I have been very fortunate to work with great brands and amazing people over my career span. The highlights of my career has seen me take a relatively unknown resort and have it placed number one for inland resorts, to designing training spaces in low cost Virgin Red clubs to product and design for the luxury Virgin Classic Collection, to develop new training spaces like the ‘Grid’ which is rolled out globally within Virgin Active.
I worked for Virgin Active for more than 12 years. It was a fast growing, innovative and ‘challenging the norm’ environment to work within, which I loved! The opportunities to grow, explore and innovate was limitless. Some areas that stood out for me:
Virgin Active Classic Collection: Alice Lane
Alice Lane in the begin stages of construction to final equipment checks the week before opening. Floor plans, auto cad drawings needed to be done 12-24 months before turning soil for the first time. No room for error in planning. Every electrical point for cardio equipment, weight baring on slab and the positioning thereof, reverberation all to be taken into account. This was a part of my role that stretched and challenged me. In true Virgin style, we always had several new builds in progress at an given time, spread all across the country.
Bamboo flooring hosting the new Technogym ARTIS range, the first health club in the world to hold the range. I was fortunate enough to partner and collaborate with Technogym, Virgin Active’s main equipment supplier. I travelled to Cesena, Italy to Technogym’s innovative head office to get behind the scenes and understand their aim and focus thereby allowing me to connect provide feedback and the requirements of the Virgin Group.
Sir Richard Branson was very impressed by the final result.
Body composition and tracking had always been important to us. I used the Inbody units which we custom built benches and uploaded our own software on to a larger screen, all neatly wrapped up into a sleek casing, making it simpler to use.
2. Virgin Active The GRID
Like I said before, I have been very fortunate to work with some brilliant people. Our Global Marketing Director from London met with myself and the Head of Programming for Virgin to discuss his concerns with Functional Areas. There was never a clear enough philosophy when designing and maximising floor space The issue was that most brands would purchase frames designed like a Swiss army knife as a functional solution. This limits what you can actually do in that space, as opposed to keeping your space more flexible and obstruction free. The Global Marketing Director gave me twelve hours to come up with a specification to which the Head of Programming would design a functional series in the new zone. We came up with this…
I used shorter Olympic training bars (1.8m), they work perfectly and fits nicely inside a 2m x 2m square as you can see in the picture
This was my first design, a space that could fit 35 people into a 218 SQM area safely. It contained self powered athletic cardio and a variety of functional equipment. Suspension frame off to the side so you could literally do a full Olympic lifting session and a myo-fascial release in the next, without needing multiple areas.
I later revised the dimensions of the squares to 2m x 2m as I started to use shorter Olympic training bars which worked perfectly in the 2 x 2 space. A Concept2 rower fitted diagonally in a square as did a Woodway curve treadmill. These adjustments meant that we could still serve 35 people, but only needed 140 sqm to facilitate the Grid.
Other brands and equipment partners have used and revised our design reducing the squares to 1.5 meters which could prove hazardous with certain exercises.
3. Virgin Active RED
Once the beautiful Alice Lane club opened, I was given a quick mind shifting project… design a training space for a 3000 sqm low cost offering, a direct contrast to the blue sky super luxurious Alice Lane. With a very tight budget, Virgin Red was born!
Low staff compliment meant that every aspect of the design should be more intuitive. The entrance hosted the ‘Hello wall’ which demystified the club, highlighted the different zones, and featured the exercises to do at each zone, dependent on individual fitness goals.
Daily programs cards were available to members. Programs were designed according to time or to a fitness goal. This was very useful in keeping members engaged and moving. It was simple and cost effective.
Each zone is clearly marked, with an information kiosk where club members can view exercises based on equipment, body part or intensity.
Studios are equipped with virtual training and run according to a timetable, however, members can start sessions outside of the timetabled sessions. We produced majority of the virtual content and did a full length training simulation of the famous Cape Argus cycle race for our instructors.
4. Discovery Health
Discovery Health is a massive Insurance and financial services company. Adrian Gore, the groups Chief Executive Officer partnered with the Virgin Group. He believed from early on that exercise is cheaper than medicine and partnered with fitness brands and loyalty schemes to ensure Discovery Health Members moved away from medicines and doctors and toward exercise, to improve their quality of life.
I loved this part of my role tremendously. My part was to write a fitness protocol and host that protocol in the form of an event at the Discovery Health head office in Sandton, Johannesburg. Adrian Gore, CEO of the group, challenged the various head of departments to see which department had the fittest team. We hosted hundreds of participants on the day.
Discovery fitness convention where we held training and workshops for all the industry instructors and personal trainers every year. Workshops are held in each area of the country and thousands of instructors get the opportunity to network, attend master classes, enjoy teaser classes of up and coming concepts.
5. Collaboration and Partnerships
Travelling extensively helped me gain massive insights and build strong partnerships to leverage off and learn from. I was privileged to spend a good amount of time with Professor Tim Noakes from the Sport science institute of South Africa and really enjoyed the vast amount of wisdom he passed on. Having the ability to visit a colleague in Italy then visit another in London and ‘compare notes’ was invaluable as was attending events like IHRSA and FIBO and going behind the scenes with Equinox, Star Trac, Matrix, Ziva, Technogym, etc. Spending time with these equipment manufacturers and getting to know them, allowed for a relationship of collaboration and respect in exchanging ideas and bringing the member at the fore-front of equipment design.
6. MD Award winner for Best performing Region 2011, Innovation Award 2006,2010
Big night winning my first Innovation award with Virgin Active and even more fortunate to share the evening with my beautiful wife.
7. Designing programming for Jetts
Jetts conference 2016.
My journey continued to Australia as Chief Operating Officer, heading up franchising, development , operations and later, product. Having never worked in a 24/7 environment, this certainly gave me new challenges, the learning was incredible.
I was really excited to have the opportunity to re-invent the club layouts. Dr Melvyn Hilsdons’ analysis of member records helped guide the key areas that needed development as part of the member journey. I created the fitness programming forming the ‘Jetts book’ which featured various goals with a four month program so that members could establish a safe and efficient progressive training program.
Jetts conference 2017.
Jetts is a no-lock in contract model so it essential that members still feel a warm community in a low staffed environment,which is why the member journey right from the beginning is imperative.
8. VITALITY MOVEMENT CENTRE
1 IN 6 AUSTRALIANS ARE ALREADY 65 YEARS AND OLDER, WE ARE NOT AGEING WELL, OFTEN FROM AN EARLY AGE STRUGGLING TO MARRY LIFESPAN TO HEALTHSPAN.
I STUDIED THE KEY AREAS THAT AFFECT OUR DECLINE THE MOST AND DESIGNED A MOEVEMENT CENTRE WITH SOME OF THE BEST NEURO REACTIVE, ISOKINETIC AND RESEARCH GRADE ASSESSMENT EQUIPMENT TO HELP UNDERSTAND THE GAP BETWEEN LIFE AND HEALTH SPAN, AND TO ASSIST THEM WITH BESPOKE PROGRAMMING, BASED ON SCIENCE AND EVIDENCE, HELPING PEOPLE ENJOY AND GET THE MOST OF THEIR AGEING YEARS.