HPI attendance at The 8th Annual Discovery Vitality Wellness and Fitness Convention
We attended this phenomenal event held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on the 23-25th August 201. It again proved to be an invaluable experience and very worthwhile to attend. Together with the two main organisers, Discovery Vitality and the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, a very enriching convention with many exciting, current and boundary extending discussions/forums/inspirational talks were on offer. With South Africa facing so many challenges at present in terms of obesity, cardiovascular risk, diabetes, HIV/AIDs to name a few, it is all important to have such a forum where pertinent issues such as the aforementioned can be discussed and explored to eventually make a difference and improve people’s lives.
Sessions which HPI attended included many of the corporate wellness and nutritional tracks as well as some sports medicine and thought provoking key note addresses. Those that stood out included:
- Kate Geagan (USA) who gave a thought provoking key note titled ‘Are you ready for the New Revolution in Food?’ and talk on ‘Change your diet, change your world. And breakthrough to your best self!’;
- Celynn Erasmus who gave a motivating and thoroughly interesting talk on ‘The Coffee Conundrum: What influences people’s food choices in the rat race’;
- Braam Malherve (extreme adventurer and motivational speaker) gave a phenomenal key note which left you inspired and in awe of what he has achieved
- An expert discussion on the low-carbohydrate, high protein diet which included the likes of Prof Tim Noakes, Ria Catsicas, Prof Marjanne Senekal and Prof Larry Distiller – this discussion was highly insightful and created many debates! All in all very entertaining!
- Francois Millard (USA) gave an insightful talk about ‘Corporate Wellness in the US: is it the ‘fittest’ that will survive?’;
- A very interesting discussion and presentation on the practical aspects of corporate wellness presented by Christopher Felgate and Dr Tracy Colby Alexander. Results from last year’s ‘healthiest company’ winner, BSG, were also analysed and discussed. Congratulations to BSG for retaining the title again this year!;
- Dr Ross Tucker gave a wonderful keynote analysing the latest Olympics.
All of the talks/discussions above allowed for us to gain insight into current trends in the market and to keep up to date with the latest research and findings.
Conventions and conferences always prove to be invaluable and are a great place to meet like minded individuals and to share ideas. We feel it is of the utmost importance to attend such events as our field is always evolving and as a company we need to do the same to ensure that we offer our clients the best possible service. This not only allows for the company to be successful but also more importantly allows for a greater success rate in terms of improving an individual’s health and wellness – who could ask for more!
It was wonderful to be a part of such a world class event and we will definitely be going back next year!