Professionals visiting Montreal for a meeting, conference and/or trade show often have limited free time, and may be looking for a way to stay physically active while travelling. Founded by Jonas Caruana and David Sciacca, Training Mobs is a social fitness community that helps people find and share group workouts that are happening nearby. Tourisme Montreal met with the Training Mobs founders to learn more about what the team can offer event planners organizing meetings in Montreal.
What is a mob? And what is the purpose of Training Mobs?
A mob is a group of people getting together to workout. There can be all kinds of different mobs: running mobs, yoga mobs, zumba mobs, parkour mobs, etc. We have heard a lot about flash mobs in recent years; the term is familiar to most people. Training Mobs is a different concept in Montreal and we came up with this idea because we wanted to change people’s perception about fitness as something boring and necessary to something exciting that people want to do. How? By giving people less excuses to skip a workout, and more reasons to go to one.
Montreal is an international hub for meetings and conferences. What are the types of services Training Mobs can offer to a group of professionals in town for a meeting?
Training Mobs is pleased to coordinate activities with local fitness professionals to arrange training sessions at attendees’ respective hotels or at a mutually convenient location. Sessions could be offered at times that do not interfere with the meeting(s).
Most recently, while in Austin, Texas, for the 2011 South by South West ("SXSW") conference, Training Mobs coordinated a number of group runs, yoga sessions, stretch sessions and boot camps for people attending the conference. Offered in strategic locations in and around the conference center, it was easy for attendees to participate, shower up, and make their way over to the conference without any hassle. Conference attendees were excited as they didn't have to "hunt" for the elusive great workout.
Whether choosing from a wide variety of group workouts happening nearby, or working directly with meeting planners to arrange an exclusive session, Training Mobs can offer value-added fitness services to satisfy the needs of future meeting goers – making their stay in Montreal a little more active. Nothing brings people together more than sweating.
The Training Mobs clientele varies greatly. There are community members from ages 18 to 72 and everything from Olympic athletes (literally) to people lacing up their running shoes for the first time. People would want to join Training Mobs during their stay to make the most of a visit to Montreal, while remaining physically active.
Given that Montreal has four distinct seasons, what are the different types of activities Training Mobs can offer depending on the weather?
The Training Mobs mission remains the same regardless of the season. We make sure to have a wide variety of workouts available, both indoors and outdoors, either at gyms and studios or by having a fitness instructor lead a run or a yoga practice directly from the hotel or conference center. We want to make it easy for mobsters to get to their next awesome workout.
To learn more about Training Mobs, visit trainingmobs.com
Information provided by Colin Danby of Cohn & Wolfe.
