If a 15-minute power walk, reflexology station and a one-on-one consultation with a nutritionist don’t sound like your typical meeting agenda items, then you may want to reassess whether PowerPoint presentations and coffee breaks alone are enough to keep attendees energized and productive during a corporate event.

“Aetna, as a health care company, focuses on promoting the health and wellness of employees and

To promote wellness to employees, Aetna’s National Accounts segment in Charlotte, NC, joins forces with the American Heart Association for Start! Charlotte. Photo courtesy of Aetna

members,” said Teju Owoye, account manager in Aetna’s National Accounts segment based in Charlotte, NC. True to her word, Owoye has been involved in managing aspects of Aetna’s Start! Charlotte sponsorship with the American Heart Association (AHA) for the past two years, including each year’s in-house corporate kickoff event.

“We decided to have an in-office event in celebration of our sponsorship. It was open to our employees, and it highlighted and showcased some of the services and wellness offerings at the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge in conjunction with some of the wellness initiatives we have inherent at Aetna,” explained Owoye, who reached out to the local resort for the first time in 2008 when she asked them to participate in several Start! Charlotte events. It was then that Owoye discovered the Spa at Ballantyne’s Revitalizing an Organization’s Initiatives (ROI) Program, which offered a complete menu of corporate wellness activities. “The Spa at Ballantyne hosted our kickoff event, which celebrated our partnership with the AHA, and they also participated in National Start! Walking Day, a large event in Charlotte — 10,000 people attended,” said Owoye, who brought back the Spa at Ballantyne to host Aetna’s 2009 Start! Charlotte corporate kickoff event. The June meeting, which began with a 15-minute power walk led by a Ballantyne Hotel trainer, featured various stations staffed by Ballantyne employees. The entire event took place on Aetna’s Charlotte campus and had about 30 attendees.

“We had a nutritionist station in our office where Aetna employees could go up and speak to one of the Ballantyne nutritionists and ask questions about eating healthy, getting active and diets. We had a reflexology station, and employees got to learn a little bit about reflexology and how to incorporate that into their daily interactions — how to use small reflexology moves to alleviate stress,” Owoye said. “We had massage stations as well as a whole wealth of literature about staying active and being healthy. It was a great event for our employees; everyone felt excited and engaged, and it really tied in well with the ‘Get Active Aetna’ program that we’re doing now at Aetna.”

More Healthful Options

Although Owoye and her colleagues could have taken a safer route to planning both this year and last year’s Start! Charlotte corporate kickoff events, they would have been missing out on what planners and venue managers are now seeing as a growing trend toward addressing corporate wellness initiatives at meetings and events. Whether the trigger be the sloping economy and higher stress levels, or a continuation of the “go green” movement, planners are accommodating increasingly health-conscious attendees with more healthful food and beverage options, in-meeting massages, exercise breaks and health-related consultations during their planned events. And thanks to the many state-of-the-art and creative corporate wellness and spa programs available now at hotels and resorts, planning a more healthful meeting is now easier and more fun than ever.

“We are dedicated to making people’s lives better through a balance of wellness and beauty, and that’s what our industry is primarily about. Roughly 70 percent of a person’s life is spent in the workplace,” said Bill Toth, spa director at the Spa at Ballantyne in Charlotte, NC. “Many organizations are incorporating corporate wellness solutions because preventative measures

Tai chi is practiced during a corporate meeting break at The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge, Charlotte, NC. It’s an ancient Chinese “moving meditation” that all attendees can participate in because it is safe and does not require special attire or equipment. Photo courtesy of The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge

can be a huge cost savings.”

A 2000 Gallup poll showed that 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job, with nearly half admitting they need help in learning how to manage stress. And with the median absence from work due to occupational stress sitting at 23 days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s no surprise that job stress is estimated to cost U.S. businesses more than $300 billion annually.

“With rising health care costs, companies are looking for ways to get the most for every dollar. They need their employees healthy,” said Saideh Browne, a certified life coach and founder of Impact Life Coaching at Wellness on the Green in Morristown, NJ. “[Companies] are demanding [employees] do more with less and have to make sure they’re physically able to do the job. They want to reduce sick days, find a better work-life balance and need to make sure employees are fully present to do the job they do.”

That’s where the Spa at Ballantyne’s ROI Program comes in, said Toth, explaining that the program’s offerings were designed with both planners’ and meeting attendees’ needs in mind. The spa’s corporate à la carte menu includes work improvement and life improvement seminars, mini-fitness, meditation and

Next month, when the new Waldorf Astoria Orlando opens its doors, the 24,000-square-foot Waldorf Astoria Spa by Guerlain and fitness center will offer a healthful respite for attendees. Photo courtesy of Waldorf Astoria

breathing breaks, and in-spa teambuilding activities that are designed to add more value to an event by sharpening meeting productivity and attendee concentration levels.

“We offer a Healthy Happy Hour or Spa Mixer, which is designed for groups that request a group activity but have little time to incorporate full spa treatments for all of their attendees.” Toth said.

“Our mini-fitness and mini-meditation breaks include a 10- to 15-minute relaxation journey, a cost-effective and refreshing alternative to the traditional afternoon snack break,” said Toth. We have an Ice Breaker with yoga stretches to release stress and tension, and a Pick Me Up that is designed to re-energize the body and mind.”

Another aspect of the ROI Program is the seminar menu: “We work with groups to provide educational and engaging wellness sessions that can be included during a lunch-and-learn environment,” Toth explained. “We offer beneficial information about stress management, nutrition and fitness that they can incorporate in all aspects of their personal and business lifestyle.”

In addition to the Spa, The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge features 214 guest rooms, 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, and 18 event rooms, including a ballroom of more than 6,500 square feet. Other amenities include The Golf Club at Ballantyne, a par-71, 18-hole course; the Dana Rader Golf School; The Gallery Restaurant — fine dining with a fresh, earth-to-table concept; and an extensive health facility with an indoor pool and outdoor pool.

At Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, a premier convention hotel for high-end corporate business that offers 70,000 square feet of meeting space, Diane Friedman, spa director, agreed that there has been a shift in the programs that meeting planners want and need nowadays. She said that the emphasis is more on wellness than luxury. “High on their list of objectives for their attendees is having time to spa, with the goal to have their attendees relax, renew and be ready to get back to work with a fresh start. There is much interest to incorporate spa and wellness activities into their meetings with chair massages, early yoga classes or mid-day stretching classes.”

Friedman added that spa treatments that are designed specifically for men are also growing in popularity: “In the past, most men opted for the golf activity whereas we are now seeing a trend of them experiencing a spa treatment.”

Home to 36 holes of championship golf designed by Greg Norman and the world headquarters of the prestigious David Leadbetter Golf Academy, the resort has a never-ending supply of golfers who show up at their business meetings refreshed and energized after getting the kinks out at the spa or taking a stroll

The new Eau Spa at The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach lends itself to the growing trends of social, communal spa-going with connecting treatment rooms and spacious gathering areas such as the self-centered garden. Photo courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach

around the meditation garden.

The Serenity Spa, a European-style spa and salon, offers a complete array of services, including indoor and outdoor treatments from massages to facials. The staff assists with the pre-booking process of all-day spa events and can accommodate from 50–100 appointments per day.

Feeding The Corporate Soul

Of course, it would be remiss to address the minds and bodies of meeting-goers without taking a look at what goes into attendees’ bodies during corporate events — the exact line of thought that led to the creation of the Energizing Events meetings productivity initiative at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Energizing Events aims to increase the energy and productivity of meeting attendees who may be suffering from jet lag or feeling the negative impacts of sedentary meeting rooms, high-sugar and high-fat catered foods and a lack of focus.

“If you’ve ever sat in a room all day, people tend to tune out and you don’t feel great at the end of the day. So really, our whole thinking was, ‘How can we create an environment where we’re helping you stay motivated, focused and energized throughout the day?’?” said John Coleman, director of food and beverage, and executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. The goal was to design interactive and locally focused meeting breaks that would take the monotony out of a day full of meetings and give attendees the fuel they need to be productive.

“For the most part, you’re switching out foods that are high-sugar to products that are healthier for you,” said Coleman, who sat down with Baylor University Medical Center to discuss healthy options before designing the Energizing Events meeting break menus. “The one thing that I didn’t want to do was to get into what I call health food. We wanted to invoke wellness and have a local focus on products.

“What we really gained from [speaking with Baylor] was understanding that we would have stretching as part of a break if you wanted it.” (See box on page 18.)

Miguelina Urena, director of catering and conference services for Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate listens carefully when discussing the needs and wants of the meeting planner. She works in tandem with Tobias Cox, the resort’s executive sous chef, so when a “spa” theme is on the table they often recommend such items as local, organic fresh vegetables, fruit juice bars, raw vegetable carving

Increasingly, men are arriving at spas for a variety of refreshing and restorative treatments such as facials. The new V Spa in the Verandah Club at the Hilton Anatole, Dallas offers a full menu of energizing spa treatments. Photo courtesy of Hilton Anatole, Dallas

stations (instead of meat) with custom, house-made vinaigrettes, organic fresh soup stations (puréed to order) as well as such staples as bran muffins and wheat breakfast breads.

“Flavor and options do not have to change when you are trying to eat healthfully. In reality, fresh ingredients should taste the way food was intended to taste — REAL,” explained Cox. “When you put simplicity into preparation and cooking, the outcome will reveal the true essence of what nature intended.”

Finding Flexibility

While hard economic times may leave employees in the need of some mind and body TLC, meeting budgets are also in a very delicate state and the word “spa” may not sit well with top management. However, both planners and hotel managers assure that now is a great time to take advantage of many venues’ increasing flexibility to accommodate new business.

For example, aside from its more glamorous corporate services — holding a meeting within the spa, complete with treatments for each attendee — the ZaSpa at Hotel ZaZa, with locations in Dallas and Houston, offers more cost-effective à la carte options to planners with less-forgiving budgets.

“Suppose a meeting client does not have the budget to include chair massages during their event, but does not want attendees going to the bar or off property during the afternoon break,” said Virginia Acosta, ZaSpa regional spa director. “We will send an associate to hand out coupons with attendees’ names on them that say, ‘Come to the spa and receive a service at a very discounted price.’ This draws meeting traffic to the spa. And we will do a chair massage in the morning as a little preview.”

Also, in addition to the more typical chair and hand massages, the ZaSpa can send one more thing up to your meeting room for increased concentration — oxygen machines.

“We have oxygen machines that we plug in, in the back of the room, and we have individual canisters of oxygen,” Acosta explained, noting that it is one of the more popular meeting break options. “It helps you concentrate, especially if you’ve been traveling a lot. The oxygen helps with jet lag or if the attendees were up late the night before.”

However, while most properties are becoming more flexible to waning budgets, it’s up to planners to see the inherent benefits of addressing attendee well-being at corporate events.

“It really does come back. It comes back in terms of employee morale. People start to enjoy their jobs because they realize their employers care about them,” said Max Izenberg, speaker and author of Reaching for 100 (Elderberry Press, 2007) who lives in the Los Angeles area. “[Employees] won’t call in sick, and they will encourage other employees to do the same thing. When employers do not care about their people and their people are taking days off because they’re stressed, that’s costing the employer money. Might as well spend money on things that will improve working conditions.”    C&IT