Hello! Lashana here!
As some of you know, I am the Beaute resident Melbournite, and on May 15th I had the amazing privilege of attending the illustrious ROAR Unleashed 2.0 by Venus Concepts and EnVogue Skin.
Why ROAR you ask? That is because this event aims to help clinic owners:
Reignite their vision
Open new opportunities
Accelerate their cash flow &
Reach new clients.
Following the success of the inaugural ROAR conference in Sydney last year, Venus Concept and EnVogue Skin hosted ROAR again this year; and are doing so not once, not twice, but three times!
Kicking off in Melbourne at the extremely glamorous Park Hyatt, from the second I walked in this event was vibrant, alluring, and buzzing with energy!
Headlining ROAR Melbourne were such industry legends as Dr. Steven Liew, Dr. Cosima Karlburger, Dr. Lucas De Siqueira, Dr. Nik Davies, Professor Terry Everitt, Dr. Sean Arendse, and Grazina Fechner.
The ground floor lobby housed stands of some of our favourite skincare brands, Murad, Dermalist, and Dermaenergy, as well as MediFit Design and Construct; all showcasing their incredible offerings and giving out free goodies to attendees. Being a conference of mostly injectors, I felt this was a great addition to the event and an even better introduction to cosmeceutical skincare offerings that complement injectables so well.
Just off the lobby, tucked away in the Hyatt’s “Library”, an incredible treatment space where Vera Koslova-Fu, lecturer from The University of Victoria, was performing 1 on 1 face and body treatments on attendees using Venus technology.
Of course, no industry event would be complete without a flower wall with adjacent ring light so that attendees could hook up their phones and take selfies. And, my personal favourite attraction as a Melbournian – the all-day free barista-made coffee station. (if you know, you know)
At 10.30 am in the conference room, the speakers began starting with Dr. Steven Liew on Full Face Rejuvenation, offering a live demonstration of filler placement in the face, and how correct and precise placement of filler can create volume with less product and without creating the ‘beach-ball’ effect.
Following Dr. Liew was Dr. Cosima Karlburger on Total Eye Rejuvenation using a Combination of HA Filler and Mono Threads, shortly followed by Dr. Lucas De Siqueira on Combining Multiple Modalities for Facial Harmony.
While I didn’t get to watch all of the morning talks, I was lucky enough to experience a 1 on 1 Venus Bliss treatment upstairs in the Diplomat Suite with the lovely Rhiannon Mitsopoulos.
(side note, that suite was bigger than my apartment!)
So what is the Venus Bliss you ask? Please humour me as I nerd out over technology for a second…
This amazing piece of technology uses 4 1064nm Diode Laser handpieces attached to the body to perform Lipolysis (or the breaking down of fat cells). By getting my fat cells to a whopping 47 degrees, this causes the contents of my adipocytes to liquefy from the heat. I like to describe it as butter melting in a pan. Once liquified, the heat causes the fat cells to “sweat” out the now liquid fat, where it then will make its way to my lymph nodes and out of my excretory system, thus shrinking the size of my fat cells. (cool, huh!?)
While my fat is reaching 47 degrees, my epidermal skin is kept safe with constant cooling, and comfort is ensured by the machine’s pulsation of the laser, looping in intervals of “on for 20 seconds”, off for 5 seconds”. The handpieces are belted around me with LED sensors that indicate and ensure full skin contact, making this one of the rare body contouring treatments that are completely hands-free. The Bliss also includes 2 extra technologies to complement the Diode laser treatment; a Multi-Polar Radio Frequency handpiece and a Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMFS) handpiece.
After an extremely divine lunch, we enjoyed further talks from Dr. Nik Davies around Helping patients grow their confidence, followed by the insightful Professor Terry Everitt who spoke on the importance of SPF and how it all works. My favourite part of this topic is always the surprise everyone gets when learning how sunscreen actually works to protect our skin, along with what % of protection we get with each rating of SPF! If you haven’t looked into this yet, I recommend it (and prepare to have your mind blown!)
Forget a coffee to wake you up at that 3 pm slump…How about a Flash Dance Mob?! In an exciting twist to the afternoon, six flash dancers took the room by storm, performing an incredible dance to Katy Perry’s – Roar. This excitement broke the post-lunch coma and brain fog that 3 pm usually brings, and was just a fun and out-of-the-box idea.
The afternoon saw more insightful talks from Dr. Sean Arendse and Grazina Fechner as they took the stage.
As Dr. Sean operates Flawless Rejuvenation in the heart of Melbourne, he shared with us some of his amazing achievements with client before and afters, and even a beautiful and moving client story about how combination treatments were used to ultimately turn a client’s life around. Dr. Sean also spoke on the study where people were told to guess the age of subjects in their normal photos, photos with just their pigment removed, photos with just their wrinkles removed, and with both removed, only to find the youngest appearing was the picture with having only their pigment removed. I used to go on and on about this study to both my clients and my staff because it highlights the importance of skincare with injectables as well as multi-modality treating.
Grazina Fechner broke the aesthetic mold by speaking on Networking for Success and Sustainability. If you have not had the opportunity to hear Grazina speak, you need to. Oh my word, this lady is extremely insightful, fun, and captivating and gave some incredibly insightful and helpful tips on working the room and networking at events such as ROAR. If you are a shy networker, she is one to watch. Wrapping up the conference portion of the event was Venus Concept’s very own man of the hour, Gidon Silverman on the incredible evolution of Body contouring.
And after a day of incredible teachings and a brain full of new knowledge, cocktail hour began; and I can’t tell you how lovely it was to see people in person again! We Melbournians had it very rough last year, so it was nice to see everyone’s smiling faces, get a hug or two, recognize faces you haven’t seen for years, and forget about the year just gone.
Before long, it was time for the dazzling Gala dinner; and boy, do I mean dazzling! Take everything you know about your typical conference dining experience, add a show tune or two and you might, just might match the incredible night that was ROAR Unleashed. The night commenced with an incredible performance of multiple numbers from the Greatest Showman. Dancers, lights, music – oh my! It was spectacular!
Not to mention our exquisitely laid-out table included yet another goody bag (spoiled much!?). It was a night of great food and great conversation (shouts out to the team at Dr. Lanza’s office! You guy’s are superstars)
Even days after the event, I am still feeling extremely uplifted, inspired, and have my passion reignited in the industry, and am ready to take on the year ahead!
Thank you so much Venus Concepts for having us!
Lashana pictured here with Nicole Montgomery and Trish Hammond.
Get ready to ROAR as Venus Concept and EnVogue take this prestigious event to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo on the 19th of June, before heading to the Sea World Resort in Queensland on the 24th of July.
See further details below
ROAR SYDNEY – Taronga Zoo
9:45am – 9:30pm, Saturday, 19 June 2021
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/roar-sydney-tickets-147926926419
ROAR Gold Coast – Sea World Resort & Theme Park
9:45am – 9:30pm, Saturday, 24 July 2021
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/roar-queensland-tickets-147929536225