The aim of the new ‘Hydrothermal Spa Forum’ and its online platform is – apart form the provision of information – an interactive exchange the year around. There were many opportunities for this at the conference. The breaks between interesting lectures from three countries on the topics of “International Spa Planning and Trends” (Prof. Arch. h.c. Karl Landauer, GesmbH Atelier and Architekturbüro, Austria), “Thalassotherapy” (Jean-Luc Pleuvry, Thalazur, France), and “Cruise liners and Spas” (Don Genders, Design for Leisure, GB) were used for stimulating discussions.

Rolf Longrée, Managing Director of Lux Elements: “WDT, with its own tent created an ideal location for a casual exchange of experiences. From the very beginning it was the aim of the User Conference to encourage personal contact. Today, the organisers can see that this aim was achieved and would to carry on a step further: We have recognised that there is a large requirement for technical information in the hydrothermal field. The new ‘Hydrothermal Spa Forum’ is intended to answer the questions in this field and to make these answers available to the entire public.”

New features in this year’s conference were moderator-guided “Round Table Discussions” on the topics of “National Standards”, “Eco Spa”, “Mega trends” and “Health benefits of ceramic infrared radiation”. The participants were able to decide freely on a topic and take part in the discussion. After about an hour the results were presented to all participants.

Rainer Rieger expressed his satisfaction after the event: “The first ‘Hydrothermal Spa Forum’ exceeded my personal expectations by far. I think we – the organisers – have found the right mixture of interesting lectures, interactive group projects and social events, so that each individual participant was able to draw his/her own interesting and useful information from the event. I am already looking forward to the next Forum!”