2018 ISPA CONFERENCE & EXPO
TUESDAY’S GENERAL SESSION
SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
SALLY
HOGSHEAD
DARE TO BE
DIFFERENT
The Importance of Giving Back and
Why It Pays to Be Unique
AT THE CORE OF ISPA’S
PURPOSE is a desire to help
members grow their businesses and
expand the reach of the spa and wellness
industry. Tuesday’s General Session
shined a light on that purpose—and
revealed to members how to shine a light
on themselves, too.
After an impromptu crowd singalong
to “Sweet Caroline” as performed by Eric
Stephenson and a host of ISPA members,
Colin McIlheney, global research director
at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), took
the stage to walk attendees through the
results of the ISPA 2018 U.S. Spa Industry
Study. The good: record levels of revenue
growth, location growth, employee count
and more. The bad: there is still a
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PULSE
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November 2018
tremendous labor shortage, with more
than 38,000 open positions now left
unfilled. The sole obstacle to even faster
growth, said McIlheney, is simply a
shortage of qualified spa professionals.
To address this issue, McIlheney intro-
duced Lynelle Lynch, founder of the
Beauty Changes Lives Foundation. Lynch
announced the Beauty Changes Lives
ISPA Scholarship, a brand-new schol-
arship fund for those pursuing careers in
spa. ISPA Foundation Chair Frank Pitsikalis
joined Lynelle onstage to highlight the
importance of the ISPA Foundation in
funding industry research and scholar-
ships, and encouraged the crowd to
attend the ISPA Live Auction that night.
Pitsikalis, along with Mary Tabacchi,
presented the ISPA Foundation Mary
Tabacchi Scholarship to Christine
Muchemu, and then turned things over
to Dr. Brent Bauer, medical advisor for
ISPA, to introduce Jeff Kohl, this
year’s Dedicated Contributor Award
recipient. A three-time ISPA Chairman,