Today we’re excited to have a special guest contributor to the blog, Merrithew’s^™ own Olivia Merrithew, Education Services Coordinator & Advisor. Along with the Education Services team, Olivia travels around the globe to fitness conferences and Merrithew Symposiums, also meeting with our partners from various training centers. In her first guest post, Olivia shares her top five most memorable moments from FILEX 2015. Look for more upcoming posts from Olivia as she shares her experiences travelling around the world.

From L to R: Rouxchelle, Olivia, Carol & Chael, an IT from Perth. 

This year, along with Carol Tricoche, Vice President, Education Sales, I had the fantastic opportunity to attend FILEX, an annual conference in Melbourne, Australia. FILEX is where the fitness industry comes alive and where leaders come together to share their ideas and experiences. Not only did I get to escape from the cold weather of Canada, but I was able to learn so much about the Pilates and Fitness culture in Australia. With all of the fun and incredible happenings I had in Australia, I wanted to share my experience with the Merrithew community and have narrowed down my top five moments:

1. The buzzing atmosphere & sea of orange t-shirts: FILEX was truly an incredible, positive, and energizing experience. The enthusiasm was contagious! True to their description of the tradeshow, there were lots of people from the industry with insightful and thought-provoking questions and unique ideas to share. What’s this sea of orange shirts I mentioned? Volunteers at the show were impossible to miss in their brightly-hued tees. They were an amazing and helpful team, lending us a hand to get set up for our Total Barre^® Endurance Level 2 workshop. It ready to go in less than 10 minutes! Very impressive.
2. Amy Van Dooremalen: Instructor Trainer Amy Van Dooremalen resides in Singapore but made her way over to Australia to instruct at one of our Training Centers in Adelaide. A few days later she took on the role as one of Merrithew’s presenters at FILEX. Amy is a wonderful presenter with outstanding spirit and energy – try to spend five minutes with her and not be uplifted! I am sure I can speak for all of the participants when I say it was a pleasure to see her in action.
3. Leisure Concepts: We were in great hands with the team from our Australian Distributor, Leisure Concepts. Not only were they kind enough to pick up both Carol and myself from the airport, but they even went out of their way to ensure that our equipment was set up before we arrived at the booth (bonus!) and they took care of coffee runs in the morning. It was a pleasure to get to know everyone from their team and it reinforced how much we love working with them.
4. Rouxchelle Denton-Cooke & Lou Conyers: Carol and I were thrilled when Rouxchelle & Lou both offered to volunteer at the booth. They are both Australian Host Training Center owners (Rouxchelle runs Keola Wellness & Pilates and Lou runs The Movement Movement) and STOTT PILATES^® Certified Instructors as well as Qualified Total Barre^®, CORE^™ Athletic Conditioning & Performance Training^™ and ZEN•GA^™ Instructors. Rouxchelle flew with us from the Gold Coast to Melbourne where we then met up with Lou, who has her studio in Melbourne. They were a huge help with demonstrating the equipment, answering student questions, and promoting upcoming education all over Australia.
5. The Workshops: We were pleased to present three great workshops presented at FILEX this year: Halo^® Foundations Integrated Bodyweight Training, Total Barre Endurance Level 2, and STOTT PILATES^® Matwork Strength & Mobility. The feedback we received from the participants was incredible. It’s such a rewarding feeling to see firsthand how all the hard work we put into creating new workshops, setting up and organizing education and events, dealing with technical issues, keeping as up to date on the latest research, and all of the behind-the-scenes work we do here at Merrithew feel worthwhile. The look on someone’s face when they are having fun, laughing and enjoying themselves while participating in one of our workshops, courses or classes is absolutely priceless to me. 

FILEX 2015 was a great event and my fingers are crossed I get to participate in similar conferences in the near future! What fitness conferences have you attended recently that left you feeling pumped and enthusiastic? Leave us a comment and let us know!