2026 Agenda

In 2026, the first baby boomers turn 80. Demand is high and rising, especially as growth via new construction is tough to achieve. But as operators well know, demand alone does not spell success. Hear from 3 industry leaders on what comes next and what they are prioritizing as they hit the demand straightaways.

The senior living move-in process is often treated as an administrative “to-do” list, but for families, it’s the climax of a high-stakes emotional drama. In this session, we explore how to preserve the resident’s story by redesigning the move-in experience for the modern family. Join us as we share success stories and practical strategies for creating a “premier” experience — one that uses transparency to prevent employee burnout and puts human connection first. We’re going to get real about the move-in process by looking through the eyes of residents and their caregivers. Together, we'll identify the common “box office flops” we’ve all seen and discuss how to move beyond a processed feel to build immediate trust with residents and families. Plus, we’ll have popcorn and snacks 🍿

Wasted spend and inefficient processes quietly drain senior living marketing budgets every day. This session breaks down the biggest mistakes sales and marketing teams make and how to realign efforts to get more value from every dollar.

Session Description:

Smart Girl Digital brings together industry experts to unpack the most common - and costly - mistakes uncovered through real-world audits, mystery shops, and campaign execution across senior living organizations. From inefficient paid media setups to misaligned sales follow-up, these missteps quietly drain budgets and stall results. In this session, attendees will gain practical insight into where marketing and sales efforts often break down and how to spot red flags before they become expensive problems.

Attendees will learn how to:

Identify common marketing and paid advertising mistakes that lead to wasted spend
Recognize gaps between marketing campaigns and the sales process that hurt conversions
Spot inefficiencies revealed through audits and mystery shopping
Apply proven best practices to improve performance, efficiency, and ROI

Senior living isn't the only industry selling a lifestyle to the boomers. From cruise ships to health and wellness companies, multiple players are vying for the chance to define what it means to grow old. But the senior living industry is still telling a retirement tale rooted in the past. Learn how senior living operators are changing the senior living "story" to meet the perceptions of a new generation of older adults and why the boomers' perception of senior living may not always reflect reality.

Presented by: SHN

Operators in 2025 are “thinking locally” by developing sales and marketing strategies and new brands for people living in specific areas or markets. Learn how and why these companies make their marketing local and tailor brands to appeal to regional preferences.

Presented by: SHN

Affordability is a hot topic in 2025, and with good reason as income gaps widen in the U.S. In the years to come, senior living operators across the spectrum must attract prospects in a way that takes into account the economic anxiety prospects and their families feel, while also catering to affluent older adults. Hear from providers about the current landscape, how they are messaging on rates, and whether the gaps between high-end, market rate and more affordable options are widening.

Presented by: SHN

A candid discussion about the realities of managing occupancy across a portfolio: how different buildings are often at different stages at the same time, and how sales and marketing teams respond to those cycles. The goal would be to talk honestly about reactive tactics versus more consistent, sustainable approaches that support steadier performance and planning.

Boomers don’t behave like “seniors”—and AI is accelerating the gap between how they expect to buy and how most senior living marketing is built.

Today’s buyer values independence, transparency, personalization, and control—and AI is reshaping how they search, evaluate, and decide long before they ever contact a community.

In this fast-paced, interactive session, Senior Living SMART’s CEO—joined by Sam Prinster, Senior Vice President of Marketing Allegro Living—will unpack what happens when Boomer expectations collide with AI-driven discovery, and why outdated, one-size-fits-all marketing models are now driving poor lead quality and wasted spend.

Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how smart operators are redesigning marketing around the prospect’s journey, not internal funnels—and what must change now to stay competitive in 2026 and beyond.

In a crowded senior living marketplace, the most successful communities understand that sustainable growth requires both brand equity and consistent lead generation. This session bridges the gap between the art of connection and the science of conversion, offering a strategic blueprint for uniting powerful storytelling with rigorous performance marketing. We will explore how authentic narratives build trust while targeted search and advertising strategies ensure the right prospects see the story. Hear from senior living leaders who have dismantled the brand awareness and demand generation silos and reaped the conversion rewards.
Key Takeaways
-How to Build Your Authentic Story
-Leverage Time-Tested Lead Gen Strategies
-Follow Through with the Right Follow up

“Answer engines” like Google’s Gemini have created new challenges and opportunities for senior living marketers. Learn how senior living operators are pivoting to “AIO” rather than relying on SEO and how the landscape for online research is rapidly shifting with new AI platforms.

Presented by: SHN

Among the most effective tools for senior living marketing is showing current residents flourishing. Learn how operators loop programming and services into their advertising and how they show prospects the life they could live inside their four walls.

Presented by: SHN

Diving into the new norm of Generative Engines and Large Language Models: How does social proof support organizations in their rankings, and what can a community do to support their own growth with AI.

In the senior living industry, the pressure to fill the top of the funnel is constant. But what happens when new inquiry volume drops? Join LCS and ndm for a deep dive into year-over-year data revealing a surprising truth: your best "new" leads might already be in your database.

Hear from three different nationwide operators managing communities across Independent Living, Assisted Living, and CCRC on the untapped potential of digging through your database to uncover overlooked move-ins, the real outcomes they've achieved, and how AI digital workers were able to make a meaningful difference in their sales counselors' day-to-day work by partnering with them rather than overwhelming them.

The baby boomers are the ones moving into senior living in the years to come, but often driving those decisions are their Gen-X and millennial-aged adult children. Learn how operators are speaking directly to this audience during the inquiry and tour and how their preferences are shifting marketing priorities and strategies.

Presented by: SHN

Bonuses, benefits, prizes -- senior living operators use all these tactics and more to motivate their sales teams. Learn the tools senior living leaders are using to push their sales teams to greater heights this year and beyond.

Presented by: SHN

A website is typically the first thing that prospects and their families encounter on their senior living journey. What they see in their first few minutes on the page can make or break their decision to move in. Learn how operators make their websites stand out to prospects and what they are doing to turn curious web-seekers into customers.

Presented by: SHN

It’s baaaack! And this time it’s live on the conference floor! The Know Your Industry Challenge is a fast-paced, interactive trivia showdown built for senior living sales and marketing pros who want to test their instincts against real benchmark data.

Hosted by Evan Friedkin and Craig Simons from Aline, this game-show-style experience blends competition, insight, and a healthy dose of fun. Joining them is Jake Raptosh, VP of Sales at Discovery Senior Living, bringing an operator’s perspective to the trends, surprises, and “so what” behind each answer.

Together, they’ll guide you through the most interesting data shaping senior living in 2026, unpacking what’s changing, why it matters, and how it should influence your sales and marketing strategy.

Expect questions and insights on:

How AI is reshaping the prospect journey and what it means for marketing strategy and community websites
Which care type outperformed the rest with double-digit inquiry growth in 2025
What the correlation between length of stay and length of sales cycle reveals about your sales approach
Where perception gaps between older adults and adult children show up most, and how to message accordingly
Who is researching senior living today and when they actually do it.

Come ready to play, learn, and see how your instincts stack up against the room. Bragging rights (and prizes) are on the line.

Sales and marketing leaders discuss data points that reveal top areas of opportunity and concern for providers, and that paint a picture of the market in 2026.

Presented by: SHN

Presented by: SHN

For the fourth consecutive year, Unlock Health has partnered with Senior Housing News to deliver the Senior Living Marketing Survey Report, providing a data-driven look at the tools, trends, and priorities shaping the year ahead. In this session, we’ll walk through key findings from the 2026 report and examine the trends and expectations influencing senior living growth in the coming year. Attendees will gain insight into how community-based sales and marketing teams and agency partners are responding to an evolving landscape, explore benchmarks impacting demand generation, lead engagement, and conversion, and uncover where strategies align and where they differ. What You’ll Walk Away With: Key insights from the 2026 Senior Living Marketing Survey Report, including trends and expectations shaping the year ahead A year-over-year view of how senior living marketing and sales priorities have evolved based on insights from previous survey reports Actionable takeaways to improve marketing and sales alignment and drive more effective, sustainable census growth

Families don't click ten blue links anymore. They ask ChatGPT, get an answer, then validate it with reviews, listings accuracy, and response speed. If your community isn't in that proof layer, you're losing the move-in before the first call. This session maps the new senior living funnel—from AI discovery to move-in—and the five places most operators leak conversions without knowing it. You'll see how leading multi-location brands are consolidating their location data, thinking locally with community-level insights, and using AI agents to act at scale—without adding headcount.

Leave with a "leak test" for each funnel stage, a framework to diagnose performance by community, and a practical playbook to turn AI disruption into your competitive advantage.

Roleplaying, analyzing leads, taking notes – senior living operators are finding concrete uses for AI and automation with all of these tasks, and more. Learn the real ways that tech is changing how operators market their services to prospective residents.

Presented by: SHN

The senior living sales journey does not end when a resident tours a community. In fact, following up with prospects and their families is among the most important aspects of senior living sales and marketing. Learn the ways that operators are keeping the fire burning among prospects and how those methods are changing in 2026.

Presented by: SHN