The annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the Senior Care Marketing & Sales Summit, affectionately known as SMASH, has concluded, and we were thrilled to not only be a significant part of the conference but also to help kick it off!
The first session of the three-day event is geared toward those who are new to the event or haven't attended in a while. The New Attendee session serves as an orientation of sorts, helping guide the audience on ways to make the most of their time at SMASH. The fearless leader of SMASH, Bailey Beeken, began the session by welcoming all those in attendance to this year's sold-out event. She then outlined the programming the attendees could explore over the next several days and offered tips on how to maximize their investment in learning new concepts, gaining new perspectives, and bringing home key insights.
At this point, she turned the microphone over to our very own co-founder and CEO 
here at FURTHER, Wes Fuller. During his time with the audience, Wes outlined a few key points that we felt were not just great recommendations for those during their time on-site, but should extend to post-event thinking as well. Here is a summary of his recommendations (you can watch his full talk below too!).
SMASH is unique in that it presents a focus on quality content and a natural networking community. From the curated sessions to the networking lounges, there were ample opportunities for providers to connect with experts in the field to learn more about strategies and solutions that can help them overcome the challenges they face.
Didn't make it to SMASH? No worries. Solutions partners like us can help share some of this incredible content with you. We support and participate in SMASH each year because we love to connect with others in the industry to help all of our collective boats rise.
SMASH gathers leaders in their fields to help deliver insights. At FURTHER, we have over 4,000 communities and a broad number of other partners we work with. The data and trends we gather from these relationships help position us as a provider of key insights that we enjoy sharing back with the community. This year we hosted a standing room only panel focused on AI and larger language models (ex ChatGPT).
Want to learn more about this panel or other topics? Just ask us, and we'll be happy to help offer thoughts on solutions to what's challenging you.
Something else we love about SMASH and this community it builds is that we all are experts in senior care. As sales and marketing leaders, we get to collectively converse with others who understand the context of our industry and can speak the same language with one another as it relates to solutions. This expertise helps us try on targeted solutions, not one-size-fits-all approaches, which increases our chances of success.
Facing a challenge? There's a solution for that! We love working with other solution partners to understand how they help senior care providers solve challenges. This ecosystem of understanding helps us make recommendations and referrals for those in need. Furthermore, it helps us encourage those who are in search of a solution to connect and explore what others have to offer.
As his time ended, Wes challenged the attendees to start conversations with solutions partners. The unique opportunity to learn and gain insights from vendors who have the pulse of thousands of communities nationwide can help remove the barriers providers face in their sales journeys.
