AROUND THE WORLD WITH HFA

The 27th Fitness Brasil Expo to Rock São Paulo This Month

The HFA-partner event is expected to break attendance records once again.

After a record-breaking event last year, the 2026 Fitness Brasil Expo on August 27-29 is expected to once again set a new benchmark as the biggest fitness event in Latin America. Co-hosted by the Health & Fitness Association, the 2026 Fitness Brasil Expo will return to the Transamérica Expo Center in São Paulo in an expanded space of 38,000 square meters (409,028 square feet), filling all seven halls of the venue for the first time.

They’ll need every inch. Organizers expect more than 45,000 attendees, 160 exhibitors, and 120 speakers. Sessions and roundtables are divided into seven conference tracks that will cover topics ranging from exercise science and biomechanics to leadership, sales, marketing, legal issues, and facility management.

The show's expansion mirrors Brazil’s growing influence in global fitness. Brazilian operators are increasingly shaping conversations around group exercise, recovery, boutique concepts, digital engagement, and community-building—making the expo a useful barometer for innovations likely to spread throughout Latin America and beyond.

“The expansion reflects the power of our market and the relevance Fitness Brasil Expo has earned over the decades,” says Gustavo Almeida, executive director of Fitness Brasil.

Over the years, Fitness Brasil has evolved from a national convention into a regional business marketplace. While the expanded event offers a comprehensive education schedule, organizers are more interested in developing free-flowing discussions and networking opportunities than one-way conversations.

“Considering the increase in exhibition space and the annual growth of Fitness Brasil, we understood that this event should feature fewer stages and lectures, and more conversations, relationship building, and networking among the players in this market,” Almeida says.

Almeida

Interim HFA CEO and President Greta Wagner will help open the conference with Almeida and his team. She’ll be accompanied by Maria Gonzalez, CEO of Club Fitness Greensboro and an HFA board member, who will lead a presentation at the conference.

As she did in recent events in Asia, Wagner will bring a message emphasizing unity and purpose for a global industry gaining influence as vital participants in healthcare infrastructure around the world. (See video above for a preview.)

Not ALL Business

Fabio Saba, educational director of Fitness Brasil, says that the schedule is developed to “enable a rich environment for exchange, a space of excellence for training and knowledge-building. We bring together specialists and leaders to debate the market's challenges and paths, fostering an even stronger community.”

Fitness Brasil also emphasizes practical case studies from successful operators throughout Latin America, giving attendees an opportunity to learn from businesses operating in markets where attendees face many of the same challenges.

While Fitness Brasil Expo has become an indispensable event for industry leaders in the region, it’s no buttoned-up business conference. This is Brazil, after all. The event always delivers plenty of high-energy action, particularly in the exhibition hall, where the joy of movement is celebrated by attendees who can’t resist joining in on the group exercise demonstrations that prove why Brazil is one of the world’s top innovators in fitness programming.

We’ll have a full report on the event in the October HFB.

Learn More

Gonzalez and Almeida at last year's event.

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Health & Fitness Business (HFB) is the leading health and fitness industry publication. Published monthly by the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) and distributed free to the industry, HFB offers analysis of the opportunities, challenges, issues, and news that impact the industry.

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