World Spa & Wellness Convention: Speaker spotlight - Sharon Barcock

The countdown has begun for the fourth World Spa & Wellness Convention taking place on 5-6 February 2018.

This month we speak to SHARON BARCOCK, director of spa & fitness operations & development MEA for Hilton Group

Why is “the rebirth of fitness in spa: making your wellbeing offer current, accessible and profitable” a topic that is of interest to you?

Now that we are seeing the industry taking a more holistic approach to wellness, it is great to be able to look at and talk about the fitness spaces in a more inclusive way, because they are an integral part of wellness, treating the guests from both the inside and outside. This gives us great opportunity to create programmes that personalise the experience, and meet the individual needs of our guests. Removing the boring and mundane functionality of spaces to create inspiring and motivating zones will help educate and integrate non-wellness users into our spaces. No longer do we have to have two spaces that work separately – the age old problem of how does high energy sit alongside deep relaxation has been resolved as we think outside the box and realise that the parameters of wellness are unlimited. 

What would you like the audience to take away from this session?

At the least some thought provoking conversation, but hopefully some fresh ideas for their own facilities that can
help to create a better guest experience and ideally some ground breaking information to take away.

What can the audience expect from this session?

Some different viewpoints, interesting facts and figures and the latest direction taking hold of the fitness space.

What fitness trends will we see in spas in 2018?

I think a lot of initiatives that are happening in the fitness space are being driven by the independent chains, which is having a ripple impact into hotel gyms. There are some exciting changes in gym structures, particularly within the hotel environment, such as the expansion of yoga programmes and shorter duration result focus training.

Sharon Barcock will be speaking on Tuesday 6 February on the topic “the rebirth of fitness”.

For this month only we are offering 50 per cent off a two-day pass for $170 (RRP: $340 please email [email protected] for more information or visit www.professionalbeauty.ae/spaconvention