Modeling Healthy Behavior for In-Person Events

Changing plans on short notice is nothing new to organizers of the Global Wellness Summit. In 2019, the international conference that regularly attracts attendees from more than 50 countries was set to take place in Hong Kong. Six weeks out, the Hong Kong International Airport shut down due to civil unrest, and organizers decided to make a quick switch to Singapore for the event. So when the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread across the world, they were ready to alter plans at any moment, according to Nancy Davis, Global Wellness Summit’s chief creative officer and executive director.

“Let’s just say we’re the pivot experts at this point,” Davis joked. “Pivoting is in our nature. We have to stay flexible.”

The 2020 Global Wellness Summit, which serves as an educational conference for the spa and wellness communities, was planned to be hosted in mid-November in Tel Aviv, but Davis said she knew the show could not go on in person in Israel, as borders began closing across the world to limit the virus’ spread. With the knowledge that “an enormous part of the wellness industry lives and breathes” in the United States, Davis and her team chose to make Tel Aviv the 2021 event host and move the 2020 summit, the event’s 14th iteration, to Palm Beach, Florida, where they could hold an intimate hybrid event that was easily accessible to many of their attendees.