As I sat there, watching 96-year-old Deborah Szekely, co-founder of Rancho La Puerta, and listened to her tell her story about how she founded the world’s first ever fitness resort in 1940, exuding humour, charm and wisdom, I remember thinking “I want to be like her!” And, judging by the standing ovation she received, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
Having Deborah travel all the way from Mexico to Crete to speak at Connections Wellbeing was incredibly humbling – my heartfelt thanks to her, her daughter Sarah, Peter and Roma for helping to make this happen.
Marina Efraimoglou from Euphoria Retreat delivered her session about the Five Elements with such charisma and knowledge. I learnt so much about this ancient way of viewing wellbeing – and never before did I realise the parallels between Chinese medicine and Greek myths, it was fascinating! Thank you for everything, Marina.
The Sleep Clinic with Dr Carlo Barbieri from Lefay Resort and Spa Lago di Garda also went down a treat – what he said about how your body processes emotions and toxins while you sleep really got me thinking, and provoked a lot of questions. Thank you Carlo and Manola for this excellent session – and thank you to Carla Xavier from Lounge Luxury Travel Consulting for letting Dr Barbieri diagnose your sleep quality in front of a live audience!
And of course, Stella Photi from Wellbeing Escapes, our content partner. Stella always speaks from a position of pure passion for selling wellbeing travel the right way. Her ConnecTalk on some intriguing wellbeing trends followed by a workshop was so useful and engaging, we could barely get people to stop talking! And a huge thanks to our ConnecTalk Panelists Lorraine O’Connor from Insignia and Susan Shiffman from Valerie Wilson Travel, for sharing their perspectives as buyers.
To our lovely host hotel, Out of the Blue Capsis Elite Resort, I cannot thank you enough. Michalis, Margarita, Eleni, Natascha and all of your staff, you created such a welcoming atmosphere, and it was so wonderful to host an event in the beautiful surroundings of your resort! And the wellbeing experiences you provided were so fun and interesting to try – the sound massage, body composition analysis, the massages and more!
To Georgios, Andreas and the rest of the team from Welcome Holidays, thank you for being our official ground handler and for also greeting each of our delegates so warmly, you did an outstanding job.
I also thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at the newly-opened Abaton Island Resort and Spa, with Greek dancers and firework display! Kati, thank you to you and your team for putting on such a special evening for us.
I cannot thank all of our sponsors and partners enough for making Connections Wellbeing in Greece such an unforgettable event: Out of the Blue Capsis Elite Resort, Stella Photi from Wellbeing Escapes, Welcome Holidays, The Telegraph, Abaton Island Resort and Spa and the Greek National Tourist Board.
To see what we got up to, take a look at the event video for Connections Wellbeing in Greece created by ActionVideo – Giovanni and Luca, once again you’ve excelled yourselves, thank you!
We’re already making plans about where to host Connections Wellbeing next year, so watch this space! And if you’re interested in joining us at any upcoming Connections events – or Connections Socials – give us a call or a message any time.
Ciao!
Micaela
To enquire about a Connections event, contact Micaela on micaela@weareconnections.com
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