2023 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

BREAKOUT SESSIONS: FRIDAY, 8:30 - 9:30 am


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

34) So Many Leads, So Little Conversion: Using Data to Nurture Leads and Differentiate From the Competition.     1 CEU

Melinda Gisbert, BS, MS  |  Client Services Manager, Big Buzz, Inc.

Your marketing efforts are bringing in a ton of new leads each month, but the sales team is struggling to convert them to move-ins. What gives? The answer may not lie with your sales team. After surveying over 400 senior living leaders across the country, our agency identified two major gaps: misconceptions surrounding the definition of differentiation and the misuse of content marketing to nurture leads down the funnel. Brand differentiation and content marketing remain buzzwords in the industry, yet very few senior living organizations have a strategy backed by real data to stand apart from the competition and nurture leads into becoming intentional.

By surveying both current residents and your ideal target audience, you can gather the data and insights you need to: 

  • Provide the highest value to your prospective residents and families. 
  • Amplify the power of your brand by truly understanding how your communities have changed lives. 
  • Reduce sales team burnout by serving up qualified, move-in-ready leads. 
  • Reach your organization’s most ambitious goals.

Session Objectives:

  • Understand how voice-of-the-customer (VOC) research is used to proactively uncover trends in residents’ and families’ perceptions, preferences and motivators in seeking support from your organization. 
  • Learn how the entire prospect experience can be used to further trust, from visiting your website to reading your content to attending an event to having that first conversation with your team to touring your property and all the way through move-in day. 
  • Uncover leading trends and top opportunities in content marketing to help you stand out from competitors and further engage prospects to pursue moving into one of your communities. 
  • Visualize how uniting your brand with your content marketing strategy can create unrivaled success in overall communications and referral partnerships.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; Sales & Marketing

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Life Plan Communities (CCRCs); Assisted Living / Residential Care


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

35) Thinking Beyond the Spork!     1 CEU

Elisha Vazquez, AOS  |  Director of Dining Services, Glencroft Center for Modern Aging

Food is more than an essential to living. Food represents an individual’s culture, experiences, home, and heart. This session will discuss options to meet the needs of today’s older adults including innovative and inspiring ways to enhance your residents dining services experience. This session will review the field of options, ways to kick up the flavor with dining experiences, service check-ins, and ways to go above and beyond with your residents.

Session Objectives:

  • Understand the use of research when creating menus to meet resident’s taste.
  • Discuss dining experiences to involve residents with dining services staff including, cooking classes, themed menu weeks, current events, and education.
  • Learn how to check in with residents and staff on levels of service.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; Dining; DON / Nurse Manager; Wellness / Activities; Residents; Resident Services / Social Services

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Life Plan Communities (CCRCs); Assisted Living / Residential Care; Nursing Home; Adult Day Services; Behavioral Health


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

36) ADHS: Behavioral Health Residential Update     1 CEU

Tiffany Slater, MPH  |  Bureau Chief of Residential Licensing, Arizona Department of Health Services

In this session, attendees will meet the new Bureau Chief of Residential Licensing. This session will include an overview of Behavioral Health Residential Licensing and will cover perpetual licensing, the top 10 deficiencies cited in Behavioral Health Homes, and what's on the horizon in Residential Facilities Licensing.

Session Objectives:

  • Overview of the Bureau of Residential Facilities Licensing.
  • Behavioral Health Homes data trends.
  • Agency updates impacting Behavioral Health Homes.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; DON / Nurse Manager; Resident Services / Social Services; Dining; Wellness / Activities

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Assisted Living / Residential Care; Behavioral Health


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

37) Voice Interactive Technology: The Future of Aging Services     1 CEU

John Coyne  |  Sr. Solutions Architect, Alexa Smart Properties

Todd Carling  |  Business Development, Christian Care: Fellowship Square Mesa

As our older adults move into Senior Living properties, they bring their lives with them. This means that they want familiar things and the ability to continue their lives as they live on in your buildings. Access to information is key and being able to respond to situations in a timely fashion is critical. In this session, you will learn how using voice can accomplish these things and more, including fall prevention, entertainment, fighting social isolation, communication with family and other residents, and many others. Come see how voice interaction is becoming the future of aging services today. Hear from an operator with real world stories of how using voice has benefitted their business and delighted the residents.

Session Objectives:

  • Understand the resident's wants and needs for quick information.
  • Learn how technology can be a tool for facilities and residents, not a hindrance.
  • Explore real-world examples of Alexa smart properties in senior living.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; Resident Services / Social Services; Facilities; Sales & Marketing; Wellness / Activities; Residents

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Life Plan Communities (CCRCs); Assisted Living / Residential Care; Nursing Home; Adult Day Services


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

38) Fair Housing: Helping Older Adults Age in Community     1 CEU

Jennifer Wasserman, JD  |  Attorney, Pinkowski Law & Policy Group

Michelle Pinkowski, BSBA, JD  |  Attorney, Pinkowski Law & Policy Group

Fair housing, as a sociological concept, is the idea that all people have a right to adequate housing in a location of their choosing. As a legal concept in the United States, fair housing means that certain protected groups of people are protected from housing discrimination by state and federal law. For people who develop disabilities as they age, the right to housing choice has been guaranteed since the Fair Housing Act was amended in 1988. How can the assisted living industry support housing choice across the continuum of care?

Session Objectives:

  • Understand how zoning and ideas about age have created an age-segregated society in the United States.
  • Understand the growth of the residential assisted living market.
  • Understand how fair housing laws take precedence over local zoning restrictions.
  • Understand the approval process for residential assisted living homes in single-family neighborhoods.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; Facilities; CFO / Finance; Trustees; Owners / Investors

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Assisted Living / Residential Care; Behavioral Health


Friday, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Breakout Session

39) Nonprofits and Lobbying: What's OK, What's Not     1 CEU

Sam Coppersmith, BA, JD  |  Member (Partner), Coppersmith Brockelman PLC

The session will provide a brief overview of what lobbying and political activities are allowed by tax-exempt organizations. Attendees will understand what is permitted under the tax code, and what will get tax-exempt status revoked or an excise tax imposed.

Session Objectives:

  • Understand what is permitted lobbying by Section 501(c)(3) entities by the IRS.
  • Understand where the "red lines" are related to lobbying and political activities.
  • Learn strategies to engage your community without risking the tax-exempt status or having an excise tax imposed.

Target Audience – General:  CEO / Administrator; Trustees; Residents

Target Audience – Provider Types:  Nursing Home; Affordable Housing; Adult Day Services; Home and Community Based Services, including Homecare; Behavioral Health





Arizona LeadingAge is a 501(c)6 not-for-profit organization. 

3877 N. 7th Street, Ste. 280, Phoenix, Arizona 85014, 602.230.0026

© 2023 Arizona LeadingAge All Rights Reserved.


Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software