Global Spa Summit Announces 2011 Keynote Speakers

The Global Spa Summit (GSS) has announced three keynote speakers for the international conference being held in Bali, Indonesia from May 15-18. Kate Ancketill of Global Design Resources (GDR), one of the world?s top trend forecasters for brands, hospitality and retail; Dave McCaughan of McCann Worldgroup, a renowned expert on the Asian market and consumer; and Marc Smith of Connected Action, a leading analyst of how online social platforms impact both consumers and businesses, will present under the 2011 Summit theme “Engage the Change: The Money. The Customer. The Future.” Each keynote is designed to help industry leaders understand fast-growing consumer trends and markets, with a special focus on how a new “engagement economy” (and new social and interactive platforms) will continue to remake the way consumers engage with brands and businesses, and vice versa.

Kate Ancketill: Managing Director of Global Design Resources (GDR), a leading UK-based research and consulting firm, Ancketill is an expert on consumer and retail trends; social and mobile commerce; experiential marketing; and technology and design innovation. Her keynote, a forecast of how consumer demands, desires and decision-making will radically change, will provide a window into the most profound consumer shifts on the horizon, both globally and across specific markets. GDR?s research into brands and hospitality and retail markets taps into a network of thousands of designers, architects, technologists, academics and strategists. The company generates a quarterly “Global Innovation Report” and clients include GAP, Kraft, L?Oreal, McDonalds, Nokia, P&G, Sony, Starwood Hotels and Unilever, etc. Ancketill has presented at dozens of the top marketing and technology conferences across the
globe.

Dave McCaughan: Regional Strategic Planning Director, Asia Pacific for McCann Worldgroup (the world?s largest marketing solutions network), McCaughan oversees strategy development for all McCann Worldgroup companies across Asia. His keynote will provide insight into the evolving Asian consumer and market, and new ways that Asian consumers are engaging with brands - tapping into a wide-ranging perspective from the beauty and health sectors, etc. Once a storyteller by trade, McCaughan will also shed light on how great brands tell great stories, and how that „story-telling? is shifting to new social „conversations. In his 25 years with McCann, McCaughan has developed programs like PULSE™, their premier global program for “constantly tracking how people live, dream, communicate and consume.” He?s had long-term involvement with companies like American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard and Nestle; writes regularly for Advertising Age on the explosive Asian consumer marketplace; and speaks constantly at major conferences across the world.

Marc Smith: Smith (who presented at the 2010 Summit), is Chief Social Scientist at Connected Action, a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm that analyzes enterprise and Internet social media usage and opportunities. His once-a-day “soundbyte” at the conference will explore how new social communities are dramatically impacting individuals and businesses - the new tools and strategies businesses must embrace to succeed in this new world - and how social platforms will change in breathtaking new ways, transforming not only governments, but the spa and wellness world. A sociologist specializing in the organization of online communities and computer-mediated interaction, Smith founded the Community Technologies Group at Microsoft Research, led the development of social media reporting/analysis tools for Telligent Systems and is co-founder of the Social Media Research Foundation. Co-author of two books and numerous chapters, he has an M.Phil. in Social Theory from Cambridge University, a Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA and is a faculty member at the University of Maryland and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

The Global Spa Summit has played host to a wide range of prestigious speakers: Philippe Bourguignon, CEO, Miraval and Vice Chairman, Revolution Places; Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th US Surgeon General; Steve Case, CEO, Revolution Health; Adolf Ogi, former president of Switzerland; Ian Schrager, American hotelier and real estate developer; Edie Weiner, famed Futurist and Reto Wittwer, CEO of Kempinski.
Ancketill, McCaughan and Smith will join a slate of other high-profile 2011 GSS keynote presenters to be announced in upcoming weeks.

For media information contact: Beth McGroarty, [email protected], +1 213 300 0107 or +44 (0) 870 121 6066.
For registration/sponsorship information contact: [email protected], or visit: www.globalspasummit.org
About Global Spa Summit: The Global Spa Summit is an annual event that attracts top-level executives and leaders from around the world with an interest in the spa and wellness industries. Delegates from diverse sectors including hospitality, tourism, finance, medicine, real estate, manufacturing, technology, consulting, products and other related industries attend this intimate, high-level gathering focused on advancing the spa and wellness sectors.

The Summit has been responsible for some of the most important recent spa industry research, including the landmark Global Spa Economy Report and Spas and the Global Wellness Market: Synergies and Opportunities (both conducted by SRI International). The Summit was honored as the 'Spa Event of the Year' for both 2009 and 2010 by AsiaSpa magazine?s awards program. The 2010 conference in Istanbul, Turkey, attracted a record number of delegates (40 different countries, from all continents).