Hilton Worldwide just posted a new meeting welllness-themed video on its innovative Hilton Elevated Discussions platform, located under the “Creating Experiences” tab. Hilton is developing thought leadership around wellness because it’s such a big trend at meetings, where we all need to remember to digitally detox on a daily basis.
The video is narrated by celebrity fitness trainer Michelle Lovitt, who works with famous skinny people like actresses Courtney Cox and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
To drive its wellness message home at IMEX America last year, the Hilton crew hosted a 6:30 am Hilton Wellness Wake Up Call event in the convention center at The Venetian Las Vegas. Lovitt was on hand to lead us through a half-hour, relatively high-paced yoga workout.
Then they did it again the next morning! By the end of the second day wellness workout, you really get a sense of just how much you need this on a regular basis.
In an effort to create more lasting education for planners and attendees, Lovitt made this Hilton Elevated Discussion video themed around nutrition and adding wellness to events.
“When planning an event it’s super important to look at nutrition,” says Lovitt. “It’s critically important to have protein and not high sugary food…, because the retention rate of what you’re trying to have the participants learn goes down drastically when your blood sugar drops.”
After the Wake Up Call yoga session at IMEX, we sat down with Lovitt who told us the secret to maintaining a healthy body as you get older is balance and compromise. She is very forthright, explaining there’s no short cuts in life. You don’t take short cuts when you’re planning a meeting, because if you do, things are going to go sideways.
Same deal with your body. Lovitt told us, for example, if you’re eating at the big breakfast buffets at any of the hotels, then skip the bread. Skip something, because you can’t have everything you want and expect to be healthy. She’s right of course, but she needs to do another video about motivation and mental work, because the homemade bread at Bouchon Bistro in The Venetian is ridiculous.
Lovitt also discusses in the video the importance of making your attendees move and be active during some section of a program.
“When you’re planning your event and you’re looking at your agenda, it’s super important to maximize your time and squeeze in some type of fitness or movement activity,” she advises. “It will not only help increase blood flow to the brain, it’s going to make your participants feel a little bit better… and maybe connect a little bit differently than they would if they’re just sitting around the table. Productivity is always shown to increase after there is blood flow to the brain.”
Lovitt suggests even something like a 10-minute walk around the block can make a big difference.
Perhaps none of this is earth shattering news but Lovitt reminds us that this is good for us, and it’s easy to forget in our day-to-day busy-ness. Hilton is smart to make these videos short and basic, because maybe then we’ll remember them tomorrow and then the next day and then the next. So watch the video in its entirety so you can hear Lovitt’s 5 most super important things to remain healthy, and skip the bread next time you sit down at the breakfast table.
Unless of course you’re at Bouchon Bistro, in which case, watch this video and then take it easy at lunch.
