Dinner Party Ideas

Global Spa Summit’s 2nd Annual ‘Student Challenge’ Puts Spotlight on Architecture and Design

GSS Logo

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 23, 2010

The Global Spa Summit (GSS), the leading annual event for spa and wellness industry executives, today announced that it has selected the architecture departments of Istanbul Technical University and the University of Southern California (USC) to compete in its 2010 Student Challenge. Student teams from each institution will develop new, feasible design concepts for the ancient hydrothermal area in Kula, Turkey.

Each year GSS enlists students from major academic institutions to create spa and wellness concepts of the future. For 2010, students are tasked with creating environmentally- and culturally-aware designs for a new eco-tourism destination that could both revitalize a regional economy – and create new relevance for the broader ideas of ‘spa’ and ‘wellness.’

“We suggested keeping the competition tangible and local by exploring the potential of a real Turkish site: Kula is a traditional Ottoman settlement, famous for its geothermal resources and ancient spa traditions dating back to the Roman period,” said Dr. Yuksel Demir of Istanbul Technical University’s Architecture Department. “Kula’s Governor and Mayor have been enthusiastic and supportive, and our students’ work is underway. The Summit is offering them a unique platform to share their ideas, and the project is helping Kula share its local potential, globally.”

The design projects will be formally presented May 17th, 2010, and the winning team will be announced at the Summit’s opening gala dinner that evening at the Cirigan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul. Students are competing for cash prizes as well as the visibility their published projects will receive.

In the design competition, students are asked to investigate an expanded notion of ‘wellness’ that includes healthy economies, healthy communities, and a healthy environment through the architectural lens. The site at Kula provides a rich context for this design intervention: a historic 5th-century town, a distinctive volcanic landscape of thermal springs, local handicraft traditions, and an integrated tourism plan for an eco/geothermal national park.

“The GSS Challenge gives our students the opportunity to combine history, theory, and critical analytic skills with their own creative process and vision, to apply toward a marvelously multifaceted real-world design problem,” noted Professor Richard Corsini, Director of the student project at USC.

“The setting in Asia Minor helps us understand that architecture is situated at the nexus of politics and culture. I hope that our work will demonstrate how architecture can play a critical role in fostering progress and beauty in a global culture that becomes ever more complex by the day.”

According to the GSS, students will first compete against others at their respective institutions. Each school’s winning team will then present their concepts to the Summit delegation and an elite panel of judges, comprised of industry leaders from across the world, including architects and government officials.

Last year’s ‘Challenge’ involved students from leading Swiss hospitality school, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (ELH), competing against students from Paris-based Institut de Management International (IMHI) to create an innovative spa business concept for the 21-to-30 (‘Gen Y’) demographic. IMHI’s ‘Chill House’ concept took home the 2009 prize.

The Summit will be held at the historic Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel in Istanbul from May 17th-19th. Attended by top spa, hospitality, tourism and wellness executives from around the world, 2010’s invitation-only Summit is expected to attract a record number of delegates, representing 40 countries.

For media information contact: Beth McGoarty, +1 213 300 0107 or +44 (0) 870 121 6066.

For registration/sponsorship information contact: or visit: http://www.globalspasummit.org

About Global Spa Summit: The award-winning Global Spa Summit is an annual event that attracts top-level executives and leaders from around the world with interest in the spa and wellness industries. Delegates from diverse sectors including hospitality, investment, finance, real estate, medicine, manufacturing, technology, consulting, product, tourism and other related industries attend this intimate, high-level gathering focused on advancing the spa and wellness sectors. With increasing attendance by more countries each year, the Global Spa Summit delegation represented 32 different countries from all continents in 2009.

###

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Global Spa Summit’s 2nd Annual ‘Student Challenge’ Puts Spotlight on Architecture and Design

GSS Logo

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 23, 2010

The Global Spa Summit (GSS), the leading annual event for spa and wellness industry executives, today announced that it has selected the architecture departments of Istanbul Technical University and the University of Southern California (USC) to compete in its 2010 Student Challenge. Student teams from each institution will develop new, feasible design concepts for the ancient hydrothermal area in Kula, Turkey.

Each year GSS enlists students from major academic institutions to create spa and wellness concepts of the future. For 2010, students are tasked with creating environmentally- and culturally-aware designs for a new eco-tourism destination that could both revitalize a regional economy – and create new relevance for the broader ideas of ‘spa’ and ‘wellness.’

“We suggested keeping the competition tangible and local by exploring the potential of a real Turkish site: Kula is a traditional Ottoman settlement, famous for its geothermal resources and ancient spa traditions dating back to the Roman period,” said Dr. Yuksel Demir of Istanbul Technical University’s Architecture Department. “Kula’s Governor and Mayor have been enthusiastic and supportive, and our students’ work is underway. The Summit is offering them a unique platform to share their ideas, and the project is helping Kula share its local potential, globally.”

The design projects will be formally presented May 17th, 2010, and the winning team will be announced at the Summit’s opening gala dinner that evening at the Cirigan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul. Students are competing for cash prizes as well as the visibility their published projects will receive.

In the design competition, students are asked to investigate an expanded notion of ‘wellness’ that includes healthy economies, healthy communities, and a healthy environment through the architectural lens. The site at Kula provides a rich context for this design intervention: a historic 5th-century town, a distinctive volcanic landscape of thermal springs, local handicraft traditions, and an integrated tourism plan for an eco/geothermal national park.

“The GSS Challenge gives our students the opportunity to combine history, theory, and critical analytic skills with their own creative process and vision, to apply toward a marvelously multifaceted real-world design problem,” noted Professor Richard Corsini, Director of the student project at USC.

“The setting in Asia Minor helps us understand that architecture is situated at the nexus of politics and culture. I hope that our work will demonstrate how architecture can play a critical role in fostering progress and beauty in a global culture that becomes ever more complex by the day.”

According to the GSS, students will first compete against others at their respective institutions. Each school’s winning team will then present their concepts to the Summit delegation and an elite panel of judges, comprised of industry leaders from across the world, including architects and government officials.

Last year’s ‘Challenge’ involved students from leading Swiss hospitality school, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (ELH), competing against students from Paris-based Institut de Management International (IMHI) to create an innovative spa business concept for the 21-to-30 (‘Gen Y’) demographic. IMHI’s ‘Chill House’ concept took home the 2009 prize.

The Summit will be held at the historic Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel in Istanbul from May 17th-19th. Attended by top spa, hospitality, tourism and wellness executives from around the world, 2010’s invitation-only Summit is expected to attract a record number of delegates, representing 40 countries.

For media information contact: Beth McGoarty, +1 213 300 0107 or +44 (0) 870 121 6066.

For registration/sponsorship information contact: or visit: http://www.globalspasummit.org

About Global Spa Summit: The award-winning Global Spa Summit is an annual event that attracts top-level executives and leaders from around the world with interest in the spa and wellness industries. Delegates from diverse sectors including hospitality, investment, finance, real estate, medicine, manufacturing, technology, consulting, product, tourism and other related industries attend this intimate, high-level gathering focused on advancing the spa and wellness sectors. With increasing attendance by more countries each year, the Global Spa Summit delegation represented 32 different countries from all continents in 2009.

###

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

The National Steinbeck Center Unveils The 31st Annual Steinbeck Festival: Friends and Foes, August 4-7, 2011

National Steinbeck Center

Salinas, California (PRWEB) May 09, 2011

The National Steinbeck Center, located at One Main Street in Salinas, unveils its 2011 Steinbeck Festival: Friends and Foes, to be held from August 4-7, 2011, in Salinas, on Monterey’s Cannery Row and in Cities of Letters around the world.

This year, the Steinbeck Festival looks at friends, foes and accomplices of all stripes, in books, in arts and ideas, and in Steinbeck’s life and work. Speakers will explore the creative fallout when ideas collide, the pleasure of partnership, the creative clash. Events will celebrate friends in letters and dish up the dirt on some literary feuds, serve unlikely pairings and pit X against Y. The festival will reach out and reach across, from Steinbeck to other writers and artists, celebrate our adversaries and allies, and the creative spark between them.

This four-day festival of books, talks, food, tours, and films, as well as visual and performing arts, will be based in Salinas, with International Fringe Fest events taking place in cities of letters throughout the world, this year including Paris, Cairo, Aracataca, Johannesburg, and other locales.

“The 2011 Steinbeck Festival expands into a wider celebration of arts and ideas, viewed through the lens of Steinbeck’s work and themes. The Festival continues to expand throughout the world through the Steinbeck Festival International Fringe Fest.” — Colleen Finnegan Bailey, Executive Director of the National Steinbeck Center

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

•THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, from 5:30-8 and 8–9:30 pm

A Literary Brawl and Pub Crawl on Cannery Row. Open the festival with one Tom Wallagher of a Sweet Thursday. Travel along the Row and raise a glass to the joyous brawls that earned Cannery Row its stripes as festival speakers duke it out with brief dueling passages from Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. The final stop will be at Wave Street Studios at 8 pm for a celebration with wine, beer, and an Open Mic. Bring your favorite passage from Steinbeck’s Monterey books to read and enjoy 1930s music.

Wave Street Studios is at 774 Wave Street, just a block off Cannery Row in Monterey. Pub Crawl map and coupons will be provided. $ 15 for 8:00 pm event at Wave Street Studios, with wine and beer included. Dinner and Individual Pub Crawl stops are buy-as-you-go.

•FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, from 6:00-8:00 pm

EXHIBITION OPENING: Original Drawings from Pierre Alain Bertola’s Graphic Novel of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Exhibition opening: Artist talk, followed by reception. In 2009, Swiss artist Pierre Alain Bertola’s graphic novel, Des souris et des hommes (based on John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men) was published in French by renowned Paris-based graphic novel publisher, Editions Delcourt. Bertola is an internationally-known artist based in Geneva whose work has ranged from stage sets in Russia to graphic novels. Since the rabbit is a potent symbol of nurturance, hope, and home in Of Mice and Men, Bertola will create a giant drawing of a 14-foot rabbit to enchant all ages. This exhibition is funded by ProHelvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, with the support of the City of Nyon and the State of Vaud, Switzerland.

National Steinbeck Center Rotunda. One Main Street, Salinas. Free, as part of First Fridays Salinas.

•SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, from 2:45-3:30 pm

The Eye Against the Ear: Actor David Conrad on Why Read Steinbeck Aloud. TV and film actor David Conrad—perhaps best known for his role on The Ghost Whisperer—celebrates the beauty of Steinbeck’s prose and reads selected passages out loud.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. $ 18/$ 10 Members.

•SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, from 12:00-1:00 pm

Jane Smiley on Our Animal Friends. Pulitzer-prize winning author Jane Smiley gives a sneak peek at her upcoming middle-grade novel, True Blue, about a Salinas Valley girl and her mysterious horse, and explores our deep connection with our animal friends.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. Free for residents of Monterey County, with ID, as part of Festival Free Sunday. For others, free with museum admission.

•SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, from 2:30–3:30 pm

Of Mice and Men, a play with formerly incarcerated actors and writers of the award-winning theatre group, Poetic Justice. The Poetic Justice Project is dedicated to the creation of original theatre that examines crime, punishment, and redemption. Through passionate collaboration of formerly incarcerated writers, artists, musicians, and actors, Poetic Justice produces ground-breaking theatre to challenge and transform our culture.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. Free for residents of Monterey County, with ID, as part of Festival Free Sunday. For others, free with museum admission.

Background on the Theme of the 31st Annual Steinbeck Festival:

This year’s festival will highlight five of Steinbeck’s novels. Of Mice and Men (1937) depicts one of American literature’s most memorable, unlikely friendships. Steinbeck’s “Monterey Trilogy”—Tortilla Flat (1935), Cannery Row (1945), and Sweet Thursday (1954)—features a motley band of brothers who realize the importance of human connection. The Moon Is Down (1942) offers a radical portrayal of the enemy as a human being—while challenging our beliefs about leadership and democracy.

Background on the National Steinbeck Center:

The National Steinbeck Center is located in Salinas, California, the birthplace of John Steinbeck. The National Steinbeck Center is a museum and cultural institution with a mission to engage people in the exploration of culture, issues and the arts relevant to our times. The Center offers three visitor experiences: the John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall, which houses seven themed theaters with film clips and interactive exhibits from the Nobel prize-winning author’s works; the Rabobank Agriculture Museum, which explores the stories of the Salinas Valley “from field to fork”; and changing art and cultural exhibits and a variety education and public programs.

For more information about the National Steinbeck Center or past festivals, please visit the National Steinbeck Center’s website at http://www.steinbeck.org. Tickets will be available for purchase in late May, at http://www.steinbeck.org or at (831) 775-4721. Full festival passport price of $ 150/135 members includes all events Friday through Sunday with the exception of lunches and events after 7 pm.

National Steinbeck Center

One Main Street

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 775-4721

http://www.steinbeck.org

HOTEL INFORMATION. Holiday Inn Express & Suites, at 195 Kern Street in Salinas, offers a special Festival rate of $ 89.99/night + tax for a Standard room (1 King or 2 Queen) or $ 109.99 + tax = $ 121.49 for Suite Rooms (1 King or 2 Queen): http://www.hiexpress.com/salinascal or call (831) 737-1160.

IMAGES AVAILABLE:

    Jane Smiley. (Photo: Mark Bennington.)
    David Conrad
    Des souris et des hommes (Of Mice and Men) by Pierre Alain Bertola
    Actors in the Poetic Justice Project’s Off The Hook. (Photo: Matthew J. Evans.)
    Cannery Row, Cartooned

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Find More Dinner Pary Ideas Press Releases

The National Steinbeck Center Unveils The 31st Annual Steinbeck Festival: Friends and Foes, August 4-7, 2011

National Steinbeck Center

Salinas, California (PRWEB) May 09, 2011

The National Steinbeck Center, located at One Main Street in Salinas, unveils its 2011 Steinbeck Festival: Friends and Foes, to be held from August 4-7, 2011, in Salinas, on Monterey’s Cannery Row and in Cities of Letters around the world.

This year, the Steinbeck Festival looks at friends, foes and accomplices of all stripes, in books, in arts and ideas, and in Steinbeck’s life and work. Speakers will explore the creative fallout when ideas collide, the pleasure of partnership, the creative clash. Events will celebrate friends in letters and dish up the dirt on some literary feuds, serve unlikely pairings and pit X against Y. The festival will reach out and reach across, from Steinbeck to other writers and artists, celebrate our adversaries and allies, and the creative spark between them.

This four-day festival of books, talks, food, tours, and films, as well as visual and performing arts, will be based in Salinas, with International Fringe Fest events taking place in cities of letters throughout the world, this year including Paris, Cairo, Aracataca, Johannesburg, and other locales.

“The 2011 Steinbeck Festival expands into a wider celebration of arts and ideas, viewed through the lens of Steinbeck’s work and themes. The Festival continues to expand throughout the world through the Steinbeck Festival International Fringe Fest.” — Colleen Finnegan Bailey, Executive Director of the National Steinbeck Center

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

•THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, from 5:30-8 and 8–9:30 pm

A Literary Brawl and Pub Crawl on Cannery Row. Open the festival with one Tom Wallagher of a Sweet Thursday. Travel along the Row and raise a glass to the joyous brawls that earned Cannery Row its stripes as festival speakers duke it out with brief dueling passages from Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. The final stop will be at Wave Street Studios at 8 pm for a celebration with wine, beer, and an Open Mic. Bring your favorite passage from Steinbeck’s Monterey books to read and enjoy 1930s music.

Wave Street Studios is at 774 Wave Street, just a block off Cannery Row in Monterey. Pub Crawl map and coupons will be provided. $ 15 for 8:00 pm event at Wave Street Studios, with wine and beer included. Dinner and Individual Pub Crawl stops are buy-as-you-go.

•FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, from 6:00-8:00 pm

EXHIBITION OPENING: Original Drawings from Pierre Alain Bertola’s Graphic Novel of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Exhibition opening: Artist talk, followed by reception. In 2009, Swiss artist Pierre Alain Bertola’s graphic novel, Des souris et des hommes (based on John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men) was published in French by renowned Paris-based graphic novel publisher, Editions Delcourt. Bertola is an internationally-known artist based in Geneva whose work has ranged from stage sets in Russia to graphic novels. Since the rabbit is a potent symbol of nurturance, hope, and home in Of Mice and Men, Bertola will create a giant drawing of a 14-foot rabbit to enchant all ages. This exhibition is funded by ProHelvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, with the support of the City of Nyon and the State of Vaud, Switzerland.

National Steinbeck Center Rotunda. One Main Street, Salinas. Free, as part of First Fridays Salinas.

•SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, from 2:45-3:30 pm

The Eye Against the Ear: Actor David Conrad on Why Read Steinbeck Aloud. TV and film actor David Conrad—perhaps best known for his role on The Ghost Whisperer—celebrates the beauty of Steinbeck’s prose and reads selected passages out loud.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. $ 18/$ 10 Members.

•SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, from 12:00-1:00 pm

Jane Smiley on Our Animal Friends. Pulitzer-prize winning author Jane Smiley gives a sneak peek at her upcoming middle-grade novel, True Blue, about a Salinas Valley girl and her mysterious horse, and explores our deep connection with our animal friends.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. Free for residents of Monterey County, with ID, as part of Festival Free Sunday. For others, free with museum admission.

•SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, from 2:30–3:30 pm

Of Mice and Men, a play with formerly incarcerated actors and writers of the award-winning theatre group, Poetic Justice. The Poetic Justice Project is dedicated to the creation of original theatre that examines crime, punishment, and redemption. Through passionate collaboration of formerly incarcerated writers, artists, musicians, and actors, Poetic Justice produces ground-breaking theatre to challenge and transform our culture.

National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas. Free for residents of Monterey County, with ID, as part of Festival Free Sunday. For others, free with museum admission.

Background on the Theme of the 31st Annual Steinbeck Festival:

This year’s festival will highlight five of Steinbeck’s novels. Of Mice and Men (1937) depicts one of American literature’s most memorable, unlikely friendships. Steinbeck’s “Monterey Trilogy”—Tortilla Flat (1935), Cannery Row (1945), and Sweet Thursday (1954)—features a motley band of brothers who realize the importance of human connection. The Moon Is Down (1942) offers a radical portrayal of the enemy as a human being—while challenging our beliefs about leadership and democracy.

Background on the National Steinbeck Center:

The National Steinbeck Center is located in Salinas, California, the birthplace of John Steinbeck. The National Steinbeck Center is a museum and cultural institution with a mission to engage people in the exploration of culture, issues and the arts relevant to our times. The Center offers three visitor experiences: the John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall, which houses seven themed theaters with film clips and interactive exhibits from the Nobel prize-winning author’s works; the Rabobank Agriculture Museum, which explores the stories of the Salinas Valley “from field to fork”; and changing art and cultural exhibits and a variety education and public programs.

For more information about the National Steinbeck Center or past festivals, please visit the National Steinbeck Center’s website at http://www.steinbeck.org. Tickets will be available for purchase in late May, at http://www.steinbeck.org or at (831) 775-4721. Full festival passport price of $ 150/135 members includes all events Friday through Sunday with the exception of lunches and events after 7 pm.

National Steinbeck Center

One Main Street

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 775-4721

http://www.steinbeck.org

HOTEL INFORMATION. Holiday Inn Express & Suites, at 195 Kern Street in Salinas, offers a special Festival rate of $ 89.99/night + tax for a Standard room (1 King or 2 Queen) or $ 109.99 + tax = $ 121.49 for Suite Rooms (1 King or 2 Queen): http://www.hiexpress.com/salinascal or call (831) 737-1160.

IMAGES AVAILABLE:

    Jane Smiley. (Photo: Mark Bennington.)
    David Conrad
    Des souris et des hommes (Of Mice and Men) by Pierre Alain Bertola
    Actors in the Poetic Justice Project’s Off The Hook. (Photo: Matthew J. Evans.)
    Cannery Row, Cartooned

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Find More Dinner Pary Ideas Press Releases