Get ready for our 2020 National Wellness Conference as we go virtual and “Reimagine Wellness.” Nationally recognized industry professionals, interactive sessions, and fun participant-engagement opportunities are scheduled for our 45th conference. Chuck Gillespie, National Wellness Institute CEO, recently discussed details about the conference. Read or listen to his interview below.
Announcer: The Reimagine Wellness Conference is coming up July 21 and 22. Chuck Gillespie, CEO of National Wellness Institute, is here today to give us details. Chuck?
Chuck Gillespie: Well, thank you, and, really, what we’re going to be looking at is very unique, and we have to reimagine everything in 2020. That includes our National Wellness Conference. We are in our 45th year of hosting the National Wellness Conference, which is the longest wellness conference that there is in the entire world that’s been consecutive. And, we are not going to miss that in 2020. However, we are going to be switching it up a little bit in in our two days of learning and connecting. We will be working on both live chats, featured presentations, facilitated small group sessions, as well as two interactive networking groups we’re calling “Happiness Hour”, at the end of each day.
We also are going to be adding 17 on-demand sessions that will include the ability to get your continuing education credits whether you take those classes during the conference or after the conference. We are definitely going to be highlighting some great sponsors and speakers for the 2020 Reimagine Wellness Conference, and looking forward to working with you in building a great program, even though it is going to be in a virtual format.
Announcer: Let’s talk about the virtual format for this year’s Wellness Conference. How can participants feel…you mentioned the “Happiness Hour” as one example, but tell us more about how participants can still feel connected to one another through the virtual space.
Chuck Gillespie: Definitely. In addition to the three featured speakers we will have each of the two days, we’re going to have energizing breaks. We’re going to have Q&A sessions that we’re going to be pulling chats from our attendees, as well as we’re going to be creating small group chats within each of the days. And we’re gonna have two of those throughout the day and those small group chats will have a question, as well as a facilitator within those group chats, so that there is a continued conversation going on whether it is on a specific topic or if it’s on a range of topics that you will have during that period of time. The “Happiness Hour”, as we said, could be a lot of networking a lot of opportunity to kind of reach out to people and discuss some of the things that you’ve learned as well as some of the things that we can continue to have conversations on for the rest of the year and the years to come.
Chuck Gillespie: I think three of the key takeaways are going to be during a period of time where we’re definitely going to be talking about the aspects of what it’s going to look like. How can we reimagine wellness from a physical wellness perspective? How can we look at it from a mental health perspective? How can we look at it from a multi-cultural competency perspective? How does it look like post-COVID-19?
These are all things that are going to be discussed during the July 21st and 22nd event. And those events are going be happening starting at 10 a.m. Central time, and going through 5 p.m. Central time.
Announcer: So, Chuck, tell us why this is a can’t-miss event for professionals in the health and wellness community?
Chuck Gillespie: You know, I think it’s essential for a number of reasons. Number one: when you really start to look at how you ensure that your employees, your communities are starting to re-open, making sure that they still follow some of the guidelines from the health organizations and your local health departments to ensure that we still continue to make sure that these issues, particularly around the COVID-19 areas, can really build on developing your social interactions.
And, the reason I bring social interactions to the table here, is because even prior to the pandemic, social isolation was one of the biggest issues affecting the overall mental health of your employees, your neighbors, and just about everybody in your community. The pandemic has made that worse. And one of the things that we’re seeing more and more, is that concern about what they refer to as the “depths of despair”. This is a word that I’m not a big fan of using, but it’s something that we have to be very careful of, because when we talk about deaths of despair, these are things like suicide, these are things like reigniting an addiction that you might have been able to tackle prior to having some of these things that lock you down.
And this is where, I think, bringing somebody like Tramaine and the Mental Health First Aid program to this conference will really blend a great way of understanding how mental health, physical health, social wellness, intellectual well-being, as well as spiritual wellness, all identifying and helping somebody bring back their best and brightest self. And this is why it is such an important factor in looking at it.
And, you will see with all of the on-demand programs and the live programs that you’re going to see at the National Wellness Conference, we are definitely looking at this from a very much different perspective, and that is, how do we reimagine our work sites? How do we reimagine our communities? How do we reimagine our neighborhoods so that wellness is at the front end of everything that we’re talking about?
Register now for the 2020 NWI Annual Virtual Wellness Conference. Join us on July 21 and 22 for presentations and 19 on-demand sessions.
