The NIC Fall Conference is headed to Austin, Texas, and Amy Peters, VP of Conferences, Meetings & Events, is here to share insights, session details, and an agenda preview. Plus, a special announcement from Amy you won’t want to miss.

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Register for the NIC Fall Conference here.

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Intro

Welcome to season eight of Bridge the Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. The BTG network is powered by sponsors, Aline, NIC MAP, Procare HR, Sage, Hamilton CapTel, ServiceMaster, The Bridge Group Construction, and Solinty and produced by Solinity Marketing. Bridge the Gap in three, two.

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0:36 - 0:51

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap podcast, the senior living podcast with Josh and Lucas. And another special episode in advance of the Fall NIC, I want to welcome Amy Peters, VP of conferences, meetings, and events at NIC. Welcome to the show.

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0:51 - 0:53

Amy Peters

Hello, Lucas. Thank you so much.

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0:53 - 1:52

Lucas McCurdy

You know, our listeners have been hearing Josh and Lucas at the NIC events for a very long time. Actually, they've been hearing us there for eight years, and it's one of our most coveted events that we go to in the spring and the fall. And, we love kind of our conference update to build a little hype and give our audience some insights into what would they be expecting coming up in the Fall. And, you know, Amy, typically

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The fall is either in Washington DC or Chicago, and NIC has thrown us a curveball this year, and a great curveball at that. I'm a native Texan. I live in the DFW area. I love visiting Austin for its food, its culture, and its music. And guess what, y'all are going to be in Austin in September. Amy, talk to us about the genesis of bringing the fall conference to Austin, Texas.

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1:52 - 2:54

Amy Peters

Absolutely. We are so thrilled to have a new city, a new venue for the next fall conference. Austin really spoke to us because us, like you said, it's its vibrancy. It is a business-driven city. There are a lot of really innovative things going on with technology, with, preprinted, fabricated buildings. With Waymo being there. With Tesla coming in. It's a fantastic, very forward-thinking city. And we think that aligns very well with NIC’s outlook. Also, it's a great place to do business. Like you said, there's a great food scene. There are a lot of dining options, a lot of entertainment. And it's just, it has got a very positive vibe to it. You don't come to Austin and leave without knowing that you were there. You had a great time. There's beautiful live music around every corner. I just think the excitement level of the city itself is really going to give great energy to our attendees.

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2:54 - 3:22

Lucas McCurdy

Well, I know that I'm very excited about that. And I believe the dates are September 8th, 9th, and 10th. That's Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And, I was looking at the conference schedule, and it looks like another packed schedule. Nick always puts together such great content and educational resources, in addition to the high-level networking that is unmatched anywhere else in the industry.

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3:22 - 3:33

Lucas McCurdy

I know people are filling up their dance cards, so to speak, with meetings, but Amy talked to us. For those who can carve out a little time in between meetings, what can they expect from the conference agenda?

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3:33 - 8:26

Amy Peters

We have an absolutely remarkable slate of educational programming. It's not like it's difficult for me just to narrow it down to just a few to talk about right here. Every single session is amazing. I do need to give a quick shout-out to the program committee led by Tana Gall and Joe Daniels. They did an absolutely fantastic job of putting together high-level, quality education. Some of these sessions came together very quickly because they were very obvious what we needed to do and who we needed to have communicate these messages. Some of them were a really heavy list because they're very creative. So let's talk a little bit about this. Monday, we will kick off the session. Of course, a warm welcome from our board chair and vice chair. And they'll go into one of our signature sessions talking about research and analytics. Talking about all the work that Nick is doing with North, with new and continuing research.

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After that, we have a kind of lessons learned and a look forward session where we have industry luminaries speaking. We'll have, of course, on creamer moderated. But our panelists are going to be Leanne Barney, Stephanie Harris, Curt Reed, John Rios, and Steven Vick. And so we have got these folks taken. So they're taking a look at essentially 35 years of the NIC Fall Conference. This is our 36th anniversary of the event. So, what has happened in senior living for the past three decades? What has been fantastic? Where have we fallen? Where have we not done as well as we had wished? And what can we look forward to in the future? So amazing scene setting for that first day.

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Tuesday, we are going to do something a little different. We are going to kick off the morning break early, and I hope all my early birds will meet you there for a 7 a.m. movie. A special screening of the movie, Familiar Touch. It is remarkable. And looking at the journey of a woman as she moves from living at home into a memory care setting. And it's a very, very moving and powerful and touching. And yes, I promise you, we will have coffee and food there at 7 a.m.. I promise. Right after that, there will be a panel, including the writer-director of that movie, talking about mainstream media depiction of older adults and how it is we think and honestly hope that it is turning in the right direction.

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A little later that day, a fantastic session with Willie Walker interviewing, Ryan Marshall of PulteGroup talking about new products for this new generation of older adults. We've been talking about boomers for a long time, but Gen X is fast on their heels, and we need to be thinking about how to attract them earlier because the trend has been to go into senior living later. So we really need to be thinking about that gap there.

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Later on. Also on Tuesday, following on that theme, we're going to have a session on marketing messages again to that new consumer. Joe Clawson from the MIT age lab will be here. And Lee Newman, who's the CEO of a major advertising agency based in Austin, is kind of going to give us that outsider's perspective. What is he seeing in the messages we are putting forward in our advertising, in our materials? How do we portray ourselves? Is it correct? Do we need to pivot? Do we need to come up with something new?

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Of course. Tuesday, we also have all of our innovation labs. We have six of them. The whole point of innovation labs is to meet adults where and how they want to learn. By and large, we have spent so much of our lives listening to didactic presentations, listening to panels that our brains need to switch. So that's what these innovation labs do for us. It's far more interactive. So various topics, data, real-time analytics, and how operators can partner with external companies to look to, to support both the physical but also behavioral and mental health of the residents.

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Talking about risk management and critical issues, practical ways to increase consumer loyalty, bring in those new customers, and, of course, increase revenue. We'll be looking at the middle market. Always looking for creative financing for the middle market and some real-world application of AI solutions. We don't want to talk about what may be out there. We're going to talk about who's using what right now and what's truly working, moving the dial, and making money for senior living.

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Wednesday, we'll start with a panel on the current state of the construction industry. It's going to be absolutely fascinating. We also have somebody participating on the panel as a chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America. I'm just going to go right into saying we'll be closing the conference with our signature session on capital markets and valuations. Always a winner. But with this, I've got a sort of press announcement for you. Would you like to hear breaking news of a new session?

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8:26 - 8:27

Lucas McCurdy

I'm on the edge of my seat.

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8:27 - 9:02

Amy Peters

Just announced. Just finalized 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, September 10th. We are going to have an FHA and HUD financing update. So Frank Cassidy, who is the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Housing for HUD, is going to be there. And this is going to be a quick but fascinating session, open to everybody.

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Of particular interest to borrowers, we're going to get some real time updates on what's been happening so far. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to partner with FHA and HUD and bring this message to our attendees.

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9:02 - 10:50

Lucas McCurdy

Frank is a personal friend and a wonderful guy, and we were so excited to hear about his appointment there at HUD. And I'm very excited to hear that y'all have partnered together to bring that content. I mean, just listening to you roll, roll through the agenda, really, this is, you know, I'm not surprised, but I am very excited that, you know, Nic, is this balance of incredible opportunity to connect, network and have meetings, but also paired with this amazing opportunity to get cutting edge breaking content and conversations.

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And then with the innovation Lab, you have the ability to actually be a part of the conversation. And, which is really, really exciting. I know that the fall NIC, the agenda, and its location are in Austin. This is going to be one for the record books, I believe. And it's at an inflection point in the industry. That is extremely interesting. Given the demographics that we hear from Nick map on, just the trend that we're seeing in growth and occupancy. And so there's a lot of attention in the industry right now, and I think September 8th, 9th, and 10th in Austin, that is going to be the place to be for the senior living industry.

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This is truly the Super Bowl, so to speak. And, we're really, really excited about it. That said, so, are there any resources in advance of the conference that people can dive into to really prepare, to start those conversations early?

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10:50 - 12:07

Amy Peters

Absolutely. Your timing is perfect. We will be releasing our mobile app at the end of next week. It's just going through some final edits right now. And you know, that app is a tremendous way. You can see who's coming. Anybody who has opted in to be listed will be listed there. Name, title, and company. You can download the list if you go on to the desktop version of the mobile app.

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Start making some connections within the app. Set up meetings, and we also just released our first timers. For some attendees Video our conference campus, we call it with quick tips and tricks for first timers, because it's it can be daunting to log into a meeting of over 3000 attendees. Especially if you're new to the industry, not really knowing anybody.

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So we have got a first-timers gathering Monday morning, allowing them a chance to meet. And there will be leadership there, next leadership, and next staff to help everybody make a few introductions and then send them off, get the conference started. And then with the welcome reception Monday afternoon, excuse me, Monday evening, there will be a special gathering area for those first-time attendees so they can reconnect, you know, see a familiar friendly face, and really make sure that they've got their feet underneath them to be successful for the rest of the show.

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12:07 - 13:46

Lucas McCurdy

That's great. I've been a part of those first-time attendee meetings myself. When I was privileged enough to be on the Future Leaders Council, we volunteered to do some of that. So very important. There are a lot of newcomers in the industry, which is great. There's new tech coming into this space, there's new operators coming into the space, and new products and services.

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And this is a really great way to start the process of building connections at the event. Like you said, it can be very daunting. You're in a sea of people, and the majority of them really do know each other. This is one of the beautiful things about the industry is that it's highly collaborative. It is not very siloed. It is very, very collaborative. And once you are in the industry and get to know people, it's very easy to make great friends and connections, business partners, and do business here. And Nick is a great place to start with that. And for the first-time attendee, the meeting is certainly one not to miss if you're new.

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Very exciting agenda, Amy. And, we're excited. Bridge the Gap has been cultivating some of these thought leaders and conversations for over eight years through the Nic conference. And, Bridge the Gap will have their studio set up to make sure that we grab some of this content to share with our audience and network.

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You know, Amy, any encouragement, last-minute encouragement for those that are kind of on the fence, like, I just don't know if I'm going to go this year. But, you know, FOMO is real. We don't you don't want to miss out.

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13:46 - 15:30

Amy Peters

I agree absolutely. Registration is actually pacing ahead of where it was this time last year. So that's very exciting that, you know, the industry is back, it's better funded, there is more interest and more enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm does carry over to your next staff as well. We are making efforts to make all of our conferences feel authentically local, and the conference can take any can take place in any place, right?

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It can be in any city. As long as there's space for us, we can do it there. But we want to make sure that you are having the best possible time that you can have. So we want to really lean into Austin. We are partnering with local Austin brands. You will hear some local Austin music. It's going to be very, very evocative of the city itself, everywhere you look.

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And that's very important to us. It's important because we're starting to track the actual ages and demographics of our attendees. For folks who registered this year, you may have seen a brand new question, which is, which generation do you fall in? That's important because for the first time ever in 2024, we call the next generation of event goers.

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That would be millennials plus Gen Z outnumbered boomers as conference attendees first time ever. And that's really, really important. That means we need to rethink a bit about how we are, not necessarily how we are programming, perhaps how we are delivering that programming. But what we are doing in terms of the conference structure itself, the conference experience isn't meeting our attendees where they want to be. So I think you can look for more and more of that from NIC as the years progress, because we're very committed to making this experience the best.

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15:30 - 15:52

Lucas McCurdy

Well, I know that you will. And again, I'm personally excited that it's in Austin. And, Amy, I just have one request. I don't know if you can do this for me, but for people who know me and follow me, they know my love for tacos is extreme. And so my only request is that NIC gets local tacos to come in to the conference for some food.

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15:53 - 15:55

Amy Peters

Noted. Tacos.

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15:55 - 15:56

Lucas McCurdy

Good, good.

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15:56 - 16:24

Lucas McCurdy

I'll do whatever I have to do to make that happen, and talk to many people there. So thank you so much, Amy. We're excited about this conversation. And also Bridge the Gap is excited to, in advance, really get prepared for our studio set up there. And, I am for sure going to be attending some of these thought leader panels so that I can get the best information, the newest and most up-to-date information in the industry. So, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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16:24 - 16:25

Amy Peters

Can't wait to see you in Austin.

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16:25 - 16:47

Lucas McCurdy

Likewise. And so to our listeners, if you want to learn more information about this, go into the show notes and you can hit all the links there to register and learn more about the Fall NIC Conference in Austin, Texas, and connect with us there. You can go to btgvoice.com. Download this content. So much more, and thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge the Gap.

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Outro

Thanks for listening to Bridge the Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at btgvoice.com.

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