Join RISE in Puerto Rico, February 24-26, and experience the annual Medicare Marketing & Sales Summit like never before. No passport needed!
For the first time, the RISE annual Medicare Marketing & Sales Summit is headed to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico to address 2025 Medicare marketing and sales updates, challenges, and success stories. But the tropical designation is only one of the exciting changes RISE has made to the annual event. Take a look at what’s planned:
World-class keynote presentations
Carlos Arroyo
Carlos Arroyo, Puerto Rican former professional basketball player, Olympian, and general manager of the Puerto Rican national basketball team, will kick off the main conference on Tuesday, February 25 at 9:10 a.m. with a fireside chat, “Game On: Grit, Growth, and Overcoming Adversity.”
Arroyo holds a cherished place in Puerto Rico’s sports history.
He first played professionally as a 17-year-old in Puerto Rico and jumped to the U.S. to play collegiately at Florida International University. He is the school's all-time leader in assists and has his jersey retired. He has had a long and decorated basketball career for the national team, most notably helping to lead them to a victory in the 2004 Olympics over the United States. He also defied the odds as a professional, going from an undrafted player to spending nine seasons in the NBA.
In 2009, he led Maccabi Tel Aviv to an Israeli League championship, pacing the league in assists and winning Finals MVP. Three years later, he won a Finals MVP award in the Turkish Super League with Besiktas.
Off the court, Arroyo has served as general manager of the national team since 2021. He has also dabbled in music, releasing the hit reggaeton single, “Baila Reggaeton.”
Dr. Sahar Yousef and Professor Lucas Miller
Dr. Sahar Yousef and Professor Lucas Miller, cognitive neuroscientist and MBA faculty, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, will take the main stage the following day for a presentation on the science of optimizing productivity and performance.
The session will focus on today’s “always-on” culture that includes constant meetings, calls, and emails, making it nearly impossible to get important, focused, and creative work accomplished.
However, by exploiting our ancient biology, instead of working against it, you can learn how to manage distractions, find time for our most important work, and stay connected in a balanced way. By equipping yourself with the most effective and scientifically proven techniques for working smarter when time and resources are limited, you’ll walk away with concrete tools for improving prioritization, decreasing execution time, and increasing focus for yourself and others.
At Berkeley, Yousef and Miller run the Becoming Superhuman Lab and teach one of the most popular MBA classes on the science of productivity and performance, which teaches busy professionals how to get their most important work done, in less time, with less stress.
They’ve collectively given over 750 talks and keynotes to knowledge workers in more than 50 countries, have advised executive teams at Fortune 100 companies like Google, Visa, and NVIDIA, and have even been invited to speak to the U.S. Congress.
New preconference workshops
Join RISE on Monday, February 24, for two half-day preconference workshops (additional registration is required).
The morning interactive workshop, “Breaking through the noise: Creating memorable sales experiences in health care,” will be led by Dr. Christie McMullen, CEO: AIM...Analyze, Improve, Move. The workshop will provide participants with an improved understanding of how the human mind processes information; targeted plan for enhancing communication skills internally and externally to improve sales and marketing; and a toolkit for creating memorable interactions.
The afternoon half-day preconference workshop will focus on member engagement and member experience in relation to changes in Star ratings, risk adjustment, coverage and benefits. Workshop leaders will include Ana Handshuh, principal at CAT5 Strategies, and Melissa Smith, founder, senior advisor, Newton Smith Group.
Hot topic sessions
Presentations on AEP strategy and post-AEP reflections
One of our most popular sessions returns. George Dippel, president, Deft Research, will provide the latest trends in Medicare consumer shopping and switching. He’ll go over the findings from Deft’s annual Medicare shopping and switching study and how it can impact your AEP strategy.
Next, we’ll have a post-AEP debrief. This session will provide key learnings from the 2024 AEP, what happened across different markets and plan types, and the role that reduced revenue or benefits may have affected enrollment and retention.
Dippel will then join DMW’s Justin Stauffer, executive vice president of marketing technology & media, and Renee Mezzanotte, EVP, client engagement, and Missy Bazzo, director, Medicare, Peak Health to go over marketing lessons learned from the 2025 AEP and 26 ideas for 2026. They’ll discuss what worked and what didn’t work during the last AEP, effectives tactics you can deploy for OEP, and steps to take to improve member retention.
Local and regional plan panel: How to compete with the national plans
Panelists Theresa Lauer, vice president, sales & marketing—Medicare, Independence Blue Cross; M. Keith Peiffer, vice president, senior market segment leader, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska; and Ron Hirasaki, VP, product management & marketing sales, Christus Health Plan will offer their views on the how your local brand is a differentiator, how to leverage local provider relationships to set your plan apart, the importance of a targeted product strategy, and growth and expansion prospects during disruptive times.
How to thrive in Medicare’s 2025 landscape
Shannon Decker, Ph.D., MBA, MBA, MEd, MEd, founder and CEO, VBC One, will moderate a panel discussion on the impact of 2025 Medicare changes, challenges, financial pressures and growth strategies, and outlook for health plans. Panelists will include Todd Rau, director sales and client relationships, Indiana University Health Plans, Inc., and Shannon Drotning, consumer market president, Providence Health Plan, and Michelle Boudreau, SVP, Group Client
A tropical paradise
Best of all, attendees will be able to learn Medicare marketing and sales strategies and network with 550 leaders and senior executives in the Caribbean! There is no better destination than Puerto Rico in February. Escape the cold weather and enjoy the warm tropical climate and beauty of old San Juan. Extend your stay and explore the ancient forts, pristine beaches, rainforests, and the vibrant nightlife.
The sessions and exhibit hall will take place at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. Hotel accommodations can be made at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, one of the top hotels in San Juan and situated just across the street from the Convention Center. Overflow hotel is the Hyatt House San Juan.
The RISE Medicare Marketing & Sales Summit will take place February 24-26 in Puerto Rico. Click here to view the entire agenda, roster of speakers, and registration and travel information.