Pre- and Post-conference Sessions

Step Away to Level Up:

Your Organization Will Thank You.

Leadership in aging services demands more than just showing up every day—it demands continuous learning, fresh strategies, and renewed purpose. CFI 2025’s intensives are designed as immersive, focused retreats to fuel your personal, and professional growth.

Whether you’re strengthening your leadership coaching skills, mastering emerging technologies, or aligning your work with the boldest movements in eldercare, these sessions will equip you with insights and tools to bring real, lasting change back to your organization.

Invest in yourself. Invest in the future. Sign up today.

Coaching Bootcamp for Leaders and Managers

Better Leaders. Stronger Teams. Real Change.

The challenges facing the long-term care workforce aren’t going to be solved by management-as-usual. Real, lasting culture change starts from within—and it demands leaders who inspire, empower, and ignite transformation at every level.

This interactive Coaching Bootcamp is designed to rewire how you lead, giving you the coaching mindset, skillset, and practical tools needed to create collaborative, resilient teams. Leadership bootcamp is facilitated by seasoned leadership coaches and educators and features Dr. Kelly Tremblay, PhD, neuroscientist, and Certified ICF Certified Executive Coach and Fellow of the Institute of Coaching.

This dynamic session blends real-world coaching techniques with experiential exercises that shift old habits into new, energizing leadership practices. You’ll practice leading with curiosity, active listening, and powerful questioning—because real connection drives real change.

By the end, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to build teams that feel empowered, connected, and motivated—and a new vision for how coaching-based leadership can fuel true culture change from the inside out.

Session Instructors

Dr. Kelly Tremblay, PhD, Neuroscientist, Invited contributor to the World Report on Ageing and Health, and co-author of the new published guidelines for Integrated Care for Older People, CFI Certified Executive Coach
Marla DeVries, Chief Learning Officer, Center for Innovation
Anna Ortigara, Consultant, Center for Innovation
Mary Hopfner-Thomas, Education Coach, Center for Innovation

AgeTech Summit & Showcase

Using Technology to Free Up Time for Caring.

A four-hour deep-dive into AI and the latest in technology for care.

In an era where innovative AI solutions are launching daily, staying ahead is critical—not optional. This intensive session showcases groundbreaking technology startups committed to revolutionizing eldercare, dramatically reducing administrative burdens on care teams, and enabling caregivers to spend more meaningful time with residents.

Mobilizing the Movement:

Moving Forward Through Resident Voices, Coalitions, and Community.

The future of aging isn’t going to build itself—and it sure won’t come from tired buzzwords, cookie-cutter buildings, and passive strategies.

It’s going to take real collaboration, creative partnerships, and unapologetically fresh thinking which is why we’ve put together a valuable six-hour intensive pre-conference bootcamp where the real work begins.

We’re bringing together the “boots on the ground” innovators—the people already shaping new solutions for aging well across communities, housing, services, and care models from leading edge organizations like Village to Village Network, Age-Friendly Communities, CEAL@UNC, and PACE.

Forward-thinking aging services companies are now coming to understand that meeting the booming aging market is going to take a lot more than simply building things. It’s going to take coalitions and partnerships to deliver services affordably, how people want to receive them.

If you’re serious about cracking the middle market, creating meaningful senior living options for Boomers, and leading instead of lagging, you need to be in this room.

This isn’t a lecture. It’s a working session. You’ll leave with insights, connections, and tangible plans to help your organization thrive in the next era of aging services.

In this intensive, you’ll:

See how big movements and small pilots change the game across the country.
Hear firsthand from leaders who’ve built real solutions, not just ideas.
Learn what today’s Boomer consumers expect—and why yesterday’s strategies won’t cut it.
Get insider access to coalitions and models like Moving Forward, the EINSTEIN Model, Village to Village Networks, and more.
Engage in bold future-planning conversations to drive action—not just talk—when you return home.

Ready to build the future instead of reacting to it? Get here early. Get in the room. Get moving.

Post-conference Small House Intensives:

The Ultimate Small House Deep Dive: Divide, Conquer, and Come Home Ready.

If you’re serious about bringing the magic of small house living to your community, this is your can’t-miss, one-stop shop. We’ve designed this post-conference intensive so your team can divide and conquer: Send one person to each session and come back loaded with insights, ideas, and real-world action steps.

Get ready to roll up your sleeves, challenge the status quo, and walk away fired up to reimagine what dignified, connected, person-powered eldercare looks like in your community. Small house, big impact. Let’s do this!

Option 1 – On the Ground:

A Small House Summit Featuring Dr. Margaret Calkins

Get the blueprint. Start the day hearing from experts in the design, development, and financing of small house communities as they share the history of the small house movement, the outcomes that speak to the value of this design, and offer their insights into the future of this innovative design. Dr. Calkins is nationally recognized as a dynamic leader, trainer, and researcher in the field of environments for elders. She is Chair of the Board of IDEAS Institute, which is dedicated to exploring the therapeutic potential of the environment–—social and organizational, as well as physical—particularly as it relates to older adults and individuals living with dementia. She was recently inducted into Marquis’ Who’s Who in America and was honored as Changemaker of the Year in 2022 by The Center for Health Design.

She has received over $8mil in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and foundations to explore the impact of the environment on people living with dementia. She has served on numerous boards, including The Green House Project, the Pioneer Network, the Cleveland Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, and SAGE (Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments). She is on the editorial board for The Gerontologist, Journal of Housing and the Elderly, Journal of Clinical Psychology and Health Environments Research & Design Journal, among other journals. She has also partnered with care communities in conducting their own research.

Option 2 – Household Eldercare Community

Step out of the conference and into the real-world settings where culture change is already in motion. This immersive, half-day tour offers a unique opportunity to experience Laclede Groves, a traditional long-term care environment, supporting both skilled care and assisted living dementia care, which has been converted into individual households reimagining what it means to live and age with dignity, connection, and purpose.

This tour offers opportunities to meet team members, hear from residents, and see firsthand how thoughtful design, organizational values, and empowered caregiving can transform the eldercare experience.

You’ll end your time together identifying specific actions that you can take back to your organization based on what you saw and heard.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration, validation, or a roadmap for change, this tour will leave you energized with ideas to take home and apply in the development of a small house in your own community.

Session Leaders:

Valerie Cooper, Vice-President, Life Plan Communities Midwest, EverTrue Living
Linda Detring, RN, BSN, MSN, Lutheran Senior Services

Option 3 – Two tours

Innovative Small-House Eldercare Communities

Step out of the conference and into the real-world settings where culture change is already in motion. These immersive, half-day tours offer a unique opportunity to experience two distinct small-house eldercare models up close—each reimagining what it means to live and age with dignity, connection, and purpose.

You’ll visit a Green House home at Lake St. Louis, where deep relationships and person-directed care are the foundation of daily life. Next, you’ll see Dolan Memory Care Homes, a small-house assisted living community, designed with intention to support autonomy, and meaningful engagement for individuals living with dementia.

These tours offer opportunities to meet team members, hear from residents, and see firsthand how thoughtful design, organizational values, and empowered caregiving can transform the eldercare experience.