Network in serene setting

By EILEEN SMITH
Courier-Post Staff

CHERRY HILL

Jessica Ngo does some of her best thinking after a pedicure.

"All the tension is gone," she says. "The ideas are free flowing."

Ngo, a graphic artist, is spending the day at Louis Christian Wayne Robert, a salon and spa, the prelude to a brainstorming session for Origin, a regional quarterly women's magazine.

"We don't have meetings," says publisher Crystal Williams. "We have conversations."

The spa is becoming a place to do business, from brainstorming to networking to entertaining important clients.

"The corporate world has opened a whole new market for us," says manager Christopher DiBattista. "The spa is the new golf course."

Louis Christian has set up private spa retreats for casino workers, treatments for cosmetic surgeons and their patients and sessions for salespeople and their best customers.

"By the end of the day you're like putty and it's easier to make a deal," DiBattista says.

Services range from an $8 paraffin hand wrap to a six-hour, $347 package that includes a Swedish massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, hair styling, makeup and spa meal.

Williams says she started planning group experiences for the staff both to generate ideas and reward hard work.

"Doing lunch and dinner gets dry after a while, not to mention all those calories," she says.

For the Origin's staff, most of whom work away from the office, it's also a chance to commune. Clad in plush, terry cloth robes, the women gather in the serenity room where they share veggie wraps, fresh fruit and ideas.

Editor Ina Yah Hart, her nails freshly lacquered, is developing a story on fine writing instruments.

"There's a store in King of Prussia that sells a pen called the Greta Garbo," she says. "It's absolutely gorgeous."

Tabitha Milbourne, the circulation manager, and Beverly Williams, the publisher's mother and finance officer, talk about the business end of the operation. But everybody is free to offer an opinion.

"When everyone is relaxed, even problems are easier to talk about because it's nobody's fault," Williams says. "We just talk about ways to fix things."

She plans to expand the concept of off-premises brainstorming beyond the spa, mixing in a dose of excitement.

"I'm an adrenaline junkie," Williams says. "We'll charter a plane to Florida and do NASCAR." Reach Eileen Smith at (856) 486-2444 or esmith@courierpostonline.com