Revisiting 2018 Florida Senior Living & Florida LeadingAge Conferences – Ashley Lodi, MedBest

Recently, I attended both the Florida Senior Living Conference and the Florida LeadingAge Conference. Here are a few of my thoughts on both:

Florida Senior Living Conference:

While I’ve been attending the Florida Senior Living Conference for the past several years, this was the first year I attended as both an exhibitor and attendee. I have to say this was one of my favorite conferences yet.

As an industry insider and working as an Executive Director before accepting my new role as a Senior Researcher with MedBest, I experienced the challenge of attracting, hiring, and retaining good people.  This conference addressed all of those factors and posed the question of who will fill the many roles of taking care of our aging population.

I enjoyed and benefited from those sessions where the directors of talent acquisition or HR from several different providers provided ideas, suggestions, and recommendations to industry leaders about how to find and retain top talent. They offered recommendations for recognition programs and suggested implementation of those programs within communities. Every leader has to remember that the smallest of recognitions bestowed to their associates are what mean the most. Even the best leaders forget that sometimes.

I found the opening sessions to be very empowering for leaders. The information offered was truly valuable when it comes to hiring and finding the “right fit.” Leaders need to focus on specific skill sets as well as a cultural match to help move their business forward.

As always, it was a pleasure networking and catching up with those I haven’t seen in a long time and meeting new talent coming into the business. Attending conferences is always enlightening and a reminder why it is so important to take time out of our daily lives to be educated about our industry’s changing environment and trends in senior living.

Florida LeadingAge Conference:

This was the first year I have ever participated in Florida Leading Age as an exhibitor. I did see some familiar faces, but I also learned the importance of networking and getting to know the changes in leadership that occurs in LTC, particularly skilled nursing and CCRC environments. The convention also provided a venue where new ideas were shared and trends were identified in educational sessions.

The Florida LeadingAge conference was very well attended. I have to say it proved to be a much larger conference than what I have been familiar with over the past 10 years. It was ideal for meeting industry professionals and key decision makers. I’m looking forward to MedBest exhibiting and attending next year’s conference as well.