Age Friendly Futures Live: Understand the new aged care consumer
Description
Aged care providers are expanding — new services, areas, communities. This session is for the ones thinking seriously about who they're expanding for.
Most providers can describe their services in detail. Fewer can describe their consumers with the same confidence — who they really are, how they make decisions, and what shapes their experience from first awareness through to ongoing care. The default assumption is often that the consumer is just the older person in front of you. It's usually more complicated than that.
The aged care consumer in 2026 is not a single profile. Decisions often move through families — across relationships with different priorities and unequal dynamics. Australia's older population is diverse in language, cultural background, and how trust is built. And consumers are more informed than they used to be — many arrive at the enquiry process having already researched, compared, and formed views. Keeping pace with that shift takes more than good intentions.
What you'll walk away with:
A clearer understanding of who is actually making decisions about aged care — and what they're looking for when they find you
A more honest picture of how cultural diversity shapes your consumer base, and what that means for how you communicate and design your services
A better understanding of how to use AI to meet the demands of a more tech savvy, perceptive client base
A practical sense of where your marketing and CX capability may have gaps, and where to focus first
Who should attend: CEOs, general managers, marketing leads, and customer experience teams at aged care providers — anyone responsible for attracting, retaining, or understanding the people who choose your services.
Format: 60-minute live Q&A. If you have any specific questions, submit them prior to the session to the host, George Gouzounis on LinkedIn, or by choosing "Contact Host" > "Other" in the contact form below.
This session is supported by:
Blue Sky Community Services is a not-for-profit community services organisation delivering services across several regions of New South Wales and South East Queensland. We work in partnership with individuals, families and communities to support them to reach their goals and achieve meaningful outcomes through inclusive, strengths-based and person-centred approaches. We have been operating in the Mid North Coast region since the mid-1970s, initially as the ‘Mid North Coast Regional Council for Social Development’, and later transitioning to ‘Mid Coast Communities’. Now, as Blue Sky Community Services (since 2020), we are expanding our reach to other areas of NSW.
Panel Members
Elyssia Clark
As the General Manager of Marketing, Insights and Customer Experience at Benetas, Elyssia Clark brings a wealth of executive experience across healthcare, technology, financial services and consulting, and a keen interest in helping aged care leaders navigate the practical realities of AI adoption. At Benetas, Elyssia has been leading the exploration of early, practical applications of generative AI, from expediting content development and multilingual video explainers to exploring social robotics and virtual voice-based information services, all with a focus on safety, governance and real-world workforce enablement.
Justina Gardiner
Justina Gardiner is a marketing strategist with 20+ years of local and international experience working with organisations growing across new markets, new services and new audiences. In 2014, after working in roles including Marketing Director and General Manager across six diverse sectors, she founded LightSpeed Consulting to give scaling businesses access to senior marketing leadership without the full-time hire – with a particular focus on professional services, defence and deep-tech. Her focus is consumer understanding in its most practical form: who actually makes the decision, what they need to know before they trust you, and how to build marketing that reflects that reality rather than assuming it. She holds an MBA, Master of Fine Arts, a Fellow CPM, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, with an Order of Merit. Outside consulting, she serves on the boards of Meals on Wheels SA and Brink Productions, chairs the 2026 National Meals on Wheels Conference and sits on the Young Impact 100 SA Steering Committee.
Hanaa' Grave
Hanaa' Grave is the Coordinator of culturalQ, where she designs and delivers Cultural Intelligence and Cultural Competence training for organisations across the community, government, and corporate sectors. Her work focuses on translating cultural intelligence into everyday organisational practice — how services are designed, how teams communicate, and how trust is built across communities. Hanaa' has worked with a wide range of organisations navigating cultural diversity, including in the aged care sector, and brings a perspective shaped by living and working across Australia, West Asia, and Europe.
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