A new white paper and research released at this week’s Meet Well conference in Las Vegas—a collaboration between Prevue and the Incentive Research Foundation—show a divide between wellness practices that planners would like to include in their meetings and what their budgets or management will allow.
As a result, the Meet Well attendees referred to practicing “sneaky wellness,” in other words, finding ways to sneak in healthy elements regardless.
Sure, they serve cookies, but ones made from healthy ingredients. They might not hold a 5k but instead will create a contest for the person who takes the most steps, using one of the free apps attendees can download right to their phones. Perhaps they won’t get the go-ahead to bring in a Tai chi instructor, but chair yoga is easy and can be done by anyone, in any clothes.
During a brainstorming session, participants listed some of the main roadblocks they faced when trying to incorporate wellness into their events. Among them: cost, time, resources, a diverse audience and perception.
Among the wellness practices meeting planners are using in their programs, according to the new IRF research:
- The top standard preferred food & beverage wellness inclusions for meetings and events were healthy snacks (83%), water and reduced calorie drinks (82%) and fish, chicken and lean meats (80%)
- Smoke-free facilities (90%) and free access to fitness facilities (80%) were the top-ranked standard or preferred meeting design elements supporting wellness
- Offering water and reduced calorie drinks as the default (77%) had the lowest expected impact on F&B budgets.
