Annual Wellness Summit

Sustaining a high level of employee engagement is a growing concern for many organizations. In this fun, fast-paced session, you will join fellow explorers to uncover the three secrets to help you transform your workforce into a powerhouse of performance and engagement with this energetic pre-intensive session! In today's post-pandemic world, unlocking the full potential of your employees is non-negotiable. This session will unearth the hidden secrets of Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence (ARC), led by seasoned well-being experts Jesse Gavin, Mitch Martens, and Ryan Wolf. This powerful trio of psychological needs can boost motivation, elevate job satisfaction, and ward off burnout. Unleash your unending curiosity, roll up your sleeves, and embark on a hands-on journey beyond theory and straight into action..

This full-day session will survey important legal concepts for designing a compliant and effective wellness program. The presenter will cover basic legal concepts so attendees know where to look for legal guidance. Then, the presenter will discuss the latest legal guidance and activity on wellness incentives, taxation issues regarding wellness plans (including recent activity regarding WIMPER benefits), scope of practice/licensing (and whether there should be standards for wellness professionals), discrimination by wellness programs, and data privacy issues. After the session, attendees will feel more prepared to recognize wellness programs that could pose higher legal risk.

Insomnia. Incivility. Obesity. Chronic Illness. Screen Addictions. Burnout. Passive-aggressiveness. Etc. Etc. Etc. Not only has stress reached epidemic levels nationwide (often called the “Black Plague of the 21st Century”), but workers across the country cite their work/worksite as the number one stressor in their lives. Moreover, stressed employees can create a toxic work environment perpetuating the stress cycle and decreasing health, morale and productivity. This “train-the-trainer” program teaches participants essential skills to create, market, implement, and facilitate effective programs in stress management, resiliency and work-life balance to enhance the health of workers and the worksite. This includes a special emphasis on both coping skills (mind) and relaxation techniques (body). The topic of stress is colossal. The means to deal with stress effectively and become resilient to stress/change IS possible—with the best skills/best practices and program design/implementation. The time is now!

The National Wellness Institute’s gold-standard Certified Wellness Practitioner (CWP) credential is awarded to individuals from multiple disciplines and backgrounds, recognizing their wellness promotion competence and their commitment to ongoing professional development. Participants in this interactive and informative workshop will receive live support through lecture, scenario activities, and group discussions designed to prepare them for both the exam content and the exam experience. They will gain confidence in their ability to pass the CWP exam as they prepare to differentiate themselves in the ever-expanding field of wellness. Plus, all attendees receive access to sample exam questions, study materials, and an online CWP Practice Examination to simulate the test-taking experience and preview the types of exam questions to expect.

In today's workplace, supporting employee well-being is no longer optional –— It’s an important driver of organizational success. This session goes beyond quick fixes and delves into how systemic change can drive employee thriving and organizational success. We'll explore how to identify and address the root causes of employee challenges while fostering a work environment that empowers leaders and individuals to make the key behavioral changes that fuel organizational growth.

TampaWell, activated by Tampa General Hospital, is an innovative health and wellness initiative that is empowering communities and transforming lives in East Tampa through a community garden and food pharmacy. This initiative aims to increase community members' consumption of fruits and vegetables, increase household food security, reduce health care provider usage and associated costs, and reduce instances of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The TampaWell Community Garden and Food Pharmacy has provided a platform to fight food insecurity and educate current and future generations on the importance of healthy eating for their overall well-being. Through collaboration with the City of Tampa and a host of community partners, TampaWell is promoting preventative health to reduce chronic disease and repeated hospitalizations as well as supporting the city’s most at-risk residents by addressing the underlying social factors that impact health. The team behind TampaWell share lessons learned from this innovative and bold endeavor as well as the positive impact on the health of this underserved community.

You've heard of "executive presence" but what is "wellness presence"? For wellness practitioners, projecting well-being plays a key role in our ability to positively influence and impact those we serve. In this session, participants will learn to match their inner wellness values with their outward projection of well-being, integrating mind and body awareness with physiological techniques used by professional stage actors to cultivate their personal wellness presence.

What are the signs of distress, and how can we as leaders or colleagues support someone without being a mental health therapist or counselor? This session will discuss psychological safety and well-being from a lens of providing support to someone who may be experiencing distress. Designed for the lay person, we will discuss what signs of distress to look for; the skills needed for reflective, empathic listening; and the importance of knowing the available resources when a person needs a greater level of care.

Although we are familiar with being mindful of disabilities, are we aware of the concept of “ableism” and how it can show up in wellness culture and programs? Even the most well-intentioned programs can sometimes have undercurrents of ableism, such as creating ideals of health that are not attainable for all, or not accounting for how physical, mental, emotional and social aspects can influence decisions and health. Internal and external ableist beliefs can shame, disengage and overwhelm. Building programs and shifting beliefs towards more inclusivity can be a powerful and much-needed next step to transform the wellness industry and culture.

As health and wellness professionals, we understand that the prevalence of disease risk is not distributed equally among populations, communities, and individuals. In this session, attendees will discover how chronic condition predisposition goes beyond genetics and examine the effects of various cultural norms and their role in the exacerbation of disease risk and outcomes. Using a culturally competent lens to examine the role of cultural health behaviors and their relationship to chronic conditions will inform diverse and inclusive practices that we can use to facilitate the broadest possible changes.

So often, we’re told to leave our “personal stuff” at home and make work only about work. But work is personal, and we’re human. The more we can understand one another and our unique experiences, the more compassion and empathy we’ll bring to work, and the more we’ll feel valued as a result. In this keynote, Kristen will share the secret to how she built a business with an industry-leading retention rate—despite the fact that her people spent their days cleaning toilets. It wasn’t the work that kept everyone engaged; it was the focus on relationships that led to a culture of trust and belonging. You’ll learn how to use curiosity, vulnerability, and empathy to create a similar environment in your organization and discover the connection between deeper relationships and greater results.

Despite decades of experience, few who initiate changes in lifestyle behaviors are able sustain them long-term. Why do you think that is? It turns out that much of what we’ve been taught about how to help others create behavior change is simplistic, outdated and (for many) misguided. Most of the programs, plans and strategies can’t be sustained within the noisy, busy, constantly changing world most people live within. And to top it off, popular change strategies, like habit formation, are based on assumptions that few people actually meet when it comes to complex behaviors like exercise and dietary change. University of Michigan sustainable behavior change researcher and lifestyle coach Michelle Segar has devoted 30 years to the study of how to help people transform their mindset and learn the skill set for creating lasting motivation and behavioral resilience. This provocative presentation turns our outdated behavior change paradigm on its head to reveal a fresh, flexible and brain-based approach to creating changes in behavior that can finally be sustained.

The session will cover the ideal of optimal health for all —regardless of sex, age, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors —sometimes referred to as health equity. We will cover the workplace as a sector or location that can contribute to optimizing health for all with positive outcomes for employees, employers, and society, at large. Deeply understanding the relationship between health equity, and work will provide a new foundation for us as wellness professionals to build, analyze, and improve upon the effectiveness of employer-sponsored wellness activities and initiatives. We will conclude with a review of the win-win-win associated with striving for optimal health for all in the workplace.

For some time now, researchers have been sounding the alarm about workplace sitting behavior and lack of physical activity leading to employee exhaustion, decreased job satisfaction, musculoskeletal disorders and diminishing productivity. We also know that the majority of corporate fitness initiatives and programs are mostly utilized by those who are already ‘fit’ instead of the other 80% of the workforce that is most in need of physical fitness intervention. This session will focus on what we can do to assist the sedentary, inactive, and uninterested employee to move from sitting to strong. How can we make fitness simple for all?

In today's healthcare landscape, professionals often oscillate between roles of "thinkings" and "doings", sometimes sidelining our inherent nature as human beings. This presentation delves into the potential of coaching and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly ChatGPT. By leveraging AI, we can adeptly navigate complex tasks, allowing us to emphasize genuine human interactions. Participants will acquire a nuanced understanding of ethically integrating AI tools, ensuring they resonate with the ethics of the coaching profession.

The employee mental health crisis is the new frontier of workplace wellness risk, and it’s no secret that prioritizing mental health is crucial to talent retention. Still, many employers are struggling to effectively support employee mental health. In this session, award-winning mental health trainer and employer consultant Mettie Spiess will deliver best practice strategies that destination employers are using to make a measurable, meaningful difference in the lives of their employees, as well as share the costly pitfalls to avoid. Whether your employee mental health initiatives need to be refreshed, reinvented or established for the first time, this session is for you! Attendees will walk away with actionable strategies, a reinvigorated commitment and resources.

Healthy aging and longevity research has advanced in dramatic and varied ways. This session explores three frameworks for healthy aging, including the blue zones, functional medicine, and master athletes who train and compete at high levels into their 60’s and beyond. We compare and contrast key elements of each framework and examine implications for wellness programming. In addition, qualitative data from interviews with very healthy people in their 60s is presented to illustrate how the different frameworks manifest in people’s lifestyles. Having a long, healthy life takes decades of consistent focus, and we can help people get there.

We hear buzzwords and phrases emphasizing the skills needed to foster meaningful connections to support wellness, calling on us to “be compassionate, flexible, resilient and, communicative,” to name a few. These sound great, but how do we actually put those skills into practice to collaborate and connect more effectively, and what does that look and feel like in our work and in our lives? In this highly interactive session, attendees will learn through direct experience how improvisation skills and exercises can apply to their professional and personal lives, supported by groundbreaking research connecting these activities with essential elements of wellness: enhanced resilience, communication skills, and flexibility. We will highlight almost three decades of research supporting applied improv as a highly effective methodology to promote social and emotional wellness. Our group will then transition into playing (that’s right, playing!) improv games to practice thinking quickly on our feet and working as a team to enhance our connections, build new worlds together, and collaboratively solve problems in a fun, low-stakes environment.

Often we create wellness programs based on recommendations, trends, or gut instincts. How do we know that what we are offering is effective? What metrics are we looking for? This session will help you take inventory of what you have and assess what you are missing. We will also look at what is considered to be supportive, equitable and evidence-based to make sure programming is helping and not harming. Finally, we will create effective and sustainable goals to support your program through its evolution.

The workplace is a microcosm of society, and we are on the cusp of the greatest workplace transformation since the industrial era. The norms, paradigms, and social systems that rule the world at large do not disappear when people “clock in.” Instead, they are unseen forces that perpetually shape the world of work. If we want to improve organizational culture and well-being at work and truly understand what our team members want and need, it is time to shift our perspective. Instead of focusing on the latest insular HR or business trend, it is time for a more expansive, extrospective approach that considers humanity within and outside of work.

Lifestyle behavioral change is not simply a rational process. Emotions influence or sometimes completely determine the outcome of decisions we are confronted with every day. Discover how to help the people you serve to address the role their emotions are playing in lifestyle improvement. Engage in this largely experiential workshop to deepen your ability to work with emotions without crossing the line into therapy.

Join us as we delve into the critical connection between nutrition and mental well-being in the workplace. We'll explore the often-overlooked impact of nutrition on mental health and discuss why it's essential for employers to prioritize this aspect of employee wellness through promotion of positive food culture. Through an insightful review of common workplace nutrition programs that fall short, we'll offer a fresh perspective and present numerous innovative ideas that attendees can readily implement in their organizations to foster a healthier and happier workforce.

Direct exposure to nature has been proven to be extremely beneficial for our physical and emotional well-being. As a result, calls for the public to balance out their screen time with “green time” have been increasing, but it’s worth noting that we can know nature is good for us, and yet still find it challenging to put green time into practice. This session provides experiential learning opportunities that teach participants how to refocus their attention so that they can reconnect with nature in technology-free ways, leading to sustainable habits around getting more green time, less screen time, and improved well-being.

Imagine a future where employee well-being isn't just a perk, but a strategic advantage. This session is your roadmap, exploring how health coaches empowering personal well-being and business consultants crafting employee experience and business strategy can unite to drive true change in the workplace. Too often these two professions are isolated resulting in wellness washing, individual-only initiatives, or lofty goals that don’t leave the C-suite. To banish burnout, we have to empower the individual and create environments in which they and the business can thrive together. Join us for a groundbreaking session to learn how this powerful alliance can build thriving organizations, unlock peak performance, and redefine employee well-being.

Our personal stories and experiences impact our work both consciously and unconsciously every day. Sharing your story with others can be impactful for your own spiritual and intellectual wellness while also greatly impacting the other person’s wellness. We often feel more connected to a story or situation when we derive meaning from the interaction and a message that connects to a greater purpose in life. However, the use of self-disclosure in professional settings should be thoughtful, intentional and purposeful, and the presenter sharing should carefully consider the audience and potential impact of their self-disclosure. Under the right circumstances, sharing your story with others who learn from your experiences can provide immense gratitude in your life and re-ignite a spark in someone else's.

Shame is one of the silent enemies of preventative health and help-seeking. While there is plenty of stigma that can show up in the health and wellness industry, shame is a specific type of self-stigma that can prevent individuals from investing time, energy, and money into their own health and well-being. The good news is that health and wellness professionals and employers can deepen their understanding of shame and design strategies to address it to change the tide for those who suffer and avoid caring for themselves as a result.

What contributes to joy, wonder, flow, and that meaningful spark that connects you more deeply to your life, team, and work? Such self-transcendent experiences are important, not just for your own well-being, but also for the well-being of your team. They help us to connect with one another around common interests and values, driving stronger feelings of satisfaction, fulfillment, and engagement. This session brings a new framework for understanding how to implement practices that address the heart and soul of well-being into your life and into your work. It aims to inspire new thinking around how we can honor a whole-person approach to well-being.