“ When delegates are away from home for a week, it’ s important we look after them and their health”
14 Scotland hen the Royal College of Nursing( RCN) chose the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow as the venue for its Annual Congress in June 2016, it was an opportunity for both organisations to promote healthier choices among the 4,000 delegates. The RCN’ s‘ Healthy You’ supports healthcare professionals to develop and implement self-care strategies. The SECC, meanwhile, was the first venue in the world to be accredited under the World Obesity Federation’ s Healthy Venue Awards programme, leading the way in promoting self-care and healthy choices for delegates in their care. Michael Brown, chair of council at the RCN says:“ It’ s important- when people are away from home for a week- that we look after them not just educationally and spiritually but also their health and wellbeing. We wanted to promote a positive message that, although you’ re away at a congress, you can still have that healthy input into your life”. The RCN wanted to demonstrate how the Healthy You programme could be brought to life and made real for members. The SECC wanted to activate its policies around
SECC, a healthy choice
“ When delegates are away from home for a week, it’ s important we look after them and their health”
healthy choices for delegates and integrate its Healthy Venue status into real-time activity. The venue and client worked in partnership to create a health and wellbeing programme that ran alongside the main congress agenda. It was widely promoted to delegates.“ Health and Wellbeing is really important for our delegates,” says Rebecca Hoole, conference organiser at the RCN. It’ s a long week and it’ s quite stressful, so they need a chance to get a break and to think about themselves.” The programme included daily morning meditation; breathing techniques; morning yoga; and Bowden therapy( massage). It also featured a Health Hub with delegates encouraged to drop by at lunchtime to see a health coach and nutritionist for consultations and treatments. All delegates were given the opportunity to participate in a Pedometer Challenge where the delegate who accumulated the most steps during the congress on each day would win a prize. Delegates were also encouraged to walk to the SECC and to download the Glasgow Walking App to increase their steps by following a variety of guided walks around the city. Running routes were also suggested on Map My Run. The SECC’ s arrangement with Nextbike Glasgow also gave access for delegates to free bike hire. With 170 bikes for hire in 31 locations, delegates could keep fit 24 / 7 during their stay. And a range of healthy eating‘ Pods’ were made available to delegates as part of the catering offer for the congress.“ It was a great illustration of how we can put our Healthy Venues accreditation into practice,” says Kathleen Warden, director of conference sales at the SECC.“ Delegates were given a wide range of healthy options to choose from, whether it was exercise, diet or staying stress-free. Conferences really don’ t have to be bad for your health and our collaboration really showed what can be done for people who are in our care.” CN www. conference-news. co. uk