Welcome to day one of the world’s largest sauna event! We have an exciting program full of the interesting presentations, fantastic speakers and plenty of sauna activities - find all the details here.
Friday
Friday program at a glance
09:00 - 17:00 Congress program at Rebel
16:00 – 00:00 Floating Sauna Night on the Oslo waterfront
Global Sauna Culture
Auditorium 0001 (3rd Floor)
Sponsored by:
Stage host: Espen Røsbak
9:00 Welcome to Global Sauna Culture
9:10 Martijn Vanhoorelbeke, Aromen
Sensory design in sauna
9:30 PANEL When everything is a sauna, nothing is a sauna
Markus Räty, Mara Zute, Mikkel Aaland & Minea Herwitz (moderator)
10:00 BREAK ☕️
10:30 Julia Van der Velde
Heat, Sweat and Belonging: Inside Oslo’s Floating Sauna Culture
11.00 Bjørnar Haveland & Erlend Klette
The community is the asset: how grassroot saunas become social infrastructure worth investing in
11:30 PANEL The blessings and limitations of non-profit saunas
Ragna Marie Fjeld, Erlend Klette, Charlie Duckworth & Glenn Auerbach (moderator)
12:00 LUNCH BREAK
13:00 Laura Foon
Sauna Beyond Wellness - Reawakening the Cultural Foundations of Finnish Sauna Practices
13:30 Birute Masiliauskiene
The Rise of the Sauna Guide: Bringing Touch and Interaction Back to Public Saunas
14:00 PANEL The role of the sauna guide
Birutė Masiliauskienė, Nina Magatova, Martijn Vanhoorelbeke & Katie Bracher (moderator)
14:30 BREAK ☕️
15:00 Kaarina Kailo
Sauna, Sweat lodge and Ancient Cosmovisions of Healing
15:30 Roseanna Cooney & Tim Jago
Sacred stories: healing in Sweat rituals & 3000 years of Sweatbathing in Ireland
16.00 James Mugavin & Jan Nåls
Sauna in Contemporary Film: Cultural, Architectural and Emotional Perspectives and film showing: “Löyly”
16.30 End of program
Sauna & Health
Auditorium 0010 (3rd floor)
Sponsored by:
Stage host: Mia Lundgreen
9:30 Welcome to Sauna & Health
9:40 Robert Hammond, Therme Group
The New Social Infrastructure: Reimagining Connection Through Bathing Culture.
10:00 Earric Lee
70 years of sauna research: When, Where, Who, How, What, and why we need to know
10:30 BREAK ☕️
11:00 Karolina Wiell
Sweating for the Future: How Sauna Bathing Shaped Modern Sweden
11:30 Thomas O`Connell
Mapping the Science of Sauna: Trends from the Past and Directions for the Future
12:00 PANEL Sauna lab vs. sauna life: Does sauna science reflect sweating in the real world?
Earric Lee, Eva Hilland, Steven Jaye & Emma O'Kelly (moderator)
12:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 Naoki Yoshioka
An Integrated Model of Sauna and Enzyme Bath: A Pilot Intervention Study in Healthy Adults and Its Application to Preventive Medicine
14:00 Veerle De Haan
Cardiometabolic effects of isolated and combined heat and cold therapy: findings of a hybrid narrative and systematic review
14:30 Hannah Pallubinsky
The effect of sauna and cold baths on glucose homeostasis and cardiometabolic health in healthy overweight adults – a study setup and preliminary results
15:00 BREAK ☕️
15.30 PANEL Just hot, or hot + cold: What does the science really say?
Veerle de Haan, Eva Hilland & Earric Lee (moderator)
16:00 PANEL The future of sauna research (in collaboration with SRF)
Presentation on Sauna Research Foundation by Jon Sabes, followed by 40 min panel discussion with Ashley Mason, Hans Hägglund, Jon Sabes & Will Stone (moderator)
16.50 End of program
Architecture, Technology & Sustainability
Auditorium 0011 (ground floor)
Sponsored by:
Stage host: Hallstein Guthu
10.00 Welcome to Architecture, Technology and Sustainability
10:10 Jesse Hämäläinen, Narvi
Building maximum relaxation together
10:30 PANEL Swimmable cities: How Saunas Can Remake Urban Waterfronts
James Mugavin, Raoul Grünstein, Ragna Marie Fjeld & Mia Bergmann (moderator)
11:00 BREAK ☕️
11:30 Anssi Lassila
The Sauna Path – Sauna as a Ritual
12:00 Sami Rintala
Geographical Growth and Renaissance of Sauna
12:30 PANEL Saunas that last: Sustainable saunas in high maintenance environments
Svein Erdogan, Heikki Tang, Andreas Joki Arild & Max Newport (moderator)
13:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00 Raoul Grünstein
Nordic Well-being on the Waterfront
14:30 Øystein Rø
Reconciling Waterfront Development and Nature Restoration
15:00 August Borge Harbo
Saunas Supporting Life Above and Below Water
15:30 BREAK ☕️
16:00 PANEL The future of sauna architecture
Sami Rintala, Anssi Lassila, Bjørnar Skaar Haveland & Hillevi Olsson (moderator)
16:45 End of program
Sauna LIVE
Expo Arena/Skraa Bar (ground floor)
Co-sponsored by:
In partnership with:
Welcome to Sauna LIVE
See and hear from some of the sauna world’s most prominent personalities! Sauna LIVE gives you a “behind the sweat” experience that only International Sauna Congress can provide, with contributions from our favorite sauna podcasts and sauna authors.
Sauna Twins by Finnmark Sauna (UK), hosted by Max and Jake Newport
Kivia: The Spirit of Sauna (Canada), hosted by Alan Jalasjaa
SaunaTalk (USA), hosted by Glenn Auerbach
Spirit of Sauna (Finland), hosted by Laura Foon
Badstuprat (Norway), hosted by Stig Arild Pettersen
On the big screen, ISC26 partner Sauna Channel is showing some of its most epic sweat bathing productions from around the world, including the premiere of a brand new documentary about the Norwegian badstue boom.
Most of the programming happens in the Sauna Live stage (Auditorium 0100, ground floor), but some will happen in Expo Arena (ground floor) and Skraa Bar (ground floor). The latter two are marked in the schedule.
Each program slot lasts for maximum 30 minutes.
Friday program
10:45 Welcome to Sauna Live
An introduction by Finnmark and Periode.
11:00 Eda Veeroja Spirit of Sauna
11:30 “Spirit of the Löyly” Sauna Channel
13:00 PREMIERE: “Fire Between the Fjords - Norway’s Sauna Revival” Sauna Channel
13:30 Samuel Aarnio & Sasha Kulak, Sauna Channel Badstuprat
14:00 BOOK LAUNCH: Lassi Liikkanen The Guide to Finnish Sauna Maintenance (LOCATION: Skraa Bar)
14:30 TBA Sauna Twins by Finnmark Sauna
15:00 Dr. Emilia Vuorisalmi Sauna Talk
17:00 BOOK TALK: Knut Lerhol & Hallgrim Rogn Badstufolk (LOCATION: Skraa Bar)
Skraa Bar is open until 18:30
