The Corporate Health and Wellness Association (CHWA), an independent resource for corporate wellness education, featured a $100,000 plus wearable giveaway for attendees. Seven different wearable technology manufacturers provided devices for attendees to use to compete in fitness activity challenges at the Corporate Wellness Conference part of the EHBC in Orlando, FL, September 27 - 30, 2015.
This event served two purposes. It provided attendees -- generally people in C-Suites in human resources -- with an opportunity to make informed decisions about which device is right for their employee population. It also encouraged attendees to move. When you have a full exhibit hall you want movement. This served to be a fun activity for conferences of all shapes and sizes.
Attendees were able to interact and compete though the Matchup Platform via the wearable devices. With a lot of sessions and certification programs running simultaneously, the wearable challenge was a great hit. "This activity is easy to incorporate, even if you don't have wearable devices", said Sarah Hunt, Education & Engagement Leader for the CWC.
"You can encourage attendees to pick an app on their phones and build teams. The key is to choose a universal platform like Matchup so attendees can participate by linking their phone app to the platform. This is a fun way to move your attendees around and more importantly give your attendees the ability to meet one another by teaming up on the app.
"The Corporate Wellness Conference, part of the EHBC hosted the top names in fitness trackers such as Intel, Garmin, Jawbone, Endever, Yoo Fitness, LifeTrak and Polar. Each company attended to help further the reach of its wearable devices through exhibiting, networking with attendees and participating in challenges and industry roundtables including the Second Fitness Wearable Device Think Tank & Challenge and the Attendee Movement Challenge.
This year's conference put wearable devices front and center. "By focusing on educating the corporate wellness marketplace about wearable technology-not just who is involved and what is being developed but also distinguishing the hype from the reality-we have our fingers on the pulse of just how big wearables can get," explained Jonathan Edelheit, Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Wellness Magazine and Director of the Corporate Health & Wellness Association.
"It is through this education and analysis we can best serve the market to help them decipher what's realistic and what is pure nonsense so they can make calculated decisions through each step of their wellness programs." The Corporate Wellness Conference incorporated other ideas to get their attendees moving."
Our future challenge will be placing various pieces of fitness equipment in booths within our exhibit hall. We devised a great challenge to move our conference participants around the exhibit hall in a fun way," said Rudy Dopico, Conference Manager.
"The plan is to make it fun, interactive and to move attendees to see our featured exhibitors as well!"With movement as the theme, events are fun and memorable.
