Bay Area entrepreneurs part of growing "Wellness Event" economy

In our digitally dominated world, there's a new focus on real experiences. And for women, that can include so-called wellness experiences that prioritize health and community. We spoke with several Bay Area leaders in the wellness field to find out what's making this movement so popular. From a band music beat to a beachfront bar retreat. Women entrepreneurs are taking fitness and movement to a new level far beyond the gym. We've done sound baths together, salt caves, and we always just enjoyed that. And we felt like, you know, there's so many women out there that enjoy that as well. So we just felt like there wasn't really a space or a community where women can get together and experience things like all health and wellness and do it together. Shelby Kaiser of Discovery Bay started 925 Wellness Club with her sister, Kimberly Moffitt. They host exercise events and East Bay walks. She's part of a growing trend people are willing to pay big money for. According to data from the Global Wellness Institute, which tracks health economy spending, people in the U.S. spend an average of $6,300 a year on wellness activities. And the total amount spent worldwide grew 8% from 2023 to 2024 to more than $6.8 trillion. Bay Area entrepreneurs are part of the movement. Mackenzie Majors of Alameda started a group called 510 Society. She hosts events that pair athletics with social interaction like Pilates and Prosecco and tennis and tequila. She says the inspiration for it came from the isolation of the pandemic. I graduated in the midst of COVID. I graduated in 2020 where I was in my bed for graduation, literally streaming my graduation. It was so sad. So I said, I need some, I need energy here in the Bay Area. I need a reason to be here, a reason to enjoy being here, not just jetting off. And I was like, I need a community outside of myself and the people that I know around me that I grew up with. Danielle Foster of Brentwood created her company, The Wellness Affair, about two years ago. She organizes events across California that include movement, education, and community. This month, she hosted a networking mixer for fitness professionals and vendors called Caviar and Connect. I think that there's just this crazy intersection of, like, you know, women want the information. They want to be educated. They want to know what's going on in their bodies. I also think that the way women talk to each other is different than even 20 or 30 years ago. Well, these combined health and social events aren't just for women. At least one of the entrepreneurs we spoke with for the story says the events have been so popular, they're thinking about creating some curated activities that also include men. Yeah, don't forget about us, right? What would you pair? Beer with what sport? beer football i don't know i i think women especially and men too i i've had a couple of boys trips this year went down to south america i uh i went fishing and didn't know squat about it but we ended up the fishing was part of it but the bigger picture was the open fishing sitting around having a beer barbecuing shooting the breeze talking about life and we're older so we're talking about our health a lot and it just felt good i mean and i remember a couple of the guys i didn't know them too of my knew well a few of my didn't but by the end of the week we were like best friends saying you know it's hard to get really good friends later in life and that made a difference finding community finding right similar hobbies to you and there's there's a there's been a lot of discussion about kind of an absence or a need for so-called third places. So home and work is where people spend a majority of their time. But if you want to get outside those bubbles and meet new people, you have to have a third community space. And so I think some of the women in the story were fulfilling that need. I know me and my wife, we'd like, we like yoga. So that works out pretty well. That's your third space. That's a good.