Wellness conferences are all the rage these days. Just ask Gwyneth Paltrow. While San Francisco has seen a number of women and lifestyle conferences in recent years like In Good Company and The What Summit, Marin had stayed behind—until now.
Futurewell, the inaugural wellness conference by Meg Adelman and Lily Riesenfeld, is coming to Stemple Creek Ranch on Sept. 6 offering a dazzling schedule full of movement, inspiration and, yes, plenty of talks about mindfulness, adaptogens and regenerative farming. Adelman, Wellness Director at the Novato-based brand Navitas Organics, and Riesenfeld, an entrepreneur who founded, among other things, Kinship, the Marin-based wellness consulting firm, joined forced to pursue a path taken by more and more brands in this niche, infusing the hype with real knowledge.
Recent examples of a responsible, scientific approach to marketing wellness products include Dosist, the cannabis brand that provides consumers with meticulous explanations regarding the various offerings, and Seed, a prebiotics brand that recently launched a test and an online course.
“Having spent years working in the wellness industry, we both felt there was a greater need to foster a deeper level of understanding about the environmental factors contributing to disease and the threat of climate changes undermining our best effort for self-care,” says Adelman. “Many wellness trends are so completely unfounded but that doesn’t stop them from taking off and being wildly popular. We want to popularize organic and regenerative agriculture as a solution for improving health across the board.”
In the program is a mix of self-care, fun and education; the highly popular workout The Class by Taryn Toomey, billed as the epitome of the mind-body connection, will make an appearance, and so will meditation and sunset yoga.
Breakfast by Navitas Organics, herbal teas and snacks, as well as a dinner curated by Alice Waters, will keep attendees fueled. Talks will range on everything from regenerative agriculture to food and developmental health, with presenters such as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Waters and Andy Naja-Riese, the new CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Marin.
The ranch, as well as its geographical location, couldn’t be a better fit.
“Stemple Creek Ranch is a true example of what farming for a healthier future can really look like,” says Adelman.
“West Marin exemplifies in many ways the future of regenerative farming: it is the epicenter of where the Marin Carbon Project began, and where organizations like Marin Agricultural Land Trust continue to foster land stewardship and conservation,” says Riesenfeld.
“Sue Connolly, the founder of Cowgirl Creamery, once told me that if it weren’t for the public and private partnerships with the government that also supported organic agriculture, with incentive programs, West Marin would never have been able to have such a high percentage of organic and chemical-free farming. Partnerships, collaboration, and innovation supporting organic agriculture are features that anchor what we seek to accomplish at Futurewell.”
General admission tickets are $495, including all talks, panels and food offerings, with additional charges for fitness classes, dinner and cocktails available for purchase.
“We wanted Futurewell to feel like a mini-retreat,” says Adelman. “We’re combining everything we love about wellness and self-care with an educational platform that will help drive change.”
