Pre-Conference Session
Unlocking Value Through Innovation & Strategic Growth
Strategic Solutions and New Charter Technologies
AI promises to transform every industry – yet 95% of pilots fail to deliver measurable results. In this exclusive session, you’ll gain insider clarity on what AI really is today, where it’s headed, and how to separate hype from reality.

Registration Open 

Breakfast Together 

Welcome and General Session  
RISE Through It: Transforming Our Hidden Prisons of Uncertainty into Growth, Clarity, and Limitless Results
Rashmi Airan
Uncertainty is one of the greatest hidden prisons. Individually, we carry fear of judgment, perfectionism, assumptions, cultural norms, and limiting beliefs. Corporations reinforce these prisons with rigid hierarchies, outdated ideologies, and unspoken rules that stifle innovation. Rashmi’s story of falling, serving time in federal prison, and rising again exposes how these prisons confine us and what it truly takes to dismantle them.

This keynote moves beyond theory to lived truth. Rashmi draws from her own raw experiences to challenge audiences to confront their hidden prisons and face uncertainty with courage. Her message is not about abstract resilience. It is about the radical transformation that happens when you strip away ego, silence, and fear, and choose clarity, growth, and possibility instead.

Through her Rise Through It™ framework, Rashmi confronts both external struggle and the mental prisons that amplify it.

Refreshment Break with Exhibitors 

General Session 
SC Medical Association & NC Medical Society Panel Discussion
Richele Taylor of the South Carolina Medical Association, and Ashley Rodriguez of the North Carolina Medical Society

Community Service Project  

Networking Lunch with Exhibitors

General Session
Collaborating for Success: How Intentional Collaboration Creates Shared Value
Dr. Spence M. Taylor, Physicians Collaborative
Collaborating for Success: How Intentional Collaboration Creates Shared Value Across the country, the relationship between independent medical practices and health systems is often framed as competitive or misaligned. In reality, the modern healthcare landscape demands the opposite: purposeful, structured collaboration. When these entities work together—sharing data, coordinating specialty services, leveraging telehealth, and aligning on best-practice standards—patients receive better care, providers operate more efficiently, administrators gain stability, and communities thrive.

This talk will explore why collaboration is no longer optional but a strategic imperative. Through the lens of a vascular surgeon who has led both clinical teams and a major health system, attendees will learn how to build mutually beneficial partnerships that elevate quality and access.

Refreshment Break with Exhibitors 

General Session 
Listserv Live

Exhibitor Recognition and Prizes 

Wellness Event

Emerging Leaders Meet Up

Above the Waves: Dinner & After Party
Sweetgrass Inn Rooftop

Breakfast  

ACMPE Presentation
Todd Pittman, CMPE, Digestive Health Specialists

General Session 
Hiring Your Way to High-Performance: Strategic Workforce Design for Medical Practices
Mickey Smith, LFACHE, FACMPE, FHFMA
In today’s healthcare environment, practices face mounting pressures—aging populations, persistent staffing shortages, escalating turnover costs and evolving expectations around patient experience. According to MGMA, by 2030 the U.S. will have nearly 70 million residents aged 65 or older, while projected shortfalls include some 208,000 registered nurses and 187,000 physicians. In this session, you’ll learn how to shift hiring from a routine administrative task into a deliberate strategic initiative that fuels operational excellence, patient care quality, and sustainable growth.

Building on the framework of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this session offers seven practical “habits” tailored for medical group leadership — from forecasting workforce needs to continuously refining your interview and onboarding processes.

Whether you’re a practice administrator, HR leader, physician executive or operations manager, this session arms you with a structured hiring blueprint that transforms talent acquisition into a strategic advantage. You’ll leave with key take-aways, including templates, process checkpoints and leadership mindset shifts that support building a high-performing team primed for the demands of modern healthcare.

General Session 
The Perfect Storm: Rising Costs, Staffing Strains, and Financial Pressures Challenging Practice Sustainability
Robert Downing, Owner and Founder of Premier Health
Across North and South Carolina, practice administrators are navigating a perfect storm of cost inflation, workforce shortages, and mounting financial pressures. Reimbursements lag behind rising labor and supply expenses, talent is harder to recruit and retain, and administrative hurdles drain productivity and delay revenue. Sustaining access and quality while protecting margins has become one of the sector’s toughest challenges. This session delivers practical strategies for stabilizing operations and strengthening resilience.

Attendees will leave with clear, immediately applicable approaches to safeguard financial health, support their teams, and ensure their practices continue to thrive in an unpredictable healthcare environment.

General Session 
Leadership - Advancing - Strategic Planning
Caroline Brown, Founder and Principal of CDB Strategy
Medical practices are facing numerous challenges that seem to get more complicated by the day. Industry trends include consumerism, workforce shortages, and the need to diversify revenue. In this session, we'll explore creative opportunities to create value as a leader in your practice. Join a former health system Chief Strategy Officer and political strategist for an interactive discussion and real life strategy tools you can use in your day-to-day.

Closing Remarks
Bingo Card Giveaway and 50/50 Raffle
Must be present to win!