use now in several Southern California restaurants.

A state-of-the-art futuristic touch screen has the potential to create 100 different drinks. It allows you to choose a base flavor (Coke, Sprite etc.) and infuse it with other flavors like grape or strawberry. It offers Coca-Cola company’s 104 flavors.

The idea is to have these machines set up in restaurants to increase the variety and to help Coca-Cola understand regional tastes and purchasing behavior.

It works with RFID-enabled “microdosing” flavor dispensers (what kid wouldn’t want to get his hands on one of those?), and a private Verizon uplink that runs Microsoft mobile software and loads data into Coca-Cola’s Atlanta SAP point of sale and Business Warehouse software.


Coca-Cola is reported to be secretly building the machines in its own plant instead of farming production out as usual.

The choices are reviewed and allows the company to create new drinks as per our tastes as it gets insight that will help bring new products to market and exploit regional preferences.

CONSUMER TREND:
CHAMPAGNE


When it comes to champagne pricing, it often comes down to supply and demand.

People tend to drink champagne quickly. As a result, a vintage can become scarce within a couple of years of being released by the producer. As the supply of the highest-quality champagnes declines, the price quickly rises.

A small surge in demand, such as someone looking for merely a case or two for a wedding, can drive the price up dramatically on what few cases remain after the initial release.

Driven by this demand, the price of Champagnes such as Krug, Dom Perignon and Louis Roederer Cristal have soared over the past year, overtaking the big names of Bordeaux as an investment, at least for the time being.

CONSUMER SPENDING:
DVD HABITS


When it comes to movie watching habits and consumer spending with recorded home-entertainment, people are not buying or renting as many DVD’s as they used to.

Releases fell less in the second quarter of 2010.

They can’t seem to get the next-gen Blu-ray Disc format to help with the decline but Blu-ray is doing ok.

Rental spending was down 5% in the first half to slightly less than $3 billion, but kiosk rentals rose a hefty 55%,

GIRLY MAGS:
WHY MEN LIKE THEM


Now turning to men, magazines and women.So why do men spend their hard-earned money on glorified photo-montages of scantily clad women?

It's not the men's magazines - and whatever moral, or intellectual feelings you may attribute to them - it's just the way the man's brain is built.

According to a Duke University study, an appreciation of "girly mags" - is not a matter of "taste" but of your personal neuro-economic make-up.

Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the study wanted to see how the brain evaluates pleasure and quantifies monetary worth.

An MRI measured activity in different regions of 26 heterosexual men's brains. This was done while they viewed images of attractive women interspersed with images of money.

Researchers accurately predicted how much the subjects would be willing to spend to view a particular woman's image.

They could identify types of images that tend to modulate the right sorts of value signals - those that predict future purchases for a market segment.

Future studies are planned on female brains but a different stimulus is required for women because pictures of men are inadequate.

BEAUTY TREND: GLAMONOMICS


Glamonomics is a consumer demand for high quality yet-affordable beauty indulgences.

No longer willing to pay top dollar for every single product, men and women are looking for more affordable cosmetic options that can be supplemented with special indulgences from time to time. Beauty brands are bringing their A-game to answer this call.

Even high-end skin care brands are getting into the game, creating specialty sets and product options that give consumers the indulgence they crave at a more affordable price.

MARKETING TREND: TARGETING SENIORS


More and more businesses are booming today for seniors.
Hot right now: catered tea parties and senior dating sites
No matter how UNsexy it sounds, businesses are being aimed at retiring boomers and they are booming!

The aging-services industry composed of home healthcare, elderly and disabled services and community care facilities for the elderly make up three of the top ten industries with the fastest employment growth.

Gerontology is one of the "hottest" academic fields of the future. This fall, the University of Southern California debuted a new master's degree in aging-services management to meet the growing interest in the field.

BUSINESS TREND:
DIGITAL BUSINESS CARDS


You do still need the hardcopy but you also need this I say: the free Web site DubMeNow lets you create a digital business cards that are always ready for when you run out. You can share your mobile card via text or e-mail, and your contact information is saved into the person's address book and automatically updated whenever YOU make a change. DubMeNow also can locate where and when you met your contact, in case you have a memory lapse. Oh this is so good when you meet so many people on the road shooting.

The Web site BusinessCard2 lets you create an online card with a distinctly professional spin. The card's skin is sleek and has three tabs to help potential customers get to know you and your business. There's an info tab where you can list your experience and another tab for listing your social networks. BusinessCard2 also can embed your business card link in e-mail messages or on your blog.

NEW BOOK FIND:
'DELIVERING HAPPINESS'


If you want to be business inspired, 'Delivering Happiness' is a book for you.

'Delivering Happiness' is written by the brilliant Tony Hsieh, CEO of online shoe and clothing shop Zappos.com.

In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 Million. He then joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped grow them from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, while simultaneously making Fortune Magazine's annual Best Companies to Work For list.

In November 2009, Zappos.com Inc. was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal worth $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

NEW TREND:
TWITTER JOB HUNTING


Tweetmyjobs.com is a new service that posts jobs on Twitter. They have posted 50 000 jobs in just 24 hours alone.

Tweemyjobs has signed on some major players like Sears, Kmart, Starbucks, FedEx, and Sony

In this day in age, job seekers need to go beyond their resume. They need to build their social media profiles as they answer a lot of questions the job hunter has.

Companies have been using social media to connect with their customers, and promote and enhance their brand. Now they are using it to recruit.

TREND: 24/7 WORK CULTURE


Already about 24 million work in the 24/7 "culture" in quest of reaching out to new clientele in foreign time zones which will speed up production and services. (So true! I answer to London England for The Associated Press and with the time difference between LA and London - I have to email the head bureau at 1:00 am and 2:00 am LA time because that's first thing in the morning there, as a result I work all hours of the day LA time)

This new, around-the-clock lifestyle will make human resources more complex. For example, overnight caregivers will need to be added to your local babysitter's availability hours!

BUSINESS CARD TREND: SNAPDAT, POKEN, BEEZCARD


Get ready POKEN is here! With all of our methods of communication these days, any technology that simplified this part of our lives is bound to be all the craze.

Several iPhone apps such as Beezcard and SnapDat allow you to share contact details with others.

SnapDat gives you the exact look of a business card and allows you to send your information to another SnapDat device and stores your information in their address book instantly. It can be downloaded for free at the Apple App store or at snapdat.com. The drawback is, not everyone has an iPhone. A Swiss company responded to this and invented Poken..

What is Poken exactly?

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communicaion (NFC) technology to allow the exchange of online social networking data between two keychain accessories. Each person involved in the exchange must have his or her own Poken. The primary information exchanged via the Poken is a 'social business card', a digital replacement for a physical business card. By touching two devices together, a unique ID is exchanged that links to contact information on the Poken website. Contact information acquired by use of the Poken can be uploaded to the Poken website using a built-in USB connector.

In addition to the contact information found on a typical business card, links to users' social networks can also be added. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and 40+ other social networks. Users of the Poken website can use a 'social dashboard' to manage, and interact with their contacts. With today's information overload, the purpose of Poken is a tool to link all of the different ways someone can get in touch with you.

For more information visit www.poken.com

NEW TREND: DATING CONCIERGE


The Dating Concierge – so what is it?
One of the best ways to make a living right now is as a consultant. In fact, the consulting industry is expected to grow by 83% from 2008 through 2018. Dating and lifestyle strategists are the new thing. They help you enhance your dating and your social life (sort of like Will Smith in the movie Hitch.)

The newest trend in online dating involves dating management agencies.

A dating consultant is paid to create online profiles, find potential matches, communicate with potential suitors and even plan the dates because many single people don't have time to create and maintain online dating profiles. As a result, a new trend has emerged in the world of Internet pairing: outsourcing to dating concierges. A dating concierge is typically paid a monthly fee in order to handle the business of online dating for their clients.

Many dating consultant concierges will advise their clients not to disclose to their dates that they have used a service. Many people find working with a dating consultant to be disconcerting, but still others are becoming more and more interested in the possibility and quite proud that they have their "people."

MOVIE TREND:
BOXOFFICE TRADING ON THE STOCKMARKET


Movies are taking on a whole new twist. Not only can you watch the movies, you can now BET on the opening weekend tallies.

The first futures contract based on movie box office results will begin trading this summer. The U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a request by the Trade Exchange to offer futures contracts and options.

The contracts would begin trading four weeks before a movie opened - and end trading on opening weekend.

The first movie to get the green light: Takers, the crime film starring Matt Dillon, Chris Brown, Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen.

Takers opens August 20, which means trading begins the last week of July.

HOT TREND:
PERSONAL BRANDING


One of the newest business trends is Personal Branding, which suggests that everyone can be a celebrity if packaged correctly. It used to be that your company's brand and message was most important. Things have changed, and now your personal brand is just as, if not more important for business success.

Personal Branding is your self-packaging. This includes, but is not limited to, the body, clothing, appearance, and knowledge leading to an impression that sets the person apart from the rest. Personal branding is very important when dealing with employers or potential clients.

A vital component of your personal brand and self-packaging is your online presence. With so many blogs and social media sites, everyone can have a presence online. Your name can become very well-known with enough time and enough attention. With the web being such a vital component in business today, being entrenched in the cyberworld is a must.

CONSUMER TREND:
STATUSPHERE


Statusphere - the new buzz word today.

The need for recognition and status is at the heart of every consumer trend. Status is the ultimate motive, a subconscious but very strong force.

Consumption is one of the leading indicators of success, those who consume the most (and especially those who consume the rarest and most expensive,) attain the highest status. This is why brands have provided people with goods, services, and experiences that help them impress their peers.

Mature consumer societies are changing now, and so is the Statusphere: an increasing number of consumers are no longer (solely) obsessed with owning or experiencing the most exclusive and/or the most expensive.

Statusphere has been defined by the experts as: Consumers starting to recognize and respect fellow consumers who stray off the beaten consuming-more-than-thou-path. New status can be about acquired skills, eco-credentials, generosity and connectivity. All of this makes for a far more diversified Statusphere than most brands and organizations have traditionally catered to. Time to really figure out how and where your customers are now finding their status fix.

BUSINESS TREND: BRANDING YOUR COMPANY


Here are trends you need to know about if you own a business:

• Value is the new black: Consumer spending, even on sale items will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy. Brands with no authentic meaning, whether high-end or low-end, may have trouble keeping up in the marketplace.
• Consumer expectations are growing: Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations now. Every day we adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations and hunger for more.
• Consumers no longer need to know a brand to love it: Buying space is now online-driven and international (and uncontrolled by brands and corporations). Front-end awareness is becoming less important. A brand with the right street credibility can go viral in days, with awareness following.
• Trust: With constant tweeting and communicating, if consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Word of mouth alone is not enough, it must be the right word of mouth that is important.
• Four engagement methods: The platform (TV; online), the context (program; webpage), the message (ad; communication), and the experience (store; event). Realize that brand engagement will become impossible using out-dated attitudinal models.

BUSINESS TREND:
MASS MINGLING


Now turning to the newest business trend: Mass Mingling.

As people are now living large parts of their lives online through social media and mobile communication, Mass Mingling is on the pulse. Thanks to the online revolution, hundreds of millions are now actively searching for, finding, connecting and staying in touch with likeminded individuals in the virtual world.

Constant updates, GPS, and mobile online access is now bringing this explosion of dating, networking, socializing and mingling to the real world domain.

Here are the numbers:

• Twitter: Over 100 million users and 50 million tweets sent each day.
• Facebook: Nearing 500 million users. The average user has 130 friends, spends 55 minutes a day on the site and receives three "event invitations" to real-life gatherings every month.
• LinkedIn: Over 65 million members. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second.
• Meetup: Has 6.1 million members, handling 2.2 million RSVP's and 180,000 meet-ups, in 45,000 cities each month

CONSUMER TREND:
BRAND BUTLERS


It has never been more important to turn your brand into a service. Consumers yearn for service and care - serving is the new selling. The mobile online revolution makes it possible to offer very relevant services to consumers anywhere, anytime. So, if you're going to embrace one big consumer trend this year, please let it be Brand Butlers!

Brand Butlers are a huge emerging trend – 'serving is the new selling'. Brands urgently need to hone their butler-'ing' skills, focusing on assisting consumers to make the most of their daily lives, versus the old model of just selling them a lifestyle. Here's why consumers are embracing these Brand Butler style services: For consumers, time, convenience, control and independence are the new currencies turning 'campaigns' if not all interactions with customers into broader services. Relationships with brands are now more down to earth. There is a consumer longing for institutions that truly 'care.' The mobile online revolution is shifting consumer expectations even further into the always-on, instant gratification online arena. For brands, this means that there are now endless creative and cost-effective ways to deliver on this need for assistance, for 'butlers'.

CREDIT CARD TRENDS: V.I.P CARDS


When it comes to V.I.P Elite Credit Cards and the best high-status cards in the world - which ones can get you the most top of the line service? Well, money breeds luxury and prestige with these cards BUT having good credit is not an automatic pre-qualifier - banks are now looking for big spenders with well-rounded credit histories and notable salaries.

Here are the top cards leading the trends (the one where you're treated like a movie star is the hottest card right now)

American Express Centurion: It has a one-time sign-up fee as high as $5,000. This is the hottest card right now only available to a select few. Centurion cardholders get intensive customer service, personal travel agents and complimentary airline tickets on some international flights, with the purchase of a regular ticket.
Visa Black Credit Card: $450 US a year. This slick slice of carbon (rather than plastic) is noticeably black and comes with an even more noticeable $250,000 worth of travel accident insurance, concierge professionals on-call 24 hours a day.
American Express Platinum: A step down from the Centurion, but a step up from any run-of-the mill credit, this high-class card. Cardholders are treated to 24/7 travel assistance, a concierge service that can arrange dinner and entertainment reservations and VIP tickets to events.
American Express Delta Sky Miles: The biggest perk this elite card has to offer, besides the low $150 US annual rate, is the mile earned for virtually every dollar spent. There's also automatic car renter's insurance, travel accident insurance and a relatively low prime rate of 9.99 percent.