Business Healing Summit 2016, Berlin

World in union
RE P O RT BY HE LLE N A B A R NE S

European Spa joins an international delegation at the

Healing Summit 2016 to discuss the business of holistic living

ow in its third year, the Healing

Summit has gained a reputation as a
future-thinking business conference
with a global view on the changing
values of holistic living and wellness practices.
Orgainised by Healing Hotels of the World
founders Anne Biging and Dr Elisabeth Ixmeier,
this years event brought together 130 delegates
from 27 countries, including Australia, Saudi
Arabia, China and Russia, to share knowledge,
energise ideas and explore challenges in the
promotion of wellbeing.
This years conference, held at Berlins
Hotel De Rome in early March, was entitled
Creating from the Core of Goodness: Life,
Business, World. With an impressive line-up
of 34 speakers over two days, business leaders
and visionaries from the spa, wellness, financial,
architectural and hospitality sectors shared
professional insights and new perspectives on
topics as diverse as future business practices
and creating a soulful economy, and the
environmental and personal responsibilities of
healing lifestyles.

Economy of the future

Anne Biging opened the event by outlining
her vision of a bridge between humanity
and business, highlighting the need for a
new business culture that moves beyond
pure strategy. This sentiment was echoed by
Catherine Parrish, founder and president of
NextLevel Leadership, who referred to a
world in transition.
These principles were then further addressed
by Swedish economist Dr Kjell A. Nordstrm,
a consultant to multinational corporations
on globalisation and corporate strategies. His
keynote speech detailed how, within the next
30 years, massive urbanisation trends will result
in just 600 cities housing 80% of the worlds
population, generating 90% of its earnings
within a 2% landmass.

46

Nordstrm spoke of how FAANG

(Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google)
had set new paradigms within which the global
population operates. Citing a new agenda
of expediential growth and the impacts of
transactions, he stated: When everything starts
to look the same we need to reclaim creativity.
Progressing the subject of a more soulful
economy was Dr Anabel Terns, social
entrepreneur and global ambassador of Same
Sky, a jewellery trade initiative that creates
employment for women in extreme poverty.
Terns described the production of products
with impact and emphasised that purchasing
with value and meaning has the potential to
change consumer cycles.

Business drivers
The founder of Soul Luxury, Claudia Roth,
mined her broad experience of the international
hospitality industry to present ideas for growth
and service excellence within high-end markets.
Discussing emotional brand engagement, Roth
stated that the next evolution of business drivers
would be from thinking and doing to allowing
and being.
Further considering innovative approaches
to holistic business, Asa Siegel, founder of
STAMBA Superfoods, highlighted the role
of nutrition as a preventive medicine, using
advances in food science to promote health
through whole-food synergy. He spoke about
the cycle of integrity that was vital to holistic
product creation, through sustainability and
good supplier relationships.

1. Valerie Smaldone hosts a lively discussion

2. Sharing knowledge in a group workshop session
3. Ashok Khanna, CEO of IHHR Hospitality
4. Anne Biging energises the event
5. Carola Ferstl, n-tv journalist and Patricia Thielemann,
founder of Spirit Yoga
6. Healing Summit co-founder Dr Elisabeth Ixmeier
7. Anni Hood of Wellness Business Consultancy
8. An international delegation gathers for keynote speeches

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Business Healing Summit 2016, Berlin

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Six Senses
Hotels

47

Business Healing Summit 2016, Berlin

From vision to reality

Representatives from wellness destinations
shared their achievements and noted the
challenges in applying ancient traditions to meet
modern demand for help with conditions such
as stress, anxiety and depression.
Ashok Khanna CEO of IHHR Hospitality
and founder of Ananda in the Himalayas, spoke
of striving to create a truly authentic offering.
We are dealing with a complicated mix of
psychosomatic illness [by] harmonising the
environment, so we keep evolving packages and
treatments with wellness philosophies such as
Ayurveda, he said.
Some operators are transforming their
properties and business models to meet demand
for holistic health and wellness travel, which is
projected to increase by more than 9% in 2017,
almost 50% faster than overall global tourism*.
Among these, Isabelle Duchesneau, executive
director of development at the 400-year-old
Monastre des Augustines in Quebec, Canada,
told of its evolution into a not-for-profit
wellness hotel.

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Meanwhile, Sigurlaug Sverrisdottir, founder

and owner of ION luxury adventure hotel in
Iceland, related how an isolated and abandoned
power plant was returned to life as a spa
concept utilising the surrounding hot springs.
John Stewart, founder and chairman of
Kamalaya Koh Samui, Thailand, summed up the
process of blending spirituality and business by
telling delgates: We dont wait for miracles
we make them happen.

Built-in wellness
Looking at how the built environment impacts
wellness, Francesca Galeazzi, architectural
engineer and sustainability specialist at Arup,
told delegates that sustainable planning and
design could help future cities thrive in the
ecological age.
Talking about WELL, the worlds first
building standard focused exclusively on human
health and wellness, she stated: Designers now
have the tools and the methods to create better
buildings this is about people and the social
return on investments.
Galeazzi went on to describe how buildings

could even be powered using a bio-adaptive

faade incorporating live microalgae, which
could also be harvested for use in spa products.

Inspiring and expanding

Among the other thought-provoking speakers at
Healing Summit 2016 were neuroscientist Dr
Marjorie Hines Woollacott; social entrepreneur
Guy Lieberman; and hospitality and wellness
management expert Joy Menzies; leading New
York radio presenter Valerie Smaldone also
hosted discussions throughout the event.
With plans to extend its reach to new
continents and cities such as Shanghai and New
York, the Healing Summit looks set to remain
at the core of goodness to the benefit of life,
business and the world for some time.
www.healingsummit.org
1. John Stewart, founder and chairman, Kamalaya Koh Samui
2. Traditional healing expert Bronislav Vinogrodsky
3. Group meditation sessions were led by Elizabeth Galis,
Sharada Rumi and Michaela Merten
4. Dr Anabel Terns of Same Sky
5. Corinna Yap of COMO Shambhala engages with delegates
6. Catherine Parrish of NextLevel Leadership
* Global Wellness Institute, The Global Wellness Tourism
Economy Report 2013 & 2014, June 2015

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