Symposium kicked off with a relaxed (for some with a bang!) welcome evening at Queenstown’s Rydges Hotel that allowed everyone the opportunity to catch up and mingle.

Monday morning Symposium attendees were welcomed by our Managing Director, Natasha Bourke, and a traditional Pōwhiri performed by the Remarkables Primary School students.

From there we cracked straight into an impressive lineup of speakers including Emma Hobson, Education Manager for Australia, Asia & New Zealand. Jenene Crossan, CEO of Flossie, Dr Sven Hansen, Founder of The Resilience Institute and Mathew Divaris, Vice-President of Global Marketing, Education and Creative for Dermalogica.

The speakers did not disappoint and all shared their own unique nuggets of wisdom; including how to deliver ‘remarkable’ customer service, how to manage change, become more resilient and create flow within your team. Vasilki Petrou, Executive Vice President at Unilever Prestige, ended day one by sharing insights into the direction industry trends are moving and how Dermalogica’s brand values are aligned to these.

Monday evening was a free evening and the small town was scattered with familiar faces, each ticking off their own personal Queenstown eatery bucket list.

Tuesday morning followed hot on the heels of Monday’s inspiring learnings, this time with a strong focus on technology, product innovation, the exciting Dermalogica product launches to look forward to for the year ahead and how to best optimise these as an opportunity to create excitement as a Skin Centre through eventing and marketing.


Matthew Divaris rounded off the conferencing and left attendees with a very powerful and though provoking message around the state of global affairs and our place in the world. We all left feeling inspired and fired up for the year ahead!

On Tuesday night the NZ contingency celebrated a little more than everyone else. A one of a kind dinner event was hosted at Jack’s Point to celebrate 25 years of Dermalogica in New Zealand. Jane & Brendan Bourke, Founders of S.H.E., received special video messages from Jane Wurwand, Dr Diana Howard and Ivor Gordon from Dermalogica, taking them on a trip down memory lane and congratulating them on this significant milestone. Words of adoration were spoken by those who have been part of the journey, some whom have been part of it from day one. A remarkable dinner celebrated with many special moments to cherish.

Wednesday was blessed with great weather, clear blue skies and the phenomenal views never disappointed. It was a free day for everyone to explore Queenstown and to mark a few adventure filled activities off the list, Gondola rides, Luges and the Shotover Jet rides were among favourites. The quaint town of Arrowtown also had a high influx of Dermaholics leaving their footprints behind.

Symposium 2018 was concluded with a spectacular farewell dinner at Mount Soho winery. The new friends and connections made were strong and audible, one tribe celebrating remarkable moments together.

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us at Symposium, we truly loved having you all there and can’t wait to start planning our next trip!

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