Increasingly individual corporations and nations are focused on health and not disease. In the future, the spa sector has an opportunity to be the prototype for optimal health and longevity
The Global Spa Summit (GSS), the premier annual event for the spa and wellness industries, today announced that Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, renowned doctor, professor of medicine, author, and integrative health expert, has been named a keynote speaker.
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Dr. Pelletier's presentation, 'Healthy People, Healthy Places: Bridging the Spa World and Integrative Medicine,' will address the critical need for 'evidence-based' health and medicine approaches for the spa industry, and how an intensified focus will hold the key to future growth opportunities. Dr. Pelletier's keynote dovetails squarely with the Summit's 2010 theme of 'Bridges Worth Building' in exploring ways that the evidence-based approach can bridge the spa industry's services with the powerful new health/wellness initiatives of major global businesses – opening doors to potential, very profitable new corporate clients.
'Clearly, the mounting archive of evidence that many of the core spa and wellness offerings have real, proven medical benefits is the spa industry's most potent, if under-utilized, asset,' noted Dr. Pelletier. 'It's an exciting challenge to help assembled industry leaders understand how marshalling, focusing on, and standardizing this global archive will guarantee new partners, clients, and markets - in particular, the too untapped corporate health sector.' He further noted, 'Increasingly individual corporations and nations are focused on health and not disease. In the future, the spa sector has an opportunity to be the prototype for optimal health and longevity.'
Dr. Pelletier is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona School of Medicine and the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco (UCSF). He's the author of twelve major books (from the international bestseller Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer to his latest The New Medicine: How to Integrate Conventional and Alternative Medicine for the Safest and Most Effective Treatment). He's authored over 300 professional journal articles, and his research has been the subject of numerous television programs including frequent appearances on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, 48 Hours, PBS, CNN, and the BBC.
He serves as a medical and business consultant to dozens of major global organizations and corporations, from the World Health Organization to the Singapore Ministry of Health. For over 25 years he has conducted pioneering research with such corporations as American Airlines, Ford, Apple, Merck, Pepsi, Dow, Pfizer, Disney, IBM, Mercer, Prudential, Walgreens, Microsoft, and NASA. He serves as Chairman of the American Health Association (AHA) and is a Vice President with American Specialty Health (ASH). Having worked with some of the world's top destination spas, Dr. Pelletier is also a leading expert on integrating spa and medicine, and serves on the Board of Directors of Rancho la Puerta and on the Medical Board of the Canyon Ranch Resorts.
'For decades Dr. Pelletier has been one of the most respected forces in expanding the 'health and medicine' discussion to include alternative wellness and spa offerings,' noted Susie Ellis, board member and executive director of the Global Spa Summit. 'He will offer our industry a critical roadmap to continued expansion by focusing on further closing any 'credibility gaps' that remain for consumers, the media, and the medical establishment.'
The GSS will take place at the historic Ç1ragan Palace Kempinski Hotel in Istanbul, May 17–19. Across its four-year history the Summit has hosted an impressive range of speakers, including Adolf Ogi, former president of Switzerland; Steve Case, CEO, Revolution Health; Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th U.S. surgeon general; Ian Schrager, famed American hotelier and real estate developer; and Reto Wittwer, CEO of Kempinski. Dr. Pelletier joins famed futurist, Edie Weiner, and Philippe Bourguignon, vice chairman of Revolution Places, as a 2010 keynote. Additional presenters will be announced in upcoming weeks.
The preliminary Summit agenda can be accessed here: http://www.globalspasummit.org/images/stories/pdf/agenda_gss2010_preliminary.pdf
For media information contact: Beth McGroaty, +1 213 300 0107 or +44 (0) 870 121 6066.
For registration/sponsorship information contact: visit: www.globalspasummit.org
About Global Spa Summit: The award-winning Global Spa Summit is an annual event that attracts top-level executives and leaders from around the world with interest in the spa and wellness industries. Delegates from diverse sectors including hospitality, investment, finance, real estate, medicine, manufacturing, technology, consulting, product, tourism and other related industries attend this intimate, high-level gathering focused on advancing the spa and wellness sectors. With increasing attendance by more countries each year, the Global Spa Summit delegation represented 32 different countries from all continents in 2009.