Wellness Matters
Incorporating wellness into Waterloo Region business events and incentive retreats
By Doug Wallace, Ignite magazine | October 2024
When you’re planning an off-site conference or meeting, the size of the venue and its corresponding accommodations, the location and the overall experience that awaits you are all important points to consider.
But integrating elements of wellness into your event is not an add-on anymore—it’s a requisite, particularly in the minds of the event specialists in Waterloo Region. No one knows this better than the team at Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa, a noted Relais & Château property for smaller VIP and incentive travel group programs.
“We’ve been told many times that Langdon Hall feels like another world,” says Kate MacKay, Langdon Hall’s sales director, referring to the fact that the setting of a conference or meeting is often a wellness component in itself. A half-hour’s drive southeast of uptown Waterloo, the property “feels like you could be in the middle of Europe or the English countryside.”
When you start off with a relaxing setting for your meeting, you’re almost halfway to achieving the overall comforting atmosphere that gets people thinking at their most creative and productive. MacKay says that the Langdon Hall team tries to foster an environment where people feel like they have escaped the regular world. And often, other wellness elements just fall into place.
Of course, adding a spa treatment to your conference is a wellness no-brainer, an easy way to handily set shoulders at ease. The world-class spa at Langdon Hall has this element down pat. “We always encourage involving The Spa in an event or retreat where possible,” MacKay says. “It is a cellphone-free environment—it’s always nice to give anyone who works in a corporate setting the ability to disconnect.”
Attend to what’s on the menu
Culinary offerings are also a good way to work wellness into your event. “Knowing where your food is coming from and sourcing it sustainably is something we value and something our guests really appreciate, especially in a corporate setting,” MacKay says. “Our kitchen team can see the garden right outside their window. Everything on our menu is sourced either directly from our garden or from a local farm.”
The Langdon Hall kitchen conducts tours of the one-acre garden and stages cooking demos using ingredients grown right on property. Langdon Hall’s extensive wine and beverage program also has a non-alcoholic layer, with the creation of mocktail recipes and the sourcing of non-alcoholic wine and beer.
Spend time outside the boardroom
Sometimes, simply shifting meetings out of doors can yield a completely different vibe—to your team and their attitude, to the discussion and to the results.
Physical activity can play a wellness role, with games or sports doing double-duty as teambuilding components at the same time. MacKay encourages groups to get out into Langdon Hall’s 75 acres of Carolinian forest, onto the 12 kilometres of walking trails or even on the tennis court. “Group activities are a great bonding experience for guests, which is why we also offer things like archery and cooking demonstrations. Any time we foster teambuilding, it feels like we’re also fostering wellness.”
Wellness is more than a trend for events
Work-life balance is what the future of event planning is all about. Incorporating wellness into your business event in Waterloo Region sends a very positive message to your attendees —that you care about them.
“Wellness isn’t only about the physical, it’s about the mental,” MacKay says. “How can we help our guests truly unwind? That’s always the question we’re asking ourselves.”
Personalize Your Group Experience
Contact Jennifer Eddings to learn more about hosting your planet-friendly business event in Waterloo Region.
Jennifer Eddings, Director of Business Development
Explore Waterloo Region
519-590-8126
[email protected]
Explorewaterloo.ca