IQ Lifestyle is building a qualified, community-based model of female fitness professionals to serve the UAE's growing demand for female-led coaching in gyms, studios, and corporate wellness.

Women in the UAE are moving. Female gym membership is rising, corporate wellness is expanding, and female participation in fitness activities has grown by approximately 38% since 2022. Yet the professionals best placed to serve this audience — qualified female fitness coaches — remain in critically short supply.

Amy Lance has joined Kerry as Private Label Director for the UK & Ireland, bringing extensive experience across retail, private label, sourcing, and category leadership.
Her appointment comes at a time of significant transformation across the retail landscape. Retailers are navigating a complex set of challenges, from HFSS legislation and reformulation demands to cost inflation, sustainability commitments, and growing competition from discounters. At the same time, consumer behaviours are evolving rapidly, driven by increased health awareness and emerging influences such as GLP-1 medications, which are reshaping purchasing patterns, portion expectations, and nutritional needs.

Fit & Flustered, a new podcast hosted by fitness industry professionals Jessica H. Maurer and Dr. Erin Nitschke, is bringing an honest and relatable voice to the realities of midlife. Designed for fitness professionals and health-minded listeners navigating personal and professional transitions, the podcast explores the challenges, opportunities, and unexpected twists that often accompany this stage of life.

Nest Health Connections, a national corporate wellness provider, today announced a new partnership with NutriStyle, an AI-powered personalized nutrition platform validated by more than 250 registered dietitians. Beginning in June 2026, the partnership will bring personalized meal planning, grocery integration, food logging, and nutrition support to employees participating in Nest workplace wellbeing programs across the United States. The goal is to make healthy eating simpler, more personalized, and more accessible for employees seeking practical ways to improve their health and wellbeing.

Two female founders from the fitness and leisure industry have launched eeda™, an AI-powered employee engagement platform designed to make the annual survey obsolete. Elly Colvin and Cat McDermott founded the Manchester-based business in 2024 after spending over a decade each in commercial and people leadership roles, frustrated by a tool that had not meaningfully changed since the 1990s. eeda™ is now live, generating revenue, and serving clients across the UK including KA Leisure, TC Group, and Pendle Leisure.

Entrepreneur, neuroscience coach and author Tanja Guigon-Rech has launched "Brain at Work", a new programme designed to help managers and teams better understand the biological mechanisms that influence motivation, focus, energy and performance in modern workplaces.

Jessica H. Maurer, wellness business consultant, happiness strategist, and keynote speaker, has been named the 2026 IDEA Fitness Leader of the Year. The award, presented by the IDEA Health & Fitness Association, honors an individual whose outstanding contributions to the fitness industry serve staff, fitness professionals, students, clients, and their community in inspiring ways, and whose leadership and business skills improve the industry's overall success. Maurer joins a distinguished group of leaders who have helped shape the direction of health, fitness, and wellness globally.
Maurer's career in the fitness and wellness industry spans more than two decades, beginning on the group fitness floor and growing into an internationally recognized platform for keynote speaking, consulting, and education. She has presented at the industry's most prestigious events, including IDEA World, FitnessFest, ACSM Health & Fitness Summit, AsiaFit, and canfitpro, and has partnered with leading brands including FIT4MOM, BOSU, Lebert Fitness, and more. Her writing has appeared in the IDEA Fitness Journal, canfitpro Magazine,

This August, Fuel Summit is opening the doors to one of its most intimate and high-impact
leadership experiences to date — an exclusive Firestarter intensive with internationally
recognised CEO, author, keynote speaker, and culture strategist Elaine Jobson.
Held at 12-Micron in Sydney on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, High Performance Through
Happy People is not a keynote. It is not a panel. And it is not designed for the masses.
It is a rare opportunity for just 30 leaders to gain direct access to the leadership frameworks,
culture strategies, and performance philosophies that have made Elaine Jobson one of the
most respected executives in the global wellness and fitness industry.

VIV, a hormonal intelligence platform for women aged 25–45, has opened its closed beta on iOS and Android. Founded in Berlin by Estefanía Andrade and technical co-founder Atziri Perez, VIV translates menstrual cycle science into daily, personalized recommendations across training, nutrition, and recovery designed for women who want to live and move sustainably, for the long run. The platform is backed by the EXIST-Women programme at Blue Factory Berlin (ESCP Business School), one of Germany's leading public funding initiatives for female founders in technology.

COTIGNAC, FRANCE — On June 5th, leadership coach and facilitator Martina Catherine and chef and cookbook author Frankie Unsworth will host the first edition of The Community Table, an intimate gathering designed to nourish women through food, conversation, community, and presence.

Applied Nutrition Coaching and Counseling: Theory to Practice, by Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon, brings nearly 30 years of coaching expertise to a long-standing gap in how future practitioners are prepared for the messy reality of human interaction.

Jiwar Movement, a Dubai-based fitness consulting and community movement company, officially launches today, founded by GCC fitness operator and strategic advisor Aysha Asfour. The company operates across two distinct pillars: strategic advisory for fitness and wellness brands across the region, and community-driven movement experiences for residential communities in the UAE. Jiwar enters the market with active engagements across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, and Iraq, and openness to projects in additional countries.

The Collective has launched a new cross-industry news platform giving founders, researchers, executives, organisations, and innovators a dedicated place to share news with a global community of senior leaders working across health, wellness, longevity, lifestyle medicine, physical activity, sport, and preventative health.