More than 6,000 aging services professionals are gathering in Philadelphia at the 2026 LeadingAge Annual Meeting this week. The overarching theme of this conference is Celebrating the Change Makers. Change. It’s a big word at any time in life. For seniors, it can promise even more, both scary and satisfying. And people who make changes, who drive changes, who see the possibilities in change are rare and wonderful. So they definitely deserve to be celebrated.
Change can be difficult for everyone.
All we have to do is to think back to March 2020, when the world changed almost overnight. Our experiences were bounded by words like pandemic, 6-foot distancing, and masking. Work-from-home competed with school-via-Zoom for the most common challenges. And while sharing the family Wi-Fi could pose challenges, we also embraced our community’s medical heroes. COVID forced change upon us. And six years later, remnants of those changes remain with us.
Changes in our life can’t be avoided.
Research tells us the most stressful life events all involve change. From the death of a spouse or loved one to a new baby to divorce or moving, big life events will happen to all of us. And as we age, we’re going to encounter these stressors. Retirement, health conditions, and where we call home will have to be faced at some point. The Baby Boomers aren’t facing these changes in the same way their parents and grandparents did. They’re carving out a new path, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows their history.
Change is cause for celebration and course correction.
Boomers have been embracing change since their birth. Their taste in music gave us the Rolling Stones and Springsteen. While half a million converged on a muddy field for a music fest in upstate New York, thousands also took to the streets to protest an unjust war. Millions of women entered the workforce and forged careers as “the first woman to…” be a pilot for a major airline, travel to space, run a Fortune 500 company, and so much more. Those who asked why not bullied and chided our society to shift in order to embrace Civil Rights and the environment.
Change allows us to adapt and thrive.
Charles Darwin theorized that being responsive to change was more important than being the strongest species when it came to survival. LSU business professor Leon Megginson transferred Darwin’s biological theories to business principles. Megginson boiled those theories down to “Adapt or die.” But thriving is much more appropriate given today’s cultural sensibilities. And this is exactly why we need to celebrate every single person bringing, envisioning, or demanding change.
Change is a good thing.
Sabal Strategy celebrates change as a fact of our lives. We know successful senior living marketing should be embracing changes in their way of thinking, reaching, and speaking to their target audience. We know today’s successful campaigns must reach the right audience, not simply a larger audience. We know that new tools can help campaigns reach and exceed their goals. (Just ask Angela about a partnership with a dementia care center!) We have seen the benefits of changing a sales team’s relationship with their CRM. (Reach out to Natalie and ask her about it.)
Change. Change makers. Celebrations.
Three big ideas powering the Philly conference. We hope you embrace change, seek out those who are leading the charge, and consider how we can help you change something in your next campaign! We promise to help make those changes easy to handle and worth your while.
