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Photo courtesy Caesars Entertainment.

Following the success of innovative wellness rollouts over the past few years—from wellness menus to a Global Wellness Forum to a wellness roadshow—Caesars Entertainment recently debuted a comprehensive white paper on wellness for meeting and event industry professionals. The white paper offers data on the benefits of integrating wellness into events, an FAQ sheet and a sample agenda infused with event wellness intended to demonstrate how easily wellness can be incorporated within a program.

So this seemed like a great to time to catch up with Kelly Gleeson Smith, senior vice president of sales, Caesars Entertainment National Meetings & Events, about the importance of resetting the nervous system during times of stress, connecting with your team on a personal level and why the events/wellness connection is more important than ever.

What are your thoughts on the state of wellness and events?

The wellness component is even more important right now than it’s ever been. The state of the country is a little tumultuous. It’s going to give everybody an avenue to reset when we’re having these very important face-to-face meetings. It’s something that is valuable to everybody that’s traveling today. And I will say that Caesars Entertainment’s wellness menus and the white paper that we just put out help the meeting planner bring those elements of wellness into their meeting space. We were the thought leader and the trendsetter in 2023 when we embarked on this whole wellness initiative, but I think right now it’s more important than ever that we’ve made it easier for the planner to include wellness initiatives in a program. 

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Can you tell me what kind of feedback you're getting from planners on your wellness initiatives?

Our wellness menus go far beyond food and beverage options. They also include the practitioners that can come in and do a little 15-minute break. What we’re hearing from the planners is it’s so easy to implement, and in some cases, you’re giving your attendees life skills that they didn’t even know they needed that they’ll carry with them long after the program has concluded. People think wellness it has to be complicated, but it doesn’t. [Editor’s note: Here, Caesars Entertainment wellness menus speaker Nolan Nichols shares his insights on achieving wellness onsite at an event through rest, clarity and mindset.]

Can you tell us about a simple wellness effort that can be enacted at an event?

First off, I will say the fact that it’s now an integral part of the conversation is such an encouraging outcome from our discussions around wellness. One example of something that’s very easy to do, such as during a meeting breakout, is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) tapping. I see athletes do it. Sometimes people just need to reset the nervous system when they’re overly stimulated. It’s very easy and it’s amazing the effects it has, and I think that people who aren’t willing to look into this way of doing something quick and easy to reset energy levels are missing out.

Tell us about keeping that wellness focus in mind even closer to home—with the Caesars Entertainment team.

We have some leadership training that really helps us engage with our team members so we can ask questions to be on a more personal level to support them and make sure we know what they need. Work-life balance is really important to us. This job is very hard, it’s taxing, there are a lot of wins and there are some losses, and it can take its toll on people. And so having a close connection with leadership, from my perspective, makes these teams stronger and helps to create that overall “irrational loyalty” that we’ve been striving for. We have team members that might say, “Hey, I need a day,” and it’s not a big deal. But if we didn’t have that relationship, we wouldn't know that they need it. We’re very mindful, making sure that everybody takes care of themselves and isn’t just worried about the business.