The 26th annual Leisure Industry Week (LIW) begins this morning (30 September) at Birmingham’s NEC, with more than 200 exhibitors and 7,500 visitors expected at the three-day event.

There will be more than 120 live demonstrations and 80 educational sessions taking place, as well as highly-anticipated Q&A sessions on the LIW Live stage with England rugby star Ben Morgan, Olympic gold medal winning cyclist Dani King and athletics legend Sally Gunnell.

There will also be a number of new features on offer, such as LIW Early Morning Workouts, hosted by exhibitors, to encourage visitors to sample new group exercise options that are available. Meanwhile, Thursday will be ‘Independents Day’, providing a full day of education, networking and activities aimed at tackling the challenges faced by independent operators. Thursday’s keynote will be delivered by US fitness business guru Thomas Plummer, who will explore how to survive and thrive in tough and competitive markets,

With fewer exhibitors on show than the 300-plus seen in previous years, organiser UBM Live has worked hard to reassess the industry’s longest-running trade show and how it can be developed to meet suppliers’ and operators’ changing needs.

Earlier this year, the company teamed up with ukactive to survey more than more than 40,000 industry professionals for their feedback on a comprehensive range of factors related to the show. This information has been collated and several recommendations have been implemented into the new-look LIW, which has attracted more than 80 new exhibitors and will showcase in excess of 150 new products.

Leisure Opportunities and sister title Health Club Management will be live reporting from Birmingham for the entire event. Keep visiting leisureopportunities.co.uk/ andhealthclubmanagement.co.uk/ for the latest LIW news and developments as they happen.