The Business of Yoga!

Always More to Learn and Room to Grow

Yoga Hikes was honored to be part of the 2013 Yoga Alliance Business of Yoga Conference held at the Capital Hilton August 8-10th.  The conference covered a broad range of  business considerations for those involved in the yoga industry.  It was incredibly well organized, highly informative, and had an extremely impressive roster of presenters from Tom Gardner of The Motley Fool to Julia Kadarusman of Wanderlust Festival.  Most importantly it was inspiring!

For more on the conference, check out the Twitter hashtag #yogabiz.

As a yoga teacher and small business owner there is always more to learn and room for growth.  A conference like this gives you new ideas from how to organize workshops, practical guidance on important legal and insurance considerations, as well as strategies for turning your dreams into reality.  As the owner of Yoga Hikes LLC, I was pleased to be a member of the host committee, moderate a roundtable session on teaching yoga outdoors, and lead a sold out Urban Yoga Hike as the conferences final activity!

Yoga Alliance Urban Yoga Hike

One of the highlights of the conference was definitely taking the women below out on their first Urban Yoga Hike.  Yoga Hike participants ranged from studio owners to newly certified instructors who had come to the conference from as close by as Maryland and as far away as Canada!

To see photos of the Yoga Alliance Urban Yoga Hike visit our Facebook page!

We started our hike out at the Capital Hilton and continued up to our first YogaStop at the statue of Samuel Hahnneman, not known for splits, but for being the founder of homeopathic medicine!  We proceeded north to our next YogaStop at the Freemason’s Temple on 16th Street where we got into a great flow between the sphinxes, Wisdom and Power.  Finally, we hiked up to Meridian Hill Park where we conquered a major hill of steps to be treated by a great view of the city.  We completed our last YogaStop at the bottom of the Meridian Hill fountain with a family of ducks as our audience, before heading back to the hotel. As far as awesome energy goes, it doesn’t get much better than this group!  Special thanks to all of them for making that hike so much fun!

New Relationship with Ahnu Footwear

The conference was also a great place to meet vendors who specialize in products for Yogis.  In particular, I was thrilled to connect with Amy Tindal of Ahnu Footwear – a company that makes both hiking AND yoga footwear – what a match for Yoga Hikes!   I’m happy to be a new Ahnu Yoga Ambassador, which is a great program for instructors to sign up for.  I’m also extremely grateful to have Ahnu Footwear for supplying me with a pair of their new Women’s Sugarpine Hiking Shoe!