Inspired from Mike Hinkle and Cindy Michaels who started the World Massage Festival in 2006 when AMTA asked members to come up with some ideas to help bring attention about massage to the general public for Massage Therapy Awareness Week. Mike studied the profession and realized we were not recognizing our own, we were charging a wide range of prices to get the same education and he decided to create some options. To recognize our own, he created, "The Massage Therapy Hall of Fame". That being said, Ana Malachowski, hall of fame inductee 2023, then created the California Massage Championships with Mike Hinkle's encouragement...

To draw people to such an event, Mike created "The World Massage Festival". It is an annual event for therapists to meet up and get their continuing education. Mike set the following Mission Statement for the Festival: To honor those who built the bridges for our profession, to educate the general public about massage, to educate therapists about different types of massage and to have fun.

"We are not an association...it's just the two of us (and fabulous volunteers)... and we don't have deep pockets and professional staff to execute the Festival each year. When we sign a contract for a location, we go into that contract knowing, on faith, that we will register enough therapists to pay for the event....taking it on, as the saying goes, "a wing and a prayer". Our wonderful friends and supporters who generously volunteer their time and talent each year make it all possible. They arrive on location early, on their own nickel, to help with whatever we need them to do and without them, our task would be truly daunting."

Our goal is to provide all therapists with an opportunity to compete with others while having fun. The California Massage Championships tries our best to steer clear of politics. Therapists find it refreshing that we are the only massage convention that avoids politics. A chance for them to compete from the best in a pleasant, casual environment with no judgments being made about anything.