Residents Feel the Culture Before They See the Amenities.
Chris Sund is a keynote speaker for retirement communities and senior living operators. He speaks at team member appreciation days, executive director and leadership retreats and annual company meetings, on keeping good people and building the hospitality culture residents and families notice. In November 2026 he speaks to the leadership team of Spring Living Retirement Communities in Playa del Carmen.
Why Do Retirement Communities Bring In a Speaker?
A retirement community runs on people residents see every day: the server who remembers an order, the life enrichment lead who notices someone missing from an activity, the caregiver on the overnight shift. When those people stay and feel valued, residents and families feel it. When they leave, everyone feels that too.
Operators bring Chris in when they want one message to reach every one of those roles at once, or when the leaders who run each community need time together to reset for the year.
All-Staff & Appreciation Days
A keynote that thanks team members for work that is easy to overlook and gives them something to take back to the floor. See employee appreciation day speaking.
Leadership & ED Retreats
Executive directors, regional leaders and department heads stepping away together, including destination retreats like Spring Living’s in Playa del Carmen.
Annual Company Meetings
One session for leaders from many communities, so every building leaves with the same language for culture and retention.
Hospitality & Resident Experience
The Power of Small Moments, applied to dining, life enrichment, housekeeping, reception and care: the interactions residents talk about.
What Keeps Caregivers, Dining and Life Enrichment Teams?
Turnover in senior living rarely comes down to one thing. It is a schedule that never settles, a supervisor who only notices mistakes, a new hire who never felt welcomed. Chris has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, so the question of why people take a job and why they leave one is part of his week.
His sessions give community leaders small, repeatable habits that decide whether a good team member stays, and give frontline teams a reason to bring their best to the next shift. For more on the retention side, see CNA retention strategies.
- Recognition that reaches caregivers, dining and life enrichment teams, not only nursing
- The small moments that shape how residents and families experience a community
- Leadership habits for executive directors and department heads carrying a full building
- What keeps good people in demanding, lower-wage roles when other jobs exist
- A shared language for culture across every community in a portfolio
Proof: Spring Living and Senior Care Stages
Chris speaks to the leadership team of Spring Living Retirement Communities on November 2, 2026 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Spring Living is a Canadian retirement living operator with 28 communities in Ontario and Quebec. The program is being built around what its community leaders are working on: keeping good people, building a culture residents and families feel, and leading teams through constant change.
He has also spoken to senior living and long-term care audiences at the LeadingAge Illinois Annual Conference in Chicago (July 2026), at state health care associations in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado, and at the AHCA/NCAL Annual Convention in Boston (October 2026). Those associations and NCAL represent assisted living members alongside skilled nursing.
Chris Sund presented in a very professional manner and related very well to our long-term care providers. He has boundless energy and articulates his ideas very clearly. He promotes employee teamwork, leadership, and strategies for a more enriching life. He was so well received by our providers!
Awesome group motivator, and he made talking with others in a group fun.
Programs for Retirement Communities
Every session is customized to your communities, your teams and your year.
The Power of Small Moments
The resident and family experience keynote. How brief, ordinary interactions build a community’s reputation, from the dining room to the front desk.
You Are Capable of More: Leadership
For executive directors and department heads: leading a building with clarity, accountability and care.
Your Team Is Capable of More
For all-staff days and company meetings: ownership and momentum for every role in the community.
Motivating Today’s Workforce
What actually motivates frontline team members across generations, built on the SPARK framework.
Employee Retention
Why people stay in demanding work, and the leadership behaviors that keep caregivers and hospitality staff.
Formats
Each program runs as a keynote, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop. A common retreat format is the keynote for the whole group followed by a working session for executive directors. Chris’s sessions have been approved for continuing education credit at past conferences, including both of his sessions at the Iowa Health Care Association convention. The host association handles the CE application; Chris provides the learning objectives, outline and bio it needs.
Keynote
A general-session keynote for the full room, with stories and one framework attendees can use on the next shift.
Half Day
The keynote content plus working time: leaders apply the framework to their own teams and leave with a written plan.
Full Day
A leadership day built around your agenda, combining the keynote, applied sessions and planning time for a leadership group.
Who Books This Session
Related pages: Senior Care Speaker · Long-Term Care Speaker · Destination Event Speaker · Keynote Speaker in Cancun · Employee Appreciation Day Speaker · CNA Retention Strategies
What Retirement Community Planners Ask
Has Chris worked with retirement community operators?
Yes. He speaks to the leadership team of Spring Living Retirement Communities, a Canadian operator with 28 communities in Ontario and Quebec, in Playa del Carmen on November 2, 2026. He has also spoken at LeadingAge Illinois, AHCA/NCAL and four state health care association conferences.
Can Chris speak at a destination leadership retreat?
Yes. The Spring Living session is a destination leadership event in Playa del Carmen. See destination events and Cancun and the Riviera Maya for how he plans travel and the program around a retreat.
Will the session work for dining, life enrichment and housekeeping as well as care staff?
Yes. The Power of Small Moments is built for every role residents meet during the day, so a server, a life enrichment lead and a caregiver all hear their own work in it. Chris asks about your teams in a pre-event call and builds the examples around your communities.
Can the session count toward continuing education?
Chris’s sessions have been approved for continuing education credit at past conferences, including both of his sessions at the Iowa Health Care Association convention. The host association handles the CE application; Chris provides the learning objectives, outline and bio it needs.
Can it run for several communities or several shifts?
Yes. Annual company meetings often bring leaders from many communities into one session, and all-staff days can schedule the keynote more than once so each shift can attend. Formats are a keynote, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop.
Can every team member get a copy of the book?
Yes. Operators often give copies of You Are Capable of More to leaders or to the whole team, and Chris can run a signing table. Bulk pricing is available through bulk orders.
You Are Capable of More
The bestselling book behind the keynote, and the 2026 Paris Book Festival winner in the How-To category. Ten principles for closing the gap between what a team is producing and what it is actually capable of.
Operators often give a copy to every executive director, or to the whole team after an appreciation day. Bulk pricing and signed copies are available.
He Works on Retention Every Day
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, building Uniti Med from startup to one of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the US: 10x revenue growth on the core brand, #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest, and a Fortune Best Workplaces award along the way.
Staffing is a retention business. Every week he sees why clinicians and caregivers take a job, and why they leave one. That is the material he brings to the stage, not theory borrowed from somewhere else.
He is the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More, a Maxwell Leadership Certified coach, an Inc. contributor and a Forbes Business Council member.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Where Senior Living Audiences Have Heard Chris
Retirement living, senior care and state association stages where Chris has spoken on retention, culture and resident experience.
Spring Living Retirement CommunitiesPlaya del Carmen · Nov 2026LeadingAge IllinoisChicago, IL · Jul 2026AHCA/NCAL Annual ConventionBoston, MA · Oct 2026Iowa Health Care AssociationDes Moines, IAMontana Health Care AssociationBillings, MTSouth Dakota Health Care AssociationSioux Falls, SDColorado Health Care AssociationDenver, COAlso: Senior Care Speaker · Long-Term Care Speaker · All Healthcare & Senior Care Speaking · See all speaking engagements →
Bring Chris to Your Communities
Tell Chris about your communities, your teams and the event you are planning, whether it is an appreciation day, a company meeting or a leadership retreat. You’ll get a fast, straight answer on fit and availability.
Check Availability & FeesResponse within one business day · Speaker kit, bio & headshots