16 Ways to Incorporate Wellness into Your Next Event

Wellness has been trending and evolving in the meeting and event industry for several years now. Why? Because events for planners and attendees can be stressful. In fact, event planning was found to be one of the top five most stressful jobs in the world.

To help planners promote and integrate wellness into their events, we’ve curated 16 ideas of the top trending and most effective wellness activities and strategies. Check them out.

Top 16 Ways to Incorporate Wellness into Your Next Event

1. Choose a Wellness Venue

An easy way to incorporate wellness into your next event is by choosing a venue that promotes wellness. Look for venues that offer outdoor venue space, outside activities, and are walking distance to parks, beaches, shops bike paths, etc.

2. Offer Meditation or Yoga

Decrease attendees’ chances of getting the flu or a cold at your event by hosting a meditation class or yoga. Not only has research shown that meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness exercises can decrease people’s chances of developing the flu or a cold, but it has also been shown to decrease stress, anxiety, inflammation, depression, promote sleep quality, and improve people’s overall quality of life.

3. Feature Healthy, Local Food and Drink Options

Instead of feed attendees’ donuts, candy, fried foods, offer attendees’ locally grown, healthy food and drink options. Research has shown that if you want to keep your attendees’ minds alert and active, then feeding them with water, complex carbohydrates, proteins, and a small amount of statured fats is key.

4. Outside Sessions

To relax, inspire, and awaken attendees, consider hosting an outdoor session. Not only do outdoor sessions encourage attendees to participate, but they are also a great way to change up the scenery for attendees while allowing them to enjoy the fresh air and sun.

5. Take Fitness Breaks

To help re-energize your attendees, improve their cognitive performance, mood, and increase their blood flow, integrate short fitness breaks into your event. These fitness breaks can include group walks, runs, stretching sessions, and more.

6. Add Screen-Free Zones

Screen-free zones have been trending at conferences, meetings, and other types of events. Studies on secondhand screen time and the presence of technology like a cell phone or a laptop in lecture halls have shown to decrease attendees’ long-term retention of the information. To increase attendees’ retention rates and help attendees live in the moment host screen-free breakout sessions, networking events, or set up screen-free zones at your next event.

7. Chair Massages

To increase productivity and morale, and decrease stress and stress injuries, offer attendees 15-minute chair massages. Just 15-minutes of chair massages has been scientifically proven to fight stress, anxiety, circulatory problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, and more.

8. Encourage Walking Instead of Shuttling

Because attendees’ will be sitting a lot in sessions, encourage them to walk instead of taking a shuttle or bus to get from location to location at your event. Research has shown that sitting for long periods is linked to an increase in several health conditions, like high blood sugar, increased blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, and death by cancer and cardiovascular disease.

9. Host a Lunch & Learn on Mental Health

Research on mental health in the meeting and event industry has revealed that professionals are 65 more likely to suffer from mental health issues today than five years ago. To promote educate, eliminate stigma around mental health, and encourage people to get help, host a lunch and learn on mental health.

10. Include Nutritional Fact Information on Everything

To help attendees’ make conscious eating choices, ensure that the nutritional information (e.g. calories, fat, carb, and sugar count) is located on all the food options. By having the nutritional facts readily available to attendees, you will encourage them to make smarter choices.

11. Push for Connection

Having a sense of connection with others has been proven to increase people’s longevity by 50 percent, strength people’s immune systems, lower rates of depression, anxiety, and more. So, to increase your attendees’ overall wellness, encourage attendees to connect with each other. Host networking cocktail hours, mixers, group activities, and other activities that provide opportunities for attendees to connect.

12. Use Your Mobile Event App to Send a “Healthy Tip of the Day”

If you’re using a mobile event app for your event, then you can use the push notification feature to send attendees personalized “healthy tips of the day”. These tips can be sayings like, “Do some cardio today,” “Be mindful,” “Make sure to sip while you sit,” and more.

13. Alcohol-Free Events

Alcohol-free events are trending for 2019 and 2020 in the industry. Why? Because people, including event attendees, are focused on living a healthier, more balanced life. Companies like the beverage brand, Kin, are holding booze-free events, that feature alcohol-free cocktail hours, yoga, meditation, and more.

14. Mindfulness

Encourage your attendees to be more mindful or aware at your next meeting or event by setting aside meditation space in a breakout room. Research has shown that incorporating mindfulness practices into meetings and events has increased attendees’ retention ratings and has a long-lasting impact on attendees.

15. Sleep

Studies have shown that sleep is as important as exercise and eating healthy. However, around 19 percent of adults in the United States consistently do not get enough sleep and 70 million Americans have a chronic sleep disorder. Encourage attendees to get sleep by ending your event at a reasonable time or saving time during the day for naps.

16. Promote Hydration

Because the human body is comprised of 60% of water and the brain is comprised of 73% of water, drinking water is crucial for people’s overall health and well-being. Encourage your attendees to stay hydrated at your event by handing out reusable water bottles and having water stations placed around your event.

What do you think of these 16 wellness ideas to incorporate into your next event? Which is your favorite? Did we miss any?