Pulse December 2017 | Page 66

asK tHe exPert davId edWards by Kelly HeItz

zeel ' s dave edwards accepting the Innovator of the year award from IsPa vice chairman todd Hewitt . earlier this year , IsPa members were encouraged to submit innovations to be considered for an IsPa Innovate award in one of six categories : experiences , leadership , philanthropy , products , technology & equipment , and treatments . All submissions were distributed to the ISPA membership and each member organization had the opportunity to vote for their favorite initiatives . The 15 submissions that received the most member votes were designated the 2017 ISPA Innovate Award Winners and recognized at the 2017 ISPA Conference & Expo during Wednesday ’ s General Session .
For the first time since the Innovate Awards began , an Innovation of the year award was presented . This award was voted on by the Awards Committee from the 15 Innovate Award winners as the most ground- breaking and worthy of recognition as the most innovative . It ’ s no surprise that the biggest innovator is a company that is working to solve one of the biggest problems in the spa industry .
With over 33,000 open jobs in the U . S . spa industry , staffing has become a true problem . The zeel Spa platform permits spas to fill sudden requests , to cover unexpected absences by staff massage therapists , or to meet surges in demand for busy time periods . These appointments are covered with prevetted , five-star standard trained , licensed zeel Massage Therapists .
“ zeel Spa has been a huge benefit to the spa industry ,” said Samer Hamadeh , zeel ’ s CEo , in the october issue of Pulse magazine . “ Spas historically have severe staffing issues due to lack of qualified massage therapists available at peak times , or to lastminute callouts by therapists . With zeel Spa , that supply-demand imbalance is all a thing of the past .”
The zeel Spa platform is tech-enabled , online and easy to set up and use . Thanks to zeel Spa , spas have been able to recapture revenue that would have been previously lost .
For this month ’ s Ask the Expert , we sat down with zeel ’ s vice president of spa partnerships , davId edWards , to find out why zeel chose to cater to spas , what winning this prestigious award means for the company , and what the future of spa looks like for innovators in the industry .
Pulse : What does Zeel contribute to the spa industry ? Edwards : The Zeel Spa platform empowers spas to meet spikes in demand for massage and cover last-minute staff therapist callouts , helping spas reach budgeted revenue goals and improve client service . Zeel also helps its network of massage therapists optimize their own availability , by offering bookings at highquality spas .
P : What does winning the Innovator of the Year Award mean to you ? E : It ’ s an honor to be validated by the market that Zeel Spa caters to , and it is further confirmation that Zeel ’ s technology and network are bringing something truly groundbreaking to the spa industry .
64 PULSE ■ December 2017