Delos Wellness Accreditation Offered for Meetings and Events

March 10, 2022

The Delos Wellness Accreditation for Meetings and Events was launched last fall as a partnership between Delos and Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI).

The Delos course is intended to educate meeting and event professionals on how air, water, light, nourishment, movement, comfort and mindfulness can affect the effectiveness of the event as well as the productivity of attendees.

Delos earned its industry cred several years ago when it partnered with MGM Resorts, as well as the Cleveland Clinic and wellness guru Deepak Chopra, to develop and implement the Stay Well health and wellness concept for guest rooms and event spaces now in place in hotels spanning from Las Vegas to Barcelona. The COVID-19 pandemic has only further emphasized the importance of keeping people healthy while on site at events as hotels, convention centers and other venues instituted new protocols such as GBAC-Star accreditation for cleaning standards.

The accreditation program covers how to design, plan and implement an event plan that provides a healthier and safer experience for meeting attendees. Among the topics covered in the five-hour online course are how to improve attendees’ cognitive performance, facilitate movement breaks, maximize indoor comfort, drive productivity, boost energy levels and alertness, support mindfulness, promote hydration and minimize fatigue. After each module, the learner must score at least 80% on a test of that module’s contents — you can retake the test as often as needed to get to 80% and move on to the next module. The credential, which costs $200 for an individual (there are discounts for groups), is valid for two years.

While the need for getting this type of accreditation will vary depending on how important it is to the planner’s organization, there are indications that wellness is a critical focus for many organizations and/or their meeting clients, according to a 2020 Wellness in Meetings and Incentive Travel Study by the Incentive Research Foundation. Eighty-six percent of internal planners said this was a key issue, as did 68% of external meeting professionals surveyed. But only 30% of meeting planners in the same survey said their meetings were already “mostly healthy.”

Dave Stevens, PMED, Director, Global Events and Field Marketing with Alation and a Prevue Editorial Advisory Board member, recently completed the accreditation. Wellness has been a focus area for Stevens since he did corporate meeting and incentive planning for a fitness company, so he was eager to take the course. “Especially coming out of the pandemic, as people come back together in person, they need to be able to feel comfortable. The course was a great starting point for event planners who want to educate themselves on how to take care of others on an environmental level in the meeting space.”

In a Delos blog post, Sepideh Eivazi, Director of Global Accounts with Elevated Meeting Solutions, says, “There’s a reason that people constantly feel exhausted, lose attention, or aren’t engaged during meetings; there is no element in the meeting room to calm or help people feel present. This is why lighting, air and biophilia are so important.” She adds that the course “was very practical and relevant to my day-to-day and the events industry as a whole; it was easy to integrate the knowledge into informal conversations with my clients.”

She adds, “I’ve learned so much through Stay Well and the Delos Wellness Accreditation for Meetings and Events, from the science of circadian lighting and the relationship of light to optic nerves to the fact that our highest productivity tends to peak at 11 a.m.”