Virtual Summit – What to Expect in 2023

What’s better than connecting with smart, fun, thoughtful FitPros from around the world to move in joyful ways and talk about fitness, business, and life? Hint: pretty much nothing!

That’s why we host the annual BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit!

In just a few weeks – on May 20th-21st – we’ll be meeting in Toronto, Canada to learn, connect, move, and grow together as a community. Toronto is awesome, and the in-person experience is hard to beat. (You can sign up for that here.) But we know that travel isn’t accessible to everyone, so you also have the opportunity to attend the BPFA Summit virtually!

The Virtual Summit brings you all the same amazing presenters as the in-person experience tailored to an online environment. Whether the speaker is in person or tuning in virtually themselves, you have full access to their live presentation *and* the ability to ask questions and interact in real time! 

Breakout groups and interaction are a huge part of what makes Summit unique and successful, and we don’t want our virtual friends to miss out on that experience! While the in-person folks are doing small-group work in Canada, we’ll be doing small-group sessions together online. So you still have the opportunity to connect with other fitpros and draw immediate connections from each presentation to your own practice with the BPFA team as your guide.

Speaking of your guide, Virtual Summit is hosted by BPFA Board Member Katie Feeley. Katie has attended and presented at all the past Summits in person, but will be leading the remote team this year from her home base in Wilmington, DE USA. 

What can you expect from Virtual Summit?

  • We’ll be using Zoom to connect virtually to all the happenings in Toronto including all speakers and movement workshops.
  • Using chat and audio features, you can ask questions and interact with all the speakers whether they’re presenting in Toronto or virtually.
  • Small-group breakout sessions following every presentation. These are led online by Katie, and the presenter will also check in on each group for some real-time feedback.
  • Opportunities to connect to the presenters, the BPFA Board, and other Summit attendees throughout the weekend

What Virtual Summit is *not*:

  • A passive experience. Come prepared to learn and interact!
  • A bunch of talking heads. Every presenter is super passionate about what they do, and they want to help you – specifically you – get what you need and use it to help your little corner of the health & fitness world. We’ve assembled a diverse team of BoPo Superheroes here!
  • Just another CEC checkbox. Yes, you can get CECs from attending Summit, but we care more about giving you the tools to be successful in your body positive practice and the connections with other fitpros to keep you motivated and supported.

These are all the presentations you’ll experience during Summit Weekend. (Click here to view the detailed schedule and presenter bios.)

  • “5 Ways FitPros Can Utilize Intuitive Eating with Clients” – Leah Tsui, MS, RDN, LDN
  • “Creativity Moves You: Unlocking the Creativity that Movement Brings” – Dr. Kate Herald Brown
  • “Friendly Competition: Creating a Fitness Environment that is Both Competitive and Welcoming” – Dr. Laura Vineyard, Katie M. Feeley
  • “Kettlebell Fundamentals” – Damali Fraiser
  • “What Toxic Fitness Is and Isn’t” + Morning Movement Session – Vysh Sivakumaran, CPTN-PT
  • “Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex” – authors Justice Williams and Damali Fraiser
  • “Menopause Fitness: It’s Time to Change the ‘Game’” – Samantha Montpetit-Huynh, CPTN-PT, PFS, NWS, Pfilates
  • “Expansive Marketing Practices” – Kat Horzempa

BONUS! Every Summit registration includes 6 months of access to BPFA’s Online Inclusive FitPro community. Keep your new connections fresh in our interactive online space. We host all kinds of things online throughout the year including Live Learning sessions (monthly), Office Hours with the BPFA Board (monthly), live movement sessions, and more!

Need more Summit info?

Click here to view the full Summit schedule, along with presenter bios and more!

Click here to register for the Virtual Summit or the In-Person Experience.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions! We can be reached by email at bodypositivefitnessalliance@gmail.com. See you in Toronto and online!

Announcing the Final Summit 2023 Speakers!


Headshot of Kat Horzempa

Expansive Marketing Practices

with Kat Horzempa

What story is your company telling? Are you effectively communicating your company’s values? Do you practice the values you promote? In Expansive Marketing Practices, Kat Horzempa will explore ways to authentically communicate with the communities you serve through expansive marketing practices

Kat Horzempa (she/they) is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Operations of Body Positive Fitness a queer-led, fat-centered hybrid movement company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Kat is actively dedicated to building fat-liberated, anti-racist, gender-affirming expansive spaces for joyful movement. An administrative leader with a specialization in sales and marketing, Kat has spent over a decade in operations management in nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Their work has spanned the fitness, arts, education, manufacturing, and tertiary sectors.

Body Positive Fitness (@BodyPositiveFitness_) is a home for folks excluded from or unwelcome in mainstream fitness spaces—no matter your size, gender, disability or fitness level. Both online and in-person, Body Positive Fitness offers group classes, group training, personal training, running club, workshops and free community events, including a monthly book club hosted by Kat which highlights books from the body positive and fat liberation movements. In addition to being an ant-diet advocate, Kat is passionate about performing arts and has played many roles on and off stages in Canada and Spain.


Headshot of Vysh Sivakumaran

Movement Break & Discussion Around What Toxic Fitness Is & Isn’t

with Vysh Sivakumaran, CPTN-PT

Vysh (vai-sh) (she/her) is a certified strength coach, trauma informed yoga instructor, & a fitness industry leader in the Toronto community — working to create inclusive, body neutral, and accessible fitness, through 1:1, group, and corporate services within her online fitness community, Fitness in Place (FIP). With her powerlifting background and quick adaptation at the start of the pandemic, she was awarded Canfitpro’s Fitness Professional of the Year Award. She advocates passionately for representation in the industry for South Asian women, but more broadly, aims to be a voice for all people who may face barriers in the wellness. (Follow Vysh at @vy_she_lifts , @Fitness_In_Place, or on Linked in: https://issuu.com/canfitpro/docs/digital-jan-feb-22_layout/24)

Vysh is a member of the Advisory Panel and content contributor at CanFitPro. Check out her recent article: “Trauma Informed: Practices to Keep Fitness Spaces Barrier Free to Everyone”.


Announcing More Summit 2023 Topics!


Menopause Fitness. It’s time to change the “game”

with Samantha Montpetit-Huynh, CPTN-PT, PFS, NWS, Pfilates

Menopause has a LOT of stigma attached to it and many women feel like life is over. However, this is the perfect opportunity to start working WITH your body and stop fighting against it. Find out how menopause changes the playing field and how, as a professional, you must change the game.

Samantha (she/her) is the founder of SamCoreTrainer where she coaches women 40+ with the most comprehensive online health management program for women during menopause and midlife.
Samantha is a serial entrepreneur, media expert, speaker, teacher, mentor, course creator and author. You can catch her fitness segments on The Marilyn Denis Show and most recently on CBC’s Then National.

Samantha has been a recognized expert in her field for 2 decades and was awarded The Abundance 2019 Personal Trainer of the Year and CanfitPro’s 2021, Specialty Presenter of the Year.


A picture of Kate Hearald Browne in front of a chalkboard

Creativity Moves You: Unlocking the creativity that Movement Brings

with Dr. Kate Herald Browne

Kate (she/her) explores the connection between physical movement and creativity as a full health practice in this workshop. We’ll play with ways to bring intentional moments of creativity to your movement space. No prior experience with arts and crafts required! Kate is a writer and educator who specializes in connecting personal storytelling to wellness practices and she’s excited to share new ideas with the BPFA community. She is a member of the BPFA Board.


Cute handcrafted medals from the BPFA 0.5K

The 2nd Annual BPFA 0.5K!

Walk, run, dance, or cheer folks on, this 0.5K is a celebration of joyful movement and embracing that all movement is valid, even when it’s bite-sized.


More Speakers to Be Announced Next Week! Stay Tuned… 😀

Trainer Tip – Revisit your space periodically. Is it safe for all bodies?

Trainer Tip – Revisit your space periodically. Is it safe for all bodies?

#TrainerTip – Revisit your space periodically with fresh eyes. Is it physically safe for all bodies? Are there any places where people might trip or get caught on a piece of equipment? Is it tidy with the equipment all put away regularly? Is there enough space between racks so folks in larger bodies can pass through with ease? Do you have any heavy equipment is a tight spot that might encourage clients to pick it up with poor form? And so on…

When clients come into our spaces, they are spending a lot of their mental awareness on getting used to a new place and they don’t have much left to notice a tripping hazard etc. It’s our job as trainers and gym owners to make it hard for them to get hurt just walking around. It’s also our responsibility to set up clear expectations for how to use the equipment and navigate the space safely from their first day.

What actions have you taken or protocols have you put in place to make your space safer for all bodies? Need suggestions? Ask your clients if they have ideas or send us a message. We’re happy to help brainstorm! info@bodypositivefitness.org

Friday is the LAST DAY to SAVE $50 with the EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT when you register for the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit! We’re bringing together fitness professionals of any movement discipline who are transforming the health and fitness industry into a space that is welcoming and inclusive for all bodies. At Summit you can expect business skills workshops led by industry trailblazers, inclusively minded fitness demos, and social time to network. May 19-21st in Toronto, Ontario and online.

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#EightPillars #FitnessProfessionals #FitProEducation #nasm #cpt #nasmcpt #inclusivefitnesspractices #InclusiveFitness #inclusive #BodyPositive #WeightNeutral #FatPositive #BodyEquity #education #TrainerTips #Accessibility #BPFAeightpillars #BPFA #BodyPositiveFitnessAlliance

Sneak Peek: Summit Presentations

Sneak Peek: Summit Presentations

What to Expect at the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit 2023:

Business skills workshops led by industry trailblazers, body-positive fitness demos, and social time to network. Everything we do has hands-on components and action items so you are empowered to make concrete change right away!

Presentation and Movement Topics

  • “5 Ways FitPros Can Utilize Intuitive Eating with Clients” with Leah Tsui , MS, RDN, LDN
  • “Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex” With Authors Justice Williams and Damali Fraiser
  • “Friendly Competition: Creating a Fitness Enviroment that is Both Competitive and Welcoming” with Katie Feeley and Laura Vineyard
  • “Kettlebell Technique” with Damali Fraiser
  • And MORE!

Interested in Sponsoring Summit?

We’d love to work with you to create a mutually beneficial partnership. In exchange, we are providing various levels of exposure and access to a large and committed audience in the inclusive fitness community. Check out our 2023 Sponsorship Packet.


You Can Sponsor the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit!

The traditional fitness industry is saturated with businesses fighting over the same small percentage of people who fit the mold of what fitness “should look like”. As more and more participants and pros realize that fitness can and should be accessible to all people, we’re finding a dramatic increase in the potential market. Clients who see themselves thoughtfully considered become loyal customers. By sponsoring the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit, your brand will be in front of an amazing group of FitPros in the US and Canada that are already connected to this burgeoning market of loyal shoppers/clients.

We’d love to work with you to create a mutually beneficial partnership. In exchange, we are providing various levels of exposure and access to a large and committed audience in the inclusive fitness community. Additionally, BPFA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so financial contributions from US entities are tax deductible. Please see the attached sponsorship package for details.

We rely on sponsorships like yours to make this event possible. To lock in your sponsorship package, just send an email to info@bodypositivefitness.org