2012 Global Spa & Wellness Summit, Aspen: Innovation & Imagination
The Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) recently held in Aspen, Colorado attracted a record 325 delegates from 40 nations. Held for the first time in collaboration with another organization, the international think-tank, the Aspen Institute, delegates at the sixth-annual conference gathered to explore and debate the
most innovative, imaginative ways
forward for the worldwide spa and wellness industry.
The eclectic, presentations
idea-packed and
agenda panels was of 50 purposely
designed to shake the industry up. Delegates heard from a former President, an Academy award-nominated actress, the former U.S. Surgeon General, a top Google exec, the Governor of Colorado and Disney Imagineering’s
former chair. They learned
about “big picture” economic and geopolitical trends set to transform the world. They identified emerging industry opportunities like coaching, corporate wellness and mental wellness, while receiving crash courses in the latest brain, willpower, “happiness” and telomere science that suggest entirely new industry directions. And they learned from “innovation teachers” like famed expert, John Kao, whose dynamic presentation using jazz piano taught delegates how to reimagine - and unlock - the creative process.
Although the conference is designed as an intimate, invite-only event, the Summit’s mission
is to support the growth of all
75,000 spas worldwide. So, the GSWS also announced today that Powerpoints, session notes, video and numerous research reports are now available to
all at: http://www.
globalspaandwellnesssummit.org/index.php/ summit-2012/presentations-2012
“So much talent, from so many different perspectives, industries and cultures, was assembled in Aspen, challenging us to think in profoundly new ways. A true idea-fest, it provided some much-needed inspiration and conceptual grist to start imagining what ‘Spa 2.0’ might actually look like,” said Philippe Bourguignon, co-chair
of the 2012 GSWS
agenda. “Experts and entrepreneurs from outside our
sector were stunned by our Cocktail Ev ng, St. R s eni egi R
industry’s size, complexity and opportunities ahead – while at the same time pointing out how limiting the word/concept ‘spa’ may now be, given the vastly expanded health and wellness opportunities before us.”
Industry Opportunities Identified: Dozens of innovative spa/wellness industry opportunities were presented, and hot-button ones included:
Spas as “Telomere Health Centers”: Telomeres are the caps of our chromosomes, and medical studies increasingly reveal that their health/length is a crucial window into a person’s actual “cellular age,” and is a predictor of diseases like cancer and heart disease. Studies also show that stress reduction, a healthy diet, exercise and mindfulness
practices
can lengthen telomeres –
exactly what launching year, spas
provide. With telomere testing
next to
the general population in the
the
tracking of the impact of various spa/wellness therapies on telomere health could become a reality.
Mental
Happiness, Performance Creativity:
Wellness & Brain &
From
doctors on Institute’s
esour ce tabl es top
Aspen Health
Beak r out S essi ons Dr
17th Sur Vi
. Richar ce Chai
geon Gener , U . rman, Canon R
d Carmona, y
al .S
anch
J F
ormer Pr dent of Costa Ri Carbon W oomar R
ose M a Fi esi
ari
guer
es-Oson l
ca,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42