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Designing Advocacy: Using Marketing Strategy, Design, and Digital Tools to Amplify Programs and Voices

Designing Advocacy: Using Marketing Strategy, Design, and Digital Tools to Amplify Programs and Voices

Includes a Live Web Event on 10/29/2026 at 12:00 PM (EDT)

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    • Non-Member - $25
    • Comp Member - $15
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    • Regular Member - $15
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    • GSA Staff - Free!
    • Transitional Member - $15
    • Graduate Student/Post-Doc Member - $15
    • Undergraduate Student Member - $15

Gerontology programs, clinicians, researchers, and community organizations often produce exceptional work but struggle to effectively advocate for themselves and the populations they serve. Despite deep expertise, many programs lack the marketing infrastructure, design resources, and communication strategies necessary to clearly convey their impact to stakeholders, funders, and the public. Barriers such as limited funding, staffing shortages, and competing organizational priorities frequently leave communications and awareness efforts underdeveloped.

As a result, programs that serve older adults often remain under-recognized, underutilized, and underfunded. While strategic branding and positioning are important first steps, the ability to translate and activate those strategies into compelling marketing materials and integrated campaigns is what ultimately drives visibility, engagement, and support.

This interactive virtual workshop focuses on the practical application of marketing, design, and accessible digital tools that allow organizations and individuals to elevate their communications even without specialized design or marketing staff. Participants will learn how to evaluate their current materials, develop stronger marketing campaigns, and leverage widely available tools such as Canva and AI-assisted writing platforms to improve messaging and visual communications.

Through hands-on exercises, case studies, and live design critiques, attendees will analyze real materials submitted by participants and learn how thoughtful design, messaging, and technology-enabled tools can transform communications and amplify advocacy efforts for aging programs.

Travis Sharp, BS

Travis Sharp, BS

Creative Director

Reckon Branding

Travis Sharp is a Creative Director, playwright, and improv comic. For over 30 years, he’s helped regional, national, and international brands harness the power of storytelling to build meaningful connections with their important audiences. For the past 10 years, he’s worked extensively with brands focusing on geriatrics, gerontology, and dementia. He also works with the Improving Care through Improv program to teach care partners how to use improv techniques to better support and validate people living with dementia.

Andy Suggs, BFA

Andy Suggs, BFA

Brand Strategist and CEO

Reckon Branding

Born and raised in Atlanta, Andy started solving visual problems as a high school sophomore by helping the Roswell Hornet cheerleaders concept and design football banners. His passion for helping those living with and caring for those with cognitive decline began with watching his Grandfather and family care for his Grandmother’s undiagnosed case of dementia in the early 2000’s. Currently he and is wife are caring for his wife’s parents, who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The importance of this work came full-circle when moving his in-laws into their first assisted living home when he found a brochure he designed for a dementia care client on the counter of their front desk.

Robert Yanks

Robert Yanks

Senior Group Account Executive

Reckon Branding

Since graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in Advertising, Robert has built brands, created marketing plans, and managed integrated multi-channel campaigns for clients in Gerontology and Aging. This work is personal for him — he's watched family members navigate the challenges of aging, and that firsthand experience shapes how he approaches every campaign: with empathy and a genuine belief that good marketing can help older adults and their families feel seen, supported, and understood. That's what makes this work feel less like a job and more like something worth doing well.

All times are ET

Agenda

12:00 PM Welcome and Framing the Advocacy Gap
12:10 PMWhat Makes Marketing Materials Effective?
12:30 PMLive “Before” Design Critique of Participant Submissions
12:50 PMBreak
12:55 PMAccessible Tools for Stronger Marketing & Design
1:20 PMDesign Transformation – Revealing the “After” Versions
1:40 PMDesigning a Simple Integrated Marketing Campaign
1:55 PMKey Takeaways and Action Planning


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10/29/2026 at 12:00 PM (EDT)  |  120 minutes
10/29/2026 at 12:00 PM (EDT)  |  120 minutes Welcome to today's workshop! Programming will begin at 12:00 PM ET, but feel free to join us in the waiting room, which will open at 11:30 AM ET.
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