A look at factors in the selection of venues for the ISPA Conference

When ISPA hosted its inaugural Conference in 1991 , the attendees — 150 spa professionals from 10 countries — could assemble comfortably in the meeting space at Florida ’ s Turnberry Isle Resort & Club . That first gathering did not include an Expo tradeshow or Experience Center or the variety of breakout education sessions that became Conference mainstays in later years .

Post-Covid venue selection for future ISPA Conferences requires checking off a long list of parameters for space , accessibility , convenience , comfort and safety .

Overall capacity Finding a meeting facility with a couple thousand available seats overlooking the main stage is already a limiting factor — many event facilities do not offer a single room of that size — but it is only the beginning of considerations regarding venue capacity . Each year , thousands of spa professionals and industry resource providers gather for a world-class trade show , dozens of hours of education sessions and keynote addresses and a hands-on Experience Center . We join together for meals every day , along with needing ample open areas for socializing in groups large and small . Each aspect of the Conference experience requires its own specialty spaces .

With an ideal venue size of a quarter-million square feet , the ISPA Conference covers a combined four and a half acres of floorspace — roughly the size of three floors of the Empire State Building or the area of three football pitches ( soccer fields ). A few necessary Conference areas with extraordinary space requirements are : l Expo Hall : More than 200 resource partners set up elaborate displays and demonstrations on the tradeshow floor . Add enough corridor space for 2,200 or more attendees to traverse the area , and the Expo space requires more than

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