IDEA World Fitness & Nutrition Expo 2018 Recap
The IDEA World Fitness & Nutrition Expo is arguably one of the biggest health and fitness expos of the year. It’s filled with inspiring keynote speakers and virtually any type of workout session you could imagine. It’s also a place where fitness instructors get certification credits, and there’s an expo floor that is open to the public.
The last time I attended IDEA World was in 2016 when it was in Los Angeles. I attended it as a participant of BlogFest, a separate conference for health and fitness bloggers that happens alongside IDEA World. This year the event was in San Diego and my friend Heather and I decided to go check it out. Heather works in PR for many sports and entertainment brands and we like to go to events like these when we can to spot upcoming trends and see what’s new.
We took the train to San Diego, which in itself was a great experience. I have taken the train at least half a dozen times this year for various business trips and I love it. The Amtrak Surfliner goes up and down the coast and has beautiful views of our coastline. There’s also free wifi and you never have to worry about sitting in traffic. Love.
The train was great because both Heather and I were able to catch up while getting some work done. Then we arrived at Santa Fe Depot in San Diego. From there we walked to the San Diego Convention Center. The streets of downtown SD were lined with Bird and Lime scooters. This is such a popular trend right now. If you haven’t seen these yet, they are scooters for rent. You use an app to unlock them, ride around town, and drop off wherever you’re done. It’s a pretty neat concept for big cities.
We got to the Expo and started with the food section. There were a lot of different sparkling water brands. They had everything from La Croix to sparkling water energy drinks and sparkling water with whey protein. I love sparkling water but have to admit I like sticking to La Croix.
Here were some highlights from the health food section of the IDEA World Health and Fitness Expo:
- Quevos: This is an egg white protein chip that is coming to the market soon. It’s low in carbs, gluten-free, and keto friendly. The taste was impressive but I was more impressed by the brand’s young founder. He is in college! I really enjoyed hearing his story about how he loved the crispiness of the edge of an omelette and decided to make it into a chip. Really looking forward to keeping an eye on this brand.
- Redd Bar: They have a new Salted Caramel energy and protein bar that’s made up of 11 super foods. Wow, it’s really good too.
- Daiya: I really enjoy Daiya’s dairy-free cheese products. They do a great job and were serving up their dairy-free cheddar cheese with gluten-free tortillas.
- Vital Proteins: Collagen is so hot right now, and I love Vital Proteins’ Collagen Peptides. I tried their Collagen Creamer for the first time earlier this year at ShiftCon. They were selling their products for 30% off on the show floor so of course I had to stock up.
Of course walking around trying new foods is always a good time. The other highlight of IDEA World is discovering new fitness brands. Here are some highlights:
- At Home Sauna: This is a portable sauna you can store at your house. I went in it for several minutes and it was so relaxing. I could see how this could be very appealing for athletes.
- Escape Fitness: They are manufacturers of gym and exercise equipment and based out of the UK. Their equipment is all colorful and well made. I liked their box jumps and tires. They also have a cool podcast you can listen to here.
- Indo Board: I’ve been a fan of Indo Board since I was in high school and it’s awesome to see them at IDEA World demoing their original board and yoga board.
Our time at IDEA World was short but sweet and packed with a lot of good times. Next year I hope to go back and take some more classes. They are fun!
What about you? Have you ever been to a health and fitness expo? What do you enjoy about them? Post in the comments and let me know.
Bummed I missed you! Those egg chips sound amazing!
I am bummed I missed you too. We must catch up at another event soon!
It sounds like a great event. I was going to go to that and Blogfest 2 years ago, but then work interfered and I gave up on trying to go after that. I’ve been to Expo East when it was much smaller many years ago.
I’ve never been to this type of expo. I’m sure it was great! I work in health care and have gone to tons of national conferences over the past 35 years. It’s such a great way to see what’s new on the horizon in the industry that is being showcased. I think traveling by train is the way to go! And the fact that you get free Wi-Fi and can catch up on work is a bonus. I hate wasting time sitting in traffic.
This looks like such a great time! Serious FOMO from all the fun pics I saw on Insta and blog recaps. Maybe next year….
I’m actually considering Amtrak’ing to Chicago next weekend….glad to hear you had a great experience (even though you were on a coast LOL)!
Looks like a great event! I so want to do one of these conferences one year – I always run into scheduling conflicts.
I really hope to make it out to one of these expos one of these years. They look like a blast!
Nope. Never attended an expo like that. Sounds like an awesome experience.
I’d live to attend Bloggest too. But work keeps me pretty busy.
I would really like to attend this someday! I just recently went to my nurse practitioner conference and I really enjoyed all the speakers and hearing about all the new products at the expo. It really charged me up for my job and I think this would do the same for blogging and fitness!
I would love to go to something like this! I really enjoy expos anyway (as in big race expos) and to have blogfest running alongside that would be great. I attended Fitbloggin’ twice and really loved it. I need to know about these things far in advance though (and I don’t plan that well) because it’s a long fllght and trip for me. I usually go home feeling great and frustrated at the same time since most of the products are not available where I live! haha! that’s life, right? 😀
I would love to attend IDEA or one of the other health focused expos in the future. I really hope that at some point they’ll be hosted on the East Coast, or at least closer to home here in Virginia. It would make the travel logistics so much easier.