Conference

Is SPALON the way forward?

Spa Mantra’s national conference, ‘Is ‘SPALON’ the way forward?’, held at Professional Beauty India, Mumbai on the 2^nd of June at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, attempted to decode the emerging trend of ‘SPALON’ an entity that combines the formats of a salon and a spa. The conference featured an industry study, panel discussions and talks by the noted celebrities of the salon and spa industry, for an audience of by over 100 salon/spa owners.

In the first session, the conference was inaugurated by Sandhya Chipalkatti, Editor and Publisher, Spa Mantra. Smita Chipalkatti, Associate Publisher, C & E Media, presented a national survey that outlined the effect of the spalon trend on the industry. The presentation showed how salons and spas are rapidly adopting services from one another to increase their revenue and to offer better client convenience. This was followed by a keynote speech by Dr. Manish Patwardhan, Founder, Spa Consultants and President, ISWA on the difference between a spa and a massage parlour.

The conference then moved on to its three panel discussions in the second session – The first of these was ‘Get the Design Right’ a thought provoking discussion on creating the right ambience moderated by Simon Shepherdson, MD, International Leisure Consultants, Hong Kong.

The second panel discussion, ‘Recipe for Success’ discussed the shared vision and trust needed between a spalon and a product partner, right from quality of products to the benefits of brand-supported training.

The final panel discussion ‘Choose the Right Menu of Treatments to Ensure Profitability’ saw a lively and humorous discussion about choosing the correct treatments by judging your client base.

In the last session, ‘A Winning Strategy’ saw a presentation titled ‘Let’s make lots of money through marketing’ by Anurag Kedia, Director, Four Fountains Spa and an inspirational speech titled ‘Dream Big Achieve Big’ from CK Kumaravel, Co-Founder Naturals Salons and Spas.