From mindfulness and meditation to movement and meals, events and activations are doing more than ever to keep attendees active, engaged, and healthy. Below are four ways that the meetings and events industry is embracing the hottest emerging health and wellness trends.
Morning Movement
Morning Yoga at the annual World Domination Summit in Portland, OR
Event organizers have come to realize the importance of kickstarting your attendee’s day well before the morning session begins.
By offering facilitated workouts in the waking hours of the day, you can ensure that by the time someone walks into the general session, their coffee-clutching grogginess is long gone and instead, they have already broken a sweat, met some new people, got the brain synapses firing in early morning conversations, and will be riding adrenaline-induced endorphins straight to their seat.
IMEX America has begun the annual IMEXrun which is a morning 5k straight through the Las Vegas strip, and more than 450 conference attendees chose to participate.
More than 300 men showed up at 6 AM for an hour-long grueling PT session at the Warrior Wealth Leadership and Business Summit in Huntington Beach, CA last week (myself included). The conference didn’t start until 9 AM, but a high-intensity circuit of burpees, squats, bear crawls, and partner wheel barreling set a perfect tone for the rest of the day.
And at Propel’s CO:LABS Fitness Festival, the electrolyte water company facilitated two-day workout classes coast to coast as part of a campaign combining fitness, music, brand activations, and hydration.
It’s time to find a way to weave fitness into your event experience.
Fit and Focused Meal Offerings
Wolfgang Puck Caterings’ spa-water hydration station
Soon gone are the days of your standard cookies and coffee station.
Well, maybe cookies and coffee will stick around for a while, but you will also be seeing more fresh fruits, veggie platters, smoothie bars, brain-boosting nuts and seeds, and farm fresh organic health foods making their way into events.
Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free meal options are basically required these days, and hydration stations are as important as the bar. Speaking of the bar, have you ever tried a collagen martini? Maybe, if you were at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Wellness Summit.
The reason for more veggies and less cake? It’s not just because consumers are getting more health-conscious on the whole. Think about how you feel when you’ve eaten too much fried food or too many sweets. Not so great right?
Providing healthier food options to your event attendees will keep their energy levels from crashing mid-way through the day, as well as keep their confidence levels and willingness to engage in brand activations or brain dates, high.
Mindfulness Is Having A Moment
Guided morning meditation at A-Fest Mykonos, Greece
As more and more people turn away from technology, meditation and mindfulness practices are picking up steam.
Take the invite-only A-Fest for example. A-Fest brings together entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, coaches, and more in 5-star paradise locations twice a year to explore personal and professional transformation topics. In addition to the speaker sessions, break out workshops, and crazy parties, A-fest places huge emphasis on introspective reflection and offers time and space each morning for attendees to indulge.
People are craving time away from their smartphone, away from their laptop, from their social media and emails. But most people won’t give themselves that break. Creating space in your event itinerary for attendees to relax, reflect, and intentionally embrace tech-less time will result in greater connection both with fellow attendees and your event.
Don’t Forget To Rest
Better food choices, more facilitated fitness options, and offering moments of mindfulness will 100% have your conference-goers feeling more energized and enthusiastic about your event. But remember not to pack the schedule too much. People need to sleep.
Greggs coffee sleep pods
London-based coffee company, Greggs, recently promoted its new flat white drink with several coffee shaped sleeping pods. The campaign tested the theory that a power nap after consuming caffeine would actually boost your energy levels. Whether that’s true or not, it’s nice to see even a coffee company promoting restfulness.
Sleep optimization has becomes a number one priority for top producers and successful influencers. If you’re attendees aren’t rested, they’ll never be ready.