Jet lagged!

4-10-07 Whew! The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of traveling, speaking, and networking. In between, we did a booth at the local Redlands Classic, one of the largets multi-day bicycle races in the country. Check it out!

This first set of pictures were taken in Baltimore, where I spoke at the AAHPERD annual conference (for PE teachers). It was neat to present exergaming to over 120 attendees in my session and meet some of them afterwards who are very interested in pursuing exergaming more. In the Expo, many of our equipment vendors were there, so it was night to meet them in person after all this time of e-mailing.

Ladd is the CEO of Cobalt Flux, the company that makes are DDR pads. They make the best commercial grade pads on the planet! He's a really nice guy, and very tall, too! Here he is standing next to their newest school-version DDR station.

Here are some new skateboard controllers in the iTech booth.

Marion is the CEO of Makoto, a piece of equipment you see in our blog often. She shared some interesting news about games and research being done on the Makoto.

This is a version of the Gamebike that is going in the McDonald's new push to have exergames in their fast food chain. Trying to make it more arcade-like.

I met other vendors like Sportwall, but you'll see some pictures of them in the next set.

After Baltimore, I then went up to San Francisco for the IHRSA expo. I met some of the same vendors there, and other new ones.

3Kick's Mark's son demonstrates their newest product, Heavy Ball. It was quite a workout!

Conant is Brewer's Ledge CEO and founder. They are the makers of our bouldering wall.

There were some new exergames, like this interactive floor, that looks very promising, though the pricetag is pretty steep.

Jerry is a VP at Walk4Life, one of the major pedometer companies around. We've been e-mailing for years (he's helped me get pedometers for Beaver Medical Group) so this was the first time I got to meet him in person.

Lifeguard makes the best Omega 3 supplements on the market. Dr. Michael Gross (facing right) is the founder and medical director, and Michele Bell (behind) works with them. They both came down to the XRtZ last week to do a seminar on the importance of Omega 3, and we now carry their product line in our retail section.

Joe is our Polar rep for our area. He's been a big help in getting us supplied with our heart rate monitors for our Zone Rewards Program. Nice to meet him in person finally!

Cindy (on the left) is our sales rep and Cathi (right) is the CEO of Sportwall. They have been very supportive and helpful in steering interested folks and media are way. Since they are only a few hours away, we've been working together to set up exergaming zones for various events, especially when we aren't able to do it ourselves.

This is the man that got me started on this whole exertainment/exergaming journey--Barry French, the inventor of the Trazer. It was his product I saw way back in 1998 at the fitness center in the Celebration Center's medical facility. Of all the vendors, I've known him the longest and he's been familiar with my journey this has taken me. It's been great to see his company get picked up by Cybex, which shot them to the next level.

Andy Grove is the CEO of Cybex/Trazer, and we've been e-mailing for some time now as well. Very energetic guy!

Check out how small the 2nd generation Trazer is! Just hook it up to a TV and you're read to go!

In between my Baltimore and SF trip, we had a both at the Redlands Classic. Here are our 3 volunteers who helped us on Saturday with our health and wellness display: Monica (a RD with the county public health dept), and XRtZ members Norb and his son, Greg. A big thanks to them for their help!

Corey speaks with someone before doing her body fat analysis.

Monica asks how many teaspoons of sugar are in a 20oz bottle of soda.

Do you know the answer?

Jake now teaches others what he's learned.

Monica gives out nutrition advice to those passing by.

Check out logo as the racers go by!

During this time, Xavix's Peter Newman and his sale's manager Mike and director of operations Ed stopped by the Zone to show us their newest cartridge that will be coming out soon. Xavix has been a big supporter with our research and school projects.

Finally, my dad came from MI for some rehab and got to try out the Wii. Here he is playing golf.

Summer and my dad practice bowling. They were getting spares and strikes!

Stay tuned for more trips and events to come! Off to Atlanta next week and New Orleans in May where a student will be presenting our first research on the Xavix.