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At the Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) recent “Redefining Workplace Wellness” roundtable, the experts discussed how technology is the ultimate double-edged sword when it comes to workplace wellness: Technology is “killing” employees with 24/7 connections—but is also delivering incredible, new tools that can radically help with their physical and mental health. Businesses will increasingly embrace telemedicine and online coaching—even sensors in chairs that nudge workers to get up and stretch. And the future is going to look, well, futuristic: Move over clunky wearable devices because invisible, ingestible nanotechnology will soon effortlessly capture worker’s biometric data 24/7.

The recent P5+1 agreement with Iran (P5+1 refers to the six world powers—China, France, Russia, the UK, the U.S. and Germany—that have been working together diplomatically regarding Iran’s nuclear program) has the potential to alter the global geo-economic landscape in the Middle East and beyond. But Thierry Malleret argues it has other implications, namely helping open up a wellness tourism market with serious potential. Iran has an extraordinarily rich, ancient history and culture and large tourism companies are already figuring out how to invest.  

The Global Wellness Summit held a press conference August 19 at the Four Seasons in Mexico City about its upcoming November 13-15 conference.  Summit Co-Chairs Susie Ellis (chairman and CEO, Global Wellness Institute [GWI]) and Gina Diez Barroso de Franklin (president and CEO, Grupo Diarq), along with Mexico City Minister of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marqués, explained to the 40-plus major media in attendance (including Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, Robb Report and Vogue) about the wide-ranging 2015 Summit agenda. They also presented key GWI data on Mexico’s status as a global/regional wellness tourism growth powerhouse: ranking #11 worldwide and attracting almost one in two wellness tourism “dollars” spent across the entire Latin American/Caribbean region ($10.5 billion out of $25.9 billion).

“Why Are Millennials So Obsessed with Food?” – The Atlantic, 8/14/15

This article exposes a trend with considerable implications: The food culture is changing, and a key factor is how processed foods are being rejected by the millennials. Their taste for natural ingredients will shape the future of restaurants, resorts, grocery stores and agriculture.

The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) held its sixth roundtable July 14, in Wales, in partnership with the Institute of Life Science at Swansea University’s Medical School. Thirty-seven high-level experts from the government, academic and private sectors sat down to debate how to make this country a wellness leader among small nations. Now Wales is small, but it’s already a big wellness innovator—just check out its new “Well-being of Future Generations Act.” Gathered leaders identified seven key interventions that could build a more “Well Wales,” from promoting its unique wellness tourism assets like raw nature, peace and cultural authenticity to creating “wellness schools.” Read the press release | Read the full report
 

Technology has suddenly spawned new, global work realities: imprisonment by screens and a powerful erosion of the line between now always-on “work” and “life.” And assembled experts agreed that we have not yet begun to grasp the wide-ranging impact on employees’ physical and mental health…and productivity.