Walk Away With a Strategy You Can Actually Execute.
For health care strategy, marketing, and growth leaders under pressure to do more with less. Leading hospitals and health systems turn insight into action, aligning teams, and driving measurable performance.
Real‑world problem‑solving and connection in a rapidly changing health care landscape.
SHSMD Connections is built around peer-tested ideas, practical frameworks and real conversations you can bring back to your team. Designed to support every stage of your career, the conference helps orient newcomers, elevate emerging leaders and keep seasoned executives relevant and connected.
- Experience‑based exchange with people who understand health care’s realities.
- Peer‑tested guidance that helps leaders navigate unfamiliar, high‑stakes challenges.
- Best practices for new technologies and fast‑moving trends.
Includes SHSMD membership, 30+ on-demand recordings, and up to three preconference workshops.
Join health care strategists, marketers, communicators, planners, and business development leaders who are working through the same pressure points you are: tighter budgets, emerging technologies, shifting expectations, and the need to prove impact.
If you're leading strategy, marketing, communications, or growth in health care—this is your community.
- Organization Growth, Brand & Reputation Management
- Physician Engagement, Clinical Marketing & Service Line Strategy
- Consumer Experience, Engagement & Access
- Digital, Data, Martech & AI Operations
- Leadership Development, Career Growth & System-wide Collaboration
- Transformation, Innovation & Strategic Change Execution
Matthew Moore
Artistic Director of Improv for the People
Sunday Opening Keynote
The Improv Playbook: Taking Smart Risks and Adapting Fast
Candida Rodriguez
Certified Corporate Trainer, Improv for the People
Sunday Opening Keynote
The Improv Playbook: Taking Smart Risks and Adapting Fast
Jason A. Wolf
President of The Beryl Institute
Monday Keynote
Reframing Growth Through Human Experience
Sheri Jacobs
CEO, Entrepreneur, & Wildlife Photographer
Tuesday Closing Keynote
The Unexpected Power of Boundaries: Rethinking the Rules, Risk and Real Drivers of Innovation
Find a roadmap built around your priorities.
Build an agenda around what you actually need to solve. Explore sessions by the roles, priorities and challenges most relevant to your work.
Strategy, growth, leadership alignment and system-wide transformation.
Access, behavioral health, equity and community-centered care strategies.
Strategies tailored for rural systems, independent organizations and community providers.
Approaches for physician engagement and alignment across systems.
How organizations are using AI, analytics and automation to improve strategy and consumer engagement.
Brand strategy, reputation, storytelling, culture and consumer trust.
Measurement, research and data-informed strategy and decision-making.
Navigate the conference with curated recommendations and orientation sessions.
Need approval to attend?
Use the Justification Toolkit to make the business case for SHSMD Connections 2026. It connects the conference experience to organizational performance, stronger decision-making, and immediate application.
Use it to show:
- Why the conference supports your team’s goals
- What practical outcomes you expect to bring back
- How the all-inclusive registration adds value
- Why now is the right time to attend
Toolkit Includes:
- Sample Social Media Posts
- Social Media Graphics
- Email Signatures
- Content Ideas
Join the conversation early
Whether you are attending, speaking, exhibiting or sponsoring, your voice helps show the energy and impact of the SHSMD community. Use #SHSMD26 and the social media toolkit to network early.
Learn, Network and Discover Solutions
SHSMD Solution Center Exhibit Hall
The SHSMD Solution Center gives sponsors and exhibitors direct access to influential health care leaders actively seeking new ideas, technologies, and strategic partners. Designed to encourage meaningful conversations and high-value engagement, the Solution Center brings together professionals across marketing, communications, digital, strategy, business development, and consumer experience in one dynamic networking environment.
Become an Exhibitor | View Floor Plan | Sponsorship Opportunities
Come back with ideas you can put to work.
Attendees consistently point to Connections as a place where the sessions, conversations and peer examples translate into practical next steps.
I left with a real list of to-dos, ideas and purpose.
The sessions were amazing, but the networking was next level.
I gained a nugget of info at each session that I found pertinent to what I do.
Connect in Baltimore
The SHSMD26 conference will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center in downtown Baltimore, MD. The venue places you in the heart of the city, steps away from Inner Harbor and within walking distance to the National Aquarium, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Stroll along the ten-block plus entertainment and cultural destination at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and enjoy authentic local cuisine just outside the convention doors. With dining, entertainment and cultural attractions just steps away, you’ll be in the center of it all at SHSMD26.
Save the Date: Future SHSMD Connections
2027 SHSMD Connections
September 26-28, 2027
Phoenix, AZ
Sponsored By
