Choosing A Speaker For An Assisted Living Awards Lunch.
An awards lunch is short, personal and full of people who rarely get a stage. Here is how to choose a speaker who makes the honorees the point of the day.
A leadership awards lunch in assisted living is often the first time a community has stopped to honor its leaders out loud. The speaker’s job is to make that hour feel earned, not to steal it.
Know who is in the room
- Honorees. Directors, nurse leaders and supervisors who carried their buildings through hard years.
- Executive and ownership teams. They want the lunch to say something about the culture they are building.
- Department leads. Dining, activities, housekeeping and maintenance leaders who shape the resident experience every day.
- Families and guests. Sometimes invited, and a reason to keep the message warm and plain.
What the hour has to do
An awards lunch has three jobs: thank people by name, show the whole team what great leadership looks like in your buildings, and send everyone back to work with something to use. A keynote that runs long or turns into a lecture works against all three.
The best sessions are 20 to 35 minutes, tie their stories to the values your awards celebrate, and hand the room back to the honorees on time.
Recognition lands hardest when it names exactly what someone did and why it mattered.
How to choose the speaker
Start with your award values
Share the categories and what each one honors, so the message can echo them.
Ask about senior living audiences
Ask which senior living, long-term care or healthcare teams the speaker has addressed.
Expect a planning call
A speaker who meets with you first can use your language and your stories, not generic ones.
Protect the honorees’ time
Agree on a firm length and where the talk sits in the run of show.
Plan the follow-through
Ask what leaders can do the next week, such as a book for each honoree or a short field guide.
Book early
Lunch slots fill fast in spring and fall. Six to nine months out is comfortable.
Questions planners ask
How long should the keynote be at an awards lunch?
What topics fit a senior living awards lunch?
Should the speaker reference our honorees?
How far ahead should we book?
Chris Sund spoke to the leadership team of Spring Living Retirement Communities in Playa del Carmen and keynoted Crawford County Memorial Hospital’s Patient Experience Recognition Dinner. See his work as a senior care keynote speaker and awards banquet speaker, and the awards banquet run of show.
Chris Sund
President and COO of Uniti Med, GQR Healthcare and Nebula, and bestselling author of You Are Capable of More. He has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue, was named to SIA’s Healthcare Staffing 100 and serves as Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors. Based in Nebraska. Thinkers360 ranks him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Healthcare and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Culture.
Make your honorees the point of the day.
Send your date, your award categories and the time you have. You will get availability and a plan back within one business day.