The upcoming Wellness Summit 2009 will be held over three days in October and is expected to see wide participation with the attendance of professionals from the spa, holistic, health medical, lifestyle and medical (anti-ageing) industries, as well as government and leading health investment fraternities.
The theme for Wellness Summit 2009 “Creating Blue Oceans: Finding Synergies, Staying Relevant” seeks to encourage industry players to look for innovative values and breach new boundaries to create new areas of growth and explore various ways for the industry to stay viable during hard times. There is also an urgent need to address many issues in the light of current economic conditions. Creating Blue Oceans is about creating new market spaces through giving consumers unique offerings.
Often seen as a luxury sector, the wellness and spa industry faces daunting challenges, especially during an economic downturn. The summit will address whether the industry can stay relevant by making its offerings necessities rather than indulgences, and attempt to dispel the myth that spa is a luxury sector when its offerings seem to say otherwise.
The Blue Ocean Strategy is widely adopted as a methodology to sail businesses into new markets with less competition and greater profitability. In keeping with the Blue Oceans phenomenon, Wellness Summit 2009 will hone into issues that address the industry’s growth and how it can remain relevant: where existing boundaries are altered; where uncontested market space is created; and where uniqueness is born without cost trade-offs. Implementing a new format this year, the Summit will devote more time on Breakout Sessions doubling and will also run daily repeat sessions of topics. Repeats allow delegates greater participation in topics that are most relevant to them. Keynote and plenary sessions durations will also be reduced to ensure well-structured and impactful content.
Speakers include complementary health practitioner and Professional Beauty contributing writer, Jacqueline le Sueur, Michael Simmonds from Spa Sounds, Samir Patel, Managing Director, Six Senses Spas, Ingo Schweder, Managing Director, Spatality International and Lisa Starr from Wynne Business, a leading spa consulting company in the U.S.
The Wellness Summit takes place from October 14 to 16, 2009 at Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. www.wellnesssummit.com.