A Day at the Fit Yoga Conference

This past Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending Fit Yoga magazine's Evolution 2007 conference (although the conference was 3 days, I was only able to attend one day). Things got off to a wet start -- heavy rains closed down much of NYC's subway system -- and I didn't get to the Hilton until 8:20 AM (the conference started at 8:00 AM). Of course not much deters me from practicing yoga, so I shook off the rain (and the sweat from the 12-block walk in steamy, post-downpour temperatures), ignored the fact that I was late and charged into my first session of the day -- a class with Glenn Black.

Glenn is featured in the current issue of Fit Yoga and seems to be known for his mixture of yoga and bodywork. From what I understand, Glenn has somewhat of a "controversial" teaching style. I was intrigued after reading the article about Glenn and I looked forward to his class, entitled The Myth of Asana. I hadn't read the session description in the program, which is a good thing or I might have thought that I had walked into the wrong class. The class that I attended seemed to be completely different than what was described in the program. Still, I did enjoy it. It was obvious to me that Glenn knows a lot about the body and its workings and easily demonstrated some interesting yoga tricks, but his teaching style left a little to be desired.

Despite the fact that we were in a small room, Glenn's quiet voice didn't carry well and it was often difficult to hear him. He ran us through a series of poses that we held for quite a long time, often leading to groans from the yogis in the room. While I laughed at some of his funny remarks about our difficulties in holding the poses, I would have appreciated some directions to find more ease in the poses. At times he would offer some excellent tips for working from the joints and creating space and alignment in the pose, but often he would demonstrate something that seemed quite difficult for us to emulate (that man is quite flexible!) which left me feeling like he enjoyed showing off and took pleasure in the fact that many in the class couldn't achieve the same flexibility and feedom of movement. I left the session feeling a bit confused -- did I like Glenn's style or not? Did I learn valuable things that I could pass onto my students, or was I just watching someone show off?

My next session was completely different than the first -- a lecture with husband/wife team Lisa and Charles Matkin. I'm not sure exactly what I expected when I walked into this class, but I can tell you that I left feeling like my expectations had been exceeded. The session, entitled Spiritual Path of Partnership, was a delightful mixture of tantric teachings, personal stories from Lisa and Charles (their candor and open style was quite engaging), and a simple yet profound tantric-inspired asana practice. I left the session knowing that I'd study with these two wonderful people again.

The highlight of the day for me came after lunch -- a 2-hour lecture by Sonic Yoga co-founder Jonathan Fields. Jonathan spoke on a topic that career yogis can appreciate -- How to Build a Giant Private Client Base. This session alone was well worth the price of admission. Not only was Jonathan's presentation informative, but it was lively as well. I appreciated Jonathan's can-do style and took copious notes. The session sparked a lot of ideas for me, and I found myself writing pages of notes on the train home.

I finished my day with an amazing restorative yoga class with Jillian Pransky. This blissful two-hour session had me wondering why I don't incorporate restorative yoga into my practice more often. Jillian was absolutely, positively wonderful. Her direction was excellent and her soothing voice seemed to go along perfectly with the comforting poses. She and her assistant were attentive and went to great lengths to ensure the comfort and happiness of all attendants. They did a wonderful job and I left the session feeling relaxed, renewed, and energized.

It's no surprise that I enjoyed my day -- after all, I love yoga. I've been to bigger conferences, but I have to give kudos to the lesser known Yoga Fit magazine for putting on a wonderful event. It reminds me of the car rental ad campaign from years ago -- we're number 2 so we try harder. It was obvious that Yoga Fit tried hard -- and they did a good job. Upon arriving at the conference, I was greeted by smiling faces and handed not one but two bags. One was a Saka yoga bag complete with sticky mat inside and the other was a sturdy conference bag filled with goodies (yes, it had the typical promotional materials but it also had a Saka strap, non slip Manduka towel, and mat wipes). Were there as many "big names" at this conference as there are at say, a Yoga Journal Conference? No. But big names don't guarantee good classes. The sessions I attended were wonderful and I wouldn't have traded the featured presenters for more widely known yogis.

My only two complaints were the temperature and the lunch time situation. Chilly temps are usually par for the course when attending a conference at a hotel. Typically the conference sponsor has little control over the temperature, so I realize that this wasn't the fault of Fit Yoga. Still, I had to buy a sweatshirt during the lunch break to avoid catching pneumonia.

Speaking of lunch, rather than offer a panel discussion, the Wednesday I attended, the lunch time festivities consisted of a fashion show. There was something too Madison Avenue, Fashion-minded for me and I found myself cringing at the idea of a fashion show being held at a yoga conference (I was also pretty annoyed by the fact that the I Love Yoga booth, which had some amazing clothes, had no one attending their booth during lunch because they were all attending the fashion show - I was really stumped by the logic of that choice. Why would you abandon your booth during the busiest marketplace traffic time? I suppose fashion is more important than sales.). In Fit Yoga's defense, the yoga conference was running in tandem with a Pilates conference (the publishers of Fit Yoga also publish a Pilates magazine).

What really got my ire up (I admit that I was a yogi behaving badly that day and I got unusually annoyed by the lunch situation) is that the lunch offerings consisted of 2/3 meat sandwiches and 1/3 vegetarian sandwiches. By the time I got to the ballroom in which the lunch was served, they were all out of vegetarian offerings. Um, hello, this is a YOGA conference. Why wouldn't there at least be a 50/50 split between vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch offerings? The lunch was included in the conference tuition, so I guess they proved that there IS no free lunch in life. I left the ballroom shaking my head wondering whether or not Fit Yoga truly knew their subscribers (ever heard of a thing called market research?). I was one pissed off subscriber, and I ran down to the lobby in search of meatless fare. Luckily the Starbucks downstairs had a fruit and cheese plate with my name on it.

Lunch aside, the day was wonderful. Fit Yoga did a great job and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference. It was worth getting poured on and then getting trapped in the subway for a half hour, that's for sure. It's too bad that I couldn't attend the entire conference. Still, I'm happy with the one day that I did attend. Bravo Fit Yoga!

Namaste!

Comments

[naren]

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[Rebecca (GlamSpirit)]

Thanks for such a comprehensive description of your day at the conference. I wish I were there with you...I'll keep an eye out for the next one.