BY JEREMY McCARTHY

SEEING THE ANNOUNCEMENT on the 2025 ISPA Conference taking place at The Broadmoor destination resort in Colorado Springs brought back a flood of memories and emotions . The Broadmoor was where I attended my first ISPA Conference in 1998 . I wasn ’ t entirely new to the industry then — I was working at the Four Seasons Resort Wailea ( of White Lotus fame ), and it was already the fourth hotel of my career . But attending ISPA that year was the first time I realized , I wasn ’ t alone .

I don ’ t mean to sound dramatic but , growing up as a spa manager in a luxury hotel brand , I had to figure out a lot on my own . The early spas where I worked were small , so I didn ’ t have a team of managers with different experiences and perspectives on how to run a spa . And as is usual for spa managers in the hospitality industry , I always reported to the director of rooms , the director of food and beverage or the hotel manager — none of whom knew anything about how to run a spa either . So I had to figure it out for myself .

It would be difficult for young professionals today to fully grasp what “ figuring things out ” was like before 1998 . There was no Google , no YouTube and certainly no ChatGPT . At that time , trade magazines were the best way to get a sense of what was going on in the industry . But even if you saw something interesting in a magazine , the world was not as connected as it is today , so it wasn ’ t as easy to reach out to others to collaborate or learn . I really was on my own .

That ’ s why arriving to The Broadmoor in 1998 and finding myself in a room full of professionals and peers , all facing the same challenges , was such a revelation . It brought me into a new community where I could exchange

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