This morning, Edie Weiner provided the opening keynote for the Global Spa Summit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Here are some highlights from her talk:

“The world has gone through several fundamental transformations in history: from the Agricultural era to the Industrial era to the Post-Industrial era to our current age, called the “Emotile” (this is also covered in-depth in WEB, Inc. book The Insider’s Guide to the Future).  She calls it that because the current growth industries are about our emotional wants and needs, and the way we operate — from work to communications to household formation — is highly motile.

But we are going through another profound transformation, and we are entering a new era. Edie calls this the Virtual Economy, with all of the new value propositions deriving from an altered dimensionality, and that dimension is space.  This transformation holds a great deal of possibility for redefining sensuality, wellness, leisure, luxury, comfort, belief systems, travel…in short, there are numerous implications for the spa world. This opening session laid out the transformation and many of its consequences,  especially as various businesses and industries contemplate the opportunities and challenges in this first phase of the 21st century.”

Tomorrow, Edie will sum up her thoughts throughout the two days of the Summit, and leave attendees with the ones she feels hold the most promise for the expansion and success of the spa industry. Despite much of the gloom and doom in the world, much of it real and warranted, she will highlight the opportunities that lie ahead in not only being financially successful, but also how people can make a positive impact on their clients, their societies, and even the world at large.