By Rebecca Wiessmann

The senior housing world heads to Chicago October 21–23 for the 2026 NIC Fall Conference. In a recent Foresight TV conversation, Steve sat down with Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at NIC, to talk about what attendees can expect — and some of the much bigger questions facing the industry.

You can watch the full episode here.

More Than Capital And Transactions

NIC has always been a place where deals get discussed, capital gets connected with operators, and an incredible amount of business happens in hallways, hotel rooms, and over drinks.

But Lisa makes the case that people who spend the entire conference in meetings are missing something.

This year’s agenda tackles a surprisingly wide range of questions:

  • What happens next with interest rates, capital markets, and valuations?
  • Is senior living development finally beginning to move again?
  • What can senior housing learn from the hospitality industry?
  • Where does AI actually create value for operators and investors?
  • Can the industry create a viable middle-market product?
  • And perhaps most importantly, what will tomorrow’s older consumer actually want?

That last question may ultimately be bigger than all the others.

Do Consumers Really Want “Healthy Aging”?

“Healthy aging” has become one of senior living’s favorite phrases. Steve pushes Lisa on a question that does not get asked often enough:

Do we actually know this is what consumers want?

Steve uses himself as an example. At 71, he lives in a house with a yard, garden, hot tub, chickens, fruit trees, his wife, and multiple generations of family. Moving into senior living would mean giving up a lot.

And he doesn’t think he is particularly unusual.

Lisa agrees that this gets at the heart of senior living’s challenge. Prospective residents tend to focus on what they will lose by moving. The industry has to demonstrate that what they gain is greater than what they give up.

NIC hopes to get much better data around that question through a three-year research initiative with the MIT AgeLab examining what future generations actually want from senior living.

But the conversation quickly becomes even more interesting …

What if the future isn’t simply about convincing more people to move into senior living?

Maybe Senior Living Needs To Get Bigger Than The Building

Lisa suggests operators may need to think of themselves less as buildings and more as platforms. That might mean building relationships with older adults who never become residents — offering services, social connections, wellness opportunities, restaurants, programming, or other benefits while they live in their own homes.

Steve sees enormous potential in that idea.

Loneliness and social isolation are not simply senior living problems. Americans of every age are struggling to make friends and build meaningful human connections.

Senior living already knows how to create community. Why not make more of that community available to the people living outside its walls?

Steve points to St. Monica Trust in the United Kingdom, which operates a senior living community developed in a former chocolate factory. Its restaurants, swimming pool, medical services, and other amenities attract thousands of nonresidents into the community.

Instead of creating an island for older people, it becomes part of the surrounding neighborhood.

That feels like a very different value proposition.

Development May Finally Be Stirring

Development will also be a major NIC Fall topic.

For several years, operators and developers have been waiting for financing conditions to improve. But Lisan sees some change in attitude.

Construction costs aren’t likely to suddenly fall. In fact, interest rates may never return to the extraordinarily low levels the industry became accustomed to.

At some point, developers have to underwrite projects based on the world that actually exists.

McCracken says NIC is beginning to see more development momentum. The floodgates are certainly not opening, but conversations are changing, and more groups appear willing to move forward.

That matters because demographic demand is not waiting for perfect capital markets.

AI Moves From Buzzword To Business Tool

Then there is AI.

Lisa sees operators getting comfortable with the relatively easy applications first — administrative work, sales, marketing, and communication. Clinical applications are moving more cautiously, particularly when privacy, accuracy, and resident outcomes are involved.

On the capital side, the advantages are already obvious. AI can process reports, analyze portfolios, and work through massive amounts of information far faster than analysts traditionally could. The opportunity is not necessarily replacing people. It is dramatically increasing what those people can accomplish.

And that story is only beginning.

How To Survive NIC If You Are New

Steve also raises something people rarely say publicly: NIC can be intimidating.

For a first-time attendee, walking into a conference packed with investors, operators, developers, and industry veterans can feel overwhelming.

McCracken’s advice is simple. Attend the new-attendee gathering. Go to educational sessions. Sit next to somebody you don’t know. Introduce yourself.

And don’t turn the conference app into a weapon by relentlessly messaging people you want to sell something to.

Steve adds another simple strategy: set a goal to meet 10 or 20 people you have never met before. 

By the way … that advice is just as important for veterans. It is easy to attend NIC and spend the entire conference talking with the same 300 people you already know. Lisa challenges longtime attendees to notice the younger and newer people entering the industry and make them feel welcome.

Those introductions matter. Twenty years from now, some of those first-time attendees may be running the industry. And somebody has to be the person who first says hello.