GSWS announces summit highlights

The Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) has announced highlights of the agenda for the eight annual summit. The event will be held at the Four Seasons Marrakech in Morocco on September 10-12 under the theme of Fast Forward. 

Among the non-industry speakers headlining this year’s summit are economist and futurist Kjell Anders Nordström, architect Bjarke Ingels, director Louie Schwartzberg and Paul Price, chief executive of branding consultancy Creative Realities. Leading wellness figures Don Ardell and Jack Travis are also among the speakers confirmed so far. 

The summit will be hosted by speak and author Alexis Jones, founder of I Am That Girl, a movement focused on building the self-esteem of girls and young women. 

The second Global Wellness Tourism Congress, taking place on September 10, will feature speakers including CBS travel editor Peter Greenberg, Jean-Claude Baumgarten, former president of the World Travel & Tourism Council and Yolanda Perdomo, director of the World Tourism Organization’s affiliate members programme. 

The GSWS also announced that the sector-specific forums that debuted at last year’s event will be returning in 2014. In addition to the forums on hotel spas, destination spas, hydrothermal spas and spa education, this year will also see new additions in the shape of forums on corporate wellness and on mixed-use facilities and wellness tourism roundtable discussion. 

The summit will also include panels and workshops on topics ranging from spa architecture, mobile technology, and investment trends, to media relations and wellbeing leadership. There will also be workshops exploring Moroccan spa and wellness traditions, including hammam.