Gwyneth Paltrow marshals Goop army for first health conference
Goop, a female lifestyle company founded by Gwyneth Paltrow, hosted its first conference in Los Angeles
On an overcast Saturday in Los Angeles, more than 600 people, mostly well-dressed white women, crowded into a spacious hanger in Culver City for a lesson in how to be Gwyneth Paltrow.
The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and a director Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth has won an Academy Award and an Emmy, dated Brad Pitt, married and “consciously uncoupled” from a rock star, raised two children, and started a trend in unusual baby names. That was all by the age of 40.
For her next act, Paltrow has attacked a professional challenge that flummoxes even the savviest mogul: building a sustainable, profitable, online media business. Paltrow is the founder and public face of Goop, a female lifestyle company that began as a newsletter and has since expanded into a diversified media concern. Goop publishes recipes and articles, sells fragrance and skin creams, and—as of last weekend—hosts a conference.
“Today comes out of my deep curiosity,” Paltrow said in her introductory remarks to a rapt crowd at the first ever Goop Health Summit. She grew interested in health after her father was diagnosed with throat cancer, at which point she was still “a chain-smoking, Camel Light girl.” Paltrow still enjoys the occasional cigarette at parties, but, following a macrobiotic phase and experiments with cupping, she’s eager to share her realisation that women “do have autonomy over our health.”
Media companies of all shapes and sizes have dabbled in the conference business. Armed with the right location, the right pitch and the right perks, conferences can be incredibly lucrative. Hundreds of wealthy executives will pay thousands of dollars for a trip to a luxury hotel on the beach to partake in morning yoga, free food from celebrity chefs, and talks from peers about their successes and failures.
Goop’s first “wellness summit” is, in Paltrow’s words, “focused towards being and achieving an optimal version of ourselves.” About 600 people paid US$500, US$1000, or US$1,500 (each level denoted with a crystal) to attend a single day of New Age self-improvement, replete with panels, food, a high-end shopping boutique, and such activities as therapy with crystals.