FitHer Expo: Australia’s Biggest Womens Health and Fitness Event

We wanted to know more about how FitHer went from an idea to a reality and asked Emma about the journey so far…

How long have you been planning the FitHer Expo? Was this a pre-Covid brainchild that had to wait until the time was right? Tell us about how the idea came about.

Emma: After getting quite excited about triathlons and embarking on my first event (this was pre-Covid and the event was cancelled), I was actually planning an event around that sport until I realised I didn’t know enough about the technical side of triathlons! It occurred to me while spending a lot of time walking and running during COVID-19 times that what was missing was an event that brought women together in a face-to-face environment to connect with each other, explore new brands, and get fit and active together. A few iterations later, the FitHer Expo was created focusing on women being the fittest version of themselves in body, mind, and life and coming together to celebrate this.

Large-scale events like this involve significant planning. Have you been involved in coordinating anything similar to the FitHer Expo before?

Emma: I sure have! My other love outside of women’s health and fitness is supporting parents and families raising children with disabilities. My late daughter, Charlotte, had a rare genetic condition called Angelman Syndrome and because of our own challenges finding information, I created Source Kids. Source Kids has become one of the leading organisations in Australia supporting families through our magazine, online, and expo events that run across five states each year. We have now held over 15 expos over five years and have built an incredible environment for families to connect with product and service providers.

Large-scale events like expos take an exceptional amount of planning, effort, and work across many months/years and I am fortunate to bring a wealth of events experience to FitHer, not just in myself but my incredibly experienced team in the events space.

What have been the main challenges you’ve faced so far in the planning and preparation phase?

Emma: Like any new business, we’ve had plenty of challenges. While we have a wealth of knowledge in event management, as a first-time event we are doing everything for the first time, so we are navigating the path as we go in terms of structuring workouts and speaker stages, creating exciting activations, and managing all logistics of the event. Proudly, our team has conquered all of these challenges and we are incredibly excited to see all of our work in action at the expo in a few weeks.

How do you connect with business owners – particularly smaller start-ups that are out there in order to get them involved with the event?

Emma: All of our team live and breathe women’s health and fitness, so we are always finding incredible brands out there that would be a great fit for FitHer. Because of this we’ve been able to genuinely connect with so many incredible brands across a large range of product and service categories and the support has been overwhelming. We’ve had incredible support from so many businesses including smaller start-ups where FitHer is the perfect platform to reach a large new audience to launch their product or service as well as for those more established brands.