For the Health of It: Wellness Programs at Meetings Are in Demand

One healthcare-conference organizer recently discovered the range of wellness activities that can take place on site—and her attendees are already clamoring for more.

Yes, almost everybody has stress in their work. But not many have a life-and-death type of job pressure.

Attendees of the Healthcare Advocate Summit are among that high-stress group, according to Melissa Paige, co-CEO of the four-year-old summit held each September.

After all, “healthcare advocates are there to make sure that patients get access to the treatments that they need and can afford their medications,” she notes. “And if they don’t take care of themselves, they won’t be able to take care of patients who really need them.”

Because of that, Paige was intrigued by an invitation she received from Caesars Entertainment to come to Las Vegas in June 2024 for the company’s inaugural Global Wellness Summit. The event was aimed at meeting organizers and events-industry media and showcased the broad menu of wellness offerings Caesars has developed for its meeting clients.

The experience made such an impression on Paige that she changed the agenda of her summit, which was set for Caesars
Palace, to incorporate some of the elements she experienced. And even though those changes took place less than 90 days out from her 1,000-person event, attendees signed up in droves once they saw the offerings on the revised event app. “I was expecting maybe 30 people to sign up for each option, but we got nearly 100 for each,” she says.

A Few Examples

Coming into the Caesars event, “I knew only a bit about wellness activities you can use; at previous conferences we had incorporated breathing techniques you can do right in your chair,” says Paige. “But there is a lot more that you can do on site, and I had no idea things could be implemented so easily.”

Paige incorporated a few elements she saw at the wellness summit, including using the large outdoor pool at Caesars for a sound bath—which doesn’t involve attendees getting wet.

“People can lay in the pool on air mattresses or on the pool deck with mats, and there are speakers on different sides of the deck that create surround sound while they focus on their breathing,” she says. “It was so peaceful outside, but that can also be done in a breakout room.”

Further, Paige created three different yoga and breathwork sessions each day in breakout rooms. But what pulled the whole wellness campaign together was a final-day roundtable session where “people got to talk about how they could implement these activities into their everyday lives.”

What’s Next

For the 2025 Healthcare Advocate Summit, “our wellness planning is more complex because we need to meet our attendees where they are,” says Paige. First, “we’ll give them a yoga mat at registration so that they can participate from their guest rooms, watching the live session on television.”

Next, “you can't schedule wellness completely because you don't know when people need a break,” Paige notes. So, in addition to the offerings in the wellness track, “we’re setting up an all-day suite where people can pop in and pop out whenever they want” to have a relaxing, refreshing experience as needed.

Lastly, “one thing the Caesars summit demonstrated was the food options related to wellness. I have never eaten so well at a meeting, and I didn't feel sluggish an hour later. So, we’re going to change our event’s offerings. There's no reason to simply go with the standard buffet, and the cost will be about the same” for food choices that are flavorful and nutritious, and which maintain attendees’ mental acuity.

Cost-Control Strategies

For events taking place at hotels or venues that do not yet have a menu of wellness activities on offer, “you’ll need to work with the convention bureau and a DMC to find wellness vendors,” Paige says. But while that sounds costly, “this is where sponsors can come in and get great exposure. Everything can be branded, from sweat bands to yoga mats to the rooms themselves.”

Paige and her co-CEO Elizabeth Johnson are launching other healthcare-advocate shows in various therapeutic areas in 2025. For the startups, sponsorships will be needed to make wellness a significant part of each agenda. However, Paige’s message to potential sponsors is this: “Everybody who participated in a wellness component at our 2024 event said they wanted to do more next year. There is so much opportunity here.”

Source: Meetingsnet.com