November 7, 2018 | Anne Weisel
What do OnShift, goats and Ben Franklin have in common? They were all present at LeadingAge 2018 – the annual event for non-profit senior care organizations.
As a proud LeadingAge Silver Partner, all of us at OnShift look forward to this event every year. We can always count on several days jam-packed with learning, idea swapping and of course, fun. This year’s event took place in Philadelphia, a city I had yet to cross off on my travel list.
LeadingAge Enlists Help Of Attendees To Solve Workforce Challenges
LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan opened the event by inviting members to share workforce solutions. “Send us your best ideas. And then, together, let’s put them into orbit,” she said, “We’ll take the lessons learned, expand upon them and implement them until finally, we achieve our moon shot.” The audience eagerly shared their ideas on the event app, which LeadingAge plans to compile and share. Her speech was an inspiring way to kick things off and engaged attendees right off the bat.
Smith’s “moon shot” speech certainly set the tone for the entire event. From the educational sessions to the conversations we had with providers, the three-day gathering acted as a forum for overcoming staffing-related challenges around recruitment and retention.
OnShift works with thousands of providers to tackle these issues head-on and we had numerous productive conversations with attendees on the subject. Specifically, our new solution, OnShift Text2Hire -- which leverages artificial intelligence and text messaging to connect with candidates and schedule interviews -- created a lot of buzz on the trade show floor and even during one of the sessions. It was really exciting to see!
Partying With Partners, Catching Up With Customers
One of the best parts of these events is getting to see all of our awesome customers and industry partners. We had the pleasure of hosting a dinner with our partner, MatrixCare, at La Peg, a really beautiful restaurant in the FringeArts building in the Old City neighborhood. The DJ played to a packed house and good food, libations and conversation were had.
Playing on our event theme of “Party With The Founders,” we enlisted the help of a Ben Franklin impersonator to mingle with the guests. Best decision ever. His getup and banter were spot on and not once did he break character. This was a hit with us OnShifters and attendees alike, and the perfect play on the city's rich history.
Afterwards, we headed over to a dance party hosted by another industry partner, Ziegler. They brought in an 8-piece band and myself, my colleagues and other attendees danced the night away.
Seeing The City
As a Philly first-timer, I knew there were certain things I wanted to see. A trip to the Rocky Balboa statue was definitely in order, and of course, I couldn’t leave without eating an original Philly cheesesteak. I was too busy enjoying my sandwich from Pat's, the "self proclaimed inventor of cheesesteak" to snap a pic, but I did manage to get a shot of the city in the fall (look at those colors!) and my coworker, Jeff, doing his best Rocky impersonation (not bad!).
I hope everyone who attended the event had a great time, learned something new and is as excited as I am to tackle workforce challenges in 2019. Oh, and if you're still wondering where the goats come in, check out the first photo in the post. Yes, those were actual goats in a blocked off booth at the show.
See for yourself why thousands of providers rely on OnShift’s innovative software for recruitment, hiring, workforce management, pay and engagement. Request your personalized demo today.
