I hosted a provincial conference for strength and conditioning this past Saturday (Feb 23rd) and had some great presenters.
John Gray from Toronto did a presentation on “How Much Stability Do We Need”. John works on his PhD under Stuart McGill and had some great information on how we should be defining stability and how we can improve it under that working definition. Great research info and practical applications.
Loren Chiu, who recently completed his PhD from USC, did a fabulous presentation on Transfer of Training. He had some great quotes like Specificity is a Fraud, as well as Functional Training comes from the Department of Redundancy Department.
Mike Durand - who worked at University of Kansas, Univ of Utah, Eastern Michigan and the Oakland Raiders - had a solid presentation on strength training programs for athletes, and his prescriptions were in line with what both John Gray and Loren Chiu advocated.
Chad Brenzikofer - recommended to me through Al Vermeil - presented great information on the Screening of Athletes for injury prevention and performance. He did a masterful job of presenting what he normally presents in two days, in 70 minutes.
We also had a number of solid local presenters and all in all it was a great experience, with lots of positive feedback.
I’ll try to post some short clips of the presentations when I get time.
I had the opportunity to attend this conference. The presenters were well educated and each brought differing opinions on a multitude of subjects. It was great from my perspective as I am still in the education process and was amazed at the amount of knowledge each presenter brought to the table. Many topics including flexibility, periodization, specificity and core were argued and discussed. I found that almost all principles were very similar to those discussed here on the forum. Overall it was a great conference
Someone like Charlie coming to you to talk would give you a big attraction and therefore widen the chances of making a good return… ask John Davies or someone else and you may forget about it.
If I ever open something like this I will consult all of you first. You all have answered a lot of my questions with getting it all started. I appreciate the info.
The goal for me is to always “Break Even” and provide the best possible educational experience for attendees. So, my registration fees are always based on what I need to make to cover costs (presenter fees, flights, hotel). I will always make a profit if I have:
Good presenters
Enough lead time to promote
A pool of dedicated individuals who I know will always show up to further professional development
Low overhead in terms of facility costs
Credits for NSCA and other prof. associations as that is always the first question from potential attendees (necessary evil)
The right price point. I always go slightly lower and try to amass the numbers. I also have discounts for students.
I’ve hosted about 10 seminars/conferences now and made money all except one (learned from that one).