Q&A with Tony Barry - Script Media Group

Tony Barry is the Director at Script Media Group who are the publishers of The Workout Magazine & the organiser of the National Fitness Awards. Being in the industry for over 26 years, Tony has seen the ups and downs of the industry.

Tony, the National Fitness Awards will be running in November this year. Can you tell us a bit about the event and what attendees can look forward to?

We are really excited to be holding the National Fitness Awards again this year on Friday the 26th November at ‘The Athena’ in Leicester. The evening will be celebrating the successes of the last 2 years as all nominations from 2020 have also been included and will make this years event the largest we have ever held in terms of nominations and recognition. The NFA team will begin the shortlist process from the 1st September and then will cover the country to interview all the finalists.

As always we will be preparing press releases to raise as much publicity for all the finalists within their local community as well as being promoted within WorkOut and on all the social media platforms associated to WorkOut and the National Fitness Awards. The finalists will then be invited to the grand final at the Athena where they will be welcomed to a drinks reception, 4 course meal, a full cabaret show and for those feeling still peckish we will be serving breakfast rolls from 12.30am. A full roll of honour will be published in the January edition of WorkOut as a souvenir edition.

How do you think businesses in the Health & Fitness industry should adapt their communication approach to succeed post-covid?

The one thing that all clubs have in common is its core community of members, regardless of being a local authority, Hotel and Spa, Independent or even a small studio. It is this core that will treat each other as adopted family when in the club and they will have certainly missed the environment that we are lucky to have throughout the whole of the UK, and will be boasting on social media that they are back and getting healthy and more so happy in life. As operators we need to engage and encourage the core members to help promote the facilities, shout about the social distancing and cleanliness, classes, especially starter classes but mostly the social interaction and the opportunity to be part of a gym family. The best advert for any operator of Health & Fitness is the one that comes from its members!

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