Survive the Squeeze. Win the Decade.
What the top 40 health club executives in the world learned about inflation, AI and how to position your business for the road to 2030 at the 2026 Club Solutions Leadership Summit.
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What’s Inside
The intelligence your competitors are already reading.
The Economic Outlook
ITR Economics presents a detailed macro forecast through 2030 — including the two-hump inflation curve, rising wage costs, interest rate strategy, and why “profitless prosperity” is the hidden threat to your margins right now.
AI in the Real World
Four operators share exactly how they’re deploying AI today — from coach pre-class summaries and AI sales agents to voice AI, cancellation automation, and coach quality audio analysis. Real results, real numbers.
The Industry’s Biggest Challenges
Labor scarcity, margin compression, market oversupply, rising member expectations — a frank assessment of what’s working against operators and what to do about it.
The Industry’s Biggest Opportunities
The 65+ market. Wellness monetization. In-person community as a counter-trend. Organizational health as a growth multiplier. The window before 2030. Where smart operators are placing their bets.
The 2030s Forecast
ITR has held this forecast for a decade: a global economic depression beginning around 2030. Here’s what it means for health club operators, and the litmus test every CEO should apply to their business today.
8 Strategic Imperatives
A clear, prioritized action plan — from building your inflation response to locking in capital, investing in data infrastructure, and designing specifically for the 65+ member. What to do now.
With the growth we’re seeing overall, you will be able to catch some of those tailwinds. But the important part is to not forget about those higher costs. If you forget about protecting your margins, you can fall into this pitfall of profitless prosperity.
— Tara Bayke, ITR Economics (Part of Crowe LLP)The roles in fitness that aren’t done by AI will really focus in two areas: fostering the in-person experience, and providing human judgment at the end of the day — because no one will know your customers and the nuance of your environment better than a human being who sees people daily.
— Tony Small, CEO, ReplifyLead with vision as opposed to trying to lead with technology. If it is not your core competency, you’re basically never going to be able to keep up. Think about the problem that we need to solve, and then go to technologists who live and breathe this.
— Bryan Myers, President & CEO, [solidcore]Technology is a tool, but our foundation is built in creating a great member experience with in-person touch points — making the members feel that they have a true community and they’re not talking to a bot.
— Keeth Smart, SVP Club Operations, Chelsea Piers Fitness40 executives. 2½ days. One room.
The Club Solutions Leadership Summit is an invite-only annual gathering of the top health club operators in the world. The event fosters frank strategic dialogue among the executives running the industry’s most admired brands.
This report captures what they actually said — about where the economy is headed, how they’re deploying AI today, and what they’re planning for the decade ahead. It’s the closest thing to being in the room.
Brands Represented at the 2026 Summit
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