Experience Innovation | 09/08/2026

Experience Innovation 2026: Wellness is the Destination

Ask most guests what they remember about a resort stay, and the answer usually isn’t the amenity list. It’s how they felt when they left. That shift—from counting amenities to designing for how a stay actually feels—is reshaping the resort industry, and it’s the starting point for this year’s Experience Innovation forum.

Wellness used to live in one place on a resort map: the spa. Today, it’s showing up everywhere: in the layout of a site, in how a front desk interaction feels, in the small moments between arrival and departure. Guests want less friction and more intention. Operators want those same experiences to hold up financially.

That’s the tension at the center of this year’s forum: How do you design wellness into the full resort experience in a way that works for guests and owners alike?

What to Expect

Experience Innovation has never been a sit-and-listen conference, and 2026 is no exception. On September 24 in Breckenridge, CO, we’re convening designers, developers, builders, and hospitality operators for a full day built around discussion, drafting, and problem-solving.

Since launching in 2023 with Attainable Housing, followed by 2024’s focus on Community Amenities and 2025’s look at Multifamily, Experience Innovation continues to bring the industry together to move ideas from conversation to action — and this year is no different.

Experience Innovation 2025: Evolving Multifamily Communities for Modern Households

The day opens with a group icebreaker and short presentations from wellness experts, market researchers, and operators, setting a shared definition of “wellness” before the room starts designing around it. From there, teams move into an extended drafting activity, crafting resort experience concepts across a range of wellness dimensions.

Key focus areas will include:

Redefining Wellness in the Resort Experience: building a shared, working definition before designing around it
Designing Wellness that works: prioritizing concepts for guest impact, authenticity, and long-term value
Founding the DTJ Wellness Resort Endorsement™: drafting a market-recognized wellness designation for destination resorts, including core categories, certification tiers, and the business case for why a resort would pursue it
Real-World Problem Solving: attendees bring real resort challenges to the room for rapid group troubleshooting

Who’s Joining Us

Moderated by Chris Moore, Partner + CEO, DTJ DESIGN, alongside an accomplished group of industry voices:

Adamo Gumowski, Principal + Development Director, TESSERA Studio
Andy Gunion, Managing Partner – Roaring Fork Valley, East West Partners
Angela Feddersen, VP Design Strategy, Alterra Mountain Company
Bill Campie, Partner + President, DTJ DESIGN
Brian Ryckman, Partner + Director of Planning, DTJ DESIGN
Chris Chaffin, President + CEO, Idarado Real Estate
CJ Ametrano, VP of Design Development, RF DesignStudio (Troon)
Dan McBrearty, President of Gulf & Residential Development, Great Gulf
Graeme Bilenduke, Director of Development & Property Services, Copper Mountain
Graham Frank, Chief Development Officer, Breckenridge Grand Vacations
Ian Wilson, Associate Principal, DTJ DESIGN
John Torti, Partner, DTJ DESIGN
Kathleen LaClair, Partner, Leisure Development Partners LLP
Matthew Laird, Vice President of Wellness Consulting, Hutchinson Consulting
Nicky Poole, Development & Education, Core Essence
Patrick Davila, Managing Partner, Reserve Collection, Rebel Hotel Company
Ryan Brown, Project Manager, JMA Ventures
Will Little, Chief Development Officer, Realberry

Why Experience Innovation Matters

The resort industry doesn’t need more amenities. Rather, it needs a better answer to what wellness actually means when it’s designed into every layer of a stay; this year’s forum is where that answer starts to take shape.

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