For the first time, the Barcelona International Swimming Pool Show will host the Wellness and Spa Experience Event.

The Wellness and Spa Experience Event will be, above all, a space dedicated to knowledge and networking.

More than a customary congress, it will be an interactive platform where experts on the different aspects of wellness and professionals looking for solutions for their businesses will be able to meet and share proposals and opinions.

The talks will cover four fundamental themes: the future of wellness as a new lifestyle; how to design a wellness experience; current and future management trends and their main drivers; and how to maximise sales with the right commercial policy.

The list of participants includes László Puczkó, tourism director at Xellum Management Consulting Company, Hungary, and also managing director of the Global Wellness and Spa Tourism Industry Monitor (a project of Xellum’s The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa); Gérard André, expert in wellness and senior consultant at Eurofin Hospitality (Lausanne, Switzerland); Jean-Eric Knecht, president and co-founder of the Elegance Group and leader of the international ISO Wellness and Spa project; and Andrea Lomas, head of group spa operations, Mandarin Oriental Group, Hong-Kong.

Piscina Barcelona, a distinctly international event

From 15 to 18 October 2013, Piscina Barcelona will again bring together the leading firms in the fields of residential swimming pools, wellness and sports and recreational aquatic facilities.

Despite the adverse economic climate, in Spain this sector is in good health and has 2,000 companies which employ 51,000 workers.

The event is also very international: in 2011, 63 per cent of exhibitors were from 23 countries, and 45 per cent of visitors came from 127 countries.

This year's show is coinciding in Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via Exhibition Centre with Body Life, the event dedicated to the fitness sector, which will showcase proposals in equipment, design, set-up and management of sports facilities.

This simultaneous staging will undoubtedly be a magnet for all those interested in the wellness sector.