Everyone’s talking about wellness at meetings. Here are some top trends identified by the Incentive Research Foundation.
To learn more about integrating wellness at meetings, don’t miss our webinar April 26 at 1 p.m. featuring the IRF’s President, Melissa Van Dyke. Register here.
More fitness-focused amenities
As a backlash to the exhausting and relentless nonstop business environment created by e-mail and social media, participants are not only welcoming but expecting more fitness-focused items and experiences in their programs. This could be everything from luxury fitness retreats as a portion of the incentive travel event, “workout” tours in the host cities, or the promotion of apps like RunGo. Likewise, Boomers and GenXers continue to drive the Athleisure concept’s meteoric rise as reflected in everything from apparel (yoga work pants), to cosmetics (specialty cosmetics for the gym), to amenity trends (wellness gifts).
Healthy Instagrammable moments
Although Millennials have less buying power than more mature generations, their influence in this trend is strong as well. With fewer resources to invest, they instead focused on “Wellth” – or creating an array of Instgrammable life experiences that showcase their investment in physical well-being.
Nutritious F&B
This extends to food trends as well, where alchemy-driven and wellness-focused cocktails derived from modern and ancient medicinal recipes are gaining ground. Additionally, hotels continue to expand their organic and gluten-free options. While this does drive up cost, it also shifts the focus from quantity to quality. For example, snack breaks that are less volume focused (i.e., mountains of cookies) and rather quality focused (three options of locally sourced, organic products).
Less stress
Across the board, the reduction of anxiety and a feeling of comfort will reign in 2018. This goes from hotels focusing on creating a more “frictionless” experience (shorter lines, on-demand services), to anxiety reduction products (fidget spinners), to on-site stress reduction practices (ancient tai chi meridian tapping). Likewise, the Danish concept of hygge (pronounced hue-guh), or cozy comfort gathers steam with fluffy, yarn-ridden products everywhere and more comfortable seating with warm, friendly environments seeing a growth in events.
