I had heard great things about NIC (National Investment Center) as the ultimate networking experience for anyone involved in Senior Housing.   It looked like I was going to get to go to the national conventions in Chicago last fall, but it didn’t happen.  But I did write about it (When You Can’t Be There, the Next Best Thing) which only increased my appetite to go.

I had heard great things about NIC (National Investment Center) as the ultimate networking experience for anyone involved in Senior Housing.   It looked like I was going to get to go to the national conventions in Chicago last fall, but it didn’t happen.  But I did write about it (When You Can’t Be There, the Next Best Thing) which only increased my appetite to go.

When I got the email from Vigil’s support staff saying I was registered for the San Diego Regional I was pumped up, but honestly a little bit intimidated, knowing that I would be rubbing shoulders with the elite in the industry.

Setting Some Goals

Before the conference I downloaded the attendee list and highlighted the people I wanted to connect with.  This included existing and prospective Vigil Health Solutions, call system customers, blog partners and readers, and industry thought leaders.

While it might be hard imagine, I am basically a shy person so going up to people who don’t know me and starting a conversation is not easy.  The way I combat this is to set a goal. 

The attendee list showed about 1,200 registered attendees and I set a goal of meeting 150 people.  It was an exhausting goal, but I managed to connect with about 120 people, or about 10% of the attendees.

Reflections

A semi-random collection of reflections from my first NIC:

• This is one of the best networking events I have ever attended.  For the most part people are incredibly approachable.  I did not have a single person who was rude to me (though a couple were close).

• It was particularly interesting to see that, in many cases, the C-level leaders of the very biggest companies were more open and friendly than A-level leaders of small companies, which might have something to do with their success.

• There is a lot more money looking to invest in senior housing than there are good projects that deserve funding.

• In spite of the huge number of transactional people (developers and providers of capital) there seems to be a great deal of disunity. There seem to be some developers/operators with average properties, who have no trouble attracting both debt and equity capital and others who have great projects, and difficulty getting the attention of capital providers.

• There continues to be great optimism about senior housing, particularly with respect to memory care.  That being said, there seems to be a recognition that developers need to be smart about picking their market areas.

• This was a conference that placed some emphasis on skilled nursing and there is some consensus that skilled nursing is the most profitable, though least sexy, segment of senior housing.

• While there are is concern about the current federal budget problems, there is a general consensus that senior housing/skilled nursing is too big and too important to fail.

• While the general sessions and breakout sessions provide valuable and sometime entertaining content, they are ultimately a side show, while the evening cocktail mixers and back room meetings between developers, operators and capital providers represent the main even.

• Particularly because this was a California event there was a lot of discussion about the lawsuit against Emeritus in Auburn and the no CPR 911 call in Bakersfield Brookdale community.

If you were there, feel free to add your reflections.

Steve Moran

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