Locumsmart Education Conference 2026: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Teams

If your calendar says Nashville, November 8 to 11, you're headed to LEC26, and ITILITE is going too. As the conference's official travel partner and one of your fellow attendees, the ITILITE team put this guide together to make your four days at the Renaissance a little smoother.

It covers the full agenda, what registration costs, how to book your flights, a sample budget, and where to stay and eat. Finance or staffing leader signing off on the trip? Jump to the budget section.

What to Know About the Locumsmart Education Conference 2026

The Locumsmart Education Conference (LEC26) runs Sunday, November 8 to Wednesday, November 11, 2026 at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel in downtown Nashville. It is the annual conference of Locumsmart, a vendor management system (VMS) built for locum tenens and temporary physician staffing.

Locumsmart says this year's schedule was built from attendee feedback. The program mixes keynotes, 1:1 meetings between healthcare organizations and staffing vendors, the hands-on Locumsmart Learning Lab, continuing education credits, exhibitor time, a charity session and three evening events.

Who Attends the Locumsmart Education Conference

LEC26 brings together the two sides of every locum tenens contract: healthcare organizations (HCOs) that use or are considering Locumsmart, and the staffing firms that supply their providers. 

Consilium Staffing describes the crowd as staffing leaders, locum tenens physicians and healthcare workforce professionals. 

The exhibitor floor adds physician job boards and recruiting platforms, workforce planning and software firms, and anesthesia and CRNA staffing specialists, with names such as Doximity, PracticeLink, Wolters Kluwer and 3Dhealth on the list. 

Because organizations that don't use Locumsmart can only attend as exhibitors, almost everyone you meet runs the same platform and the same workflows you do. That makes the hallway conversations unusually practical: how other health systems house a provider for a six-week assignment, or how they compare travel cost per provider. The healthcare travel management guide covers the travel side of those questions.

The LEC26 Agenda, Day by Day

Locumsmart has published the full LEC26 session lineup, with times, rooms and speakers. The program carries a sports theme throughout, and the main content runs Monday and Tuesday, with a shorter Wednesday morning.

Sunday, November 8: Check-in and Welcome Reception

Check-in runs from noon to 4:30 PM in the Event Hub Lobby, where you collect your badge, swag bag, jacket and an Assembly Hall Pass from LocumsNow. CompHealth, Weatherby Healthcare, KREWE Anesthesia and Global Medical Staffing host a "build your own locums mix" activity at registration. The Welcome Reception with Exhibitors, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer, runs from 5:00 to 6:30 PM at the Container Bar.

Monday, November 9: Kickoff, 1:1 Meetings and the SkyDeck

• Opening Kickoff (9:00 AM): Locumsmart Division President Thomas Lanvers opens the conference in the Broadway Ballroom.
• HCO/Vendor 1:1 Meetings, "First Contact" (10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 to 2:45 PM): Scheduled one-on-one time between healthcare organizations and staffing firms, plus Locumsmart staff office hours and the Learning Lab in parallel.
• Keynote: "What if it All Goes R.I.G.H.T?" (3:00 PM): Six-time American Ninja Warrior competitor Angela Gargano on resilience and pushing past barriers.
• Locumsmart Technology Scouting Report (4:00 PM): Engineering leaders Eric Pelkey and Matt Patterson review the year on the platform and preview what's next.
• SkyDeck Evening Event (7:00 to 9:00 PM): Food, drinks and the Tyson Hanes Band on what Locumsmart calls Nashville's largest rooftop, sponsored by Altamar Physician Services. Wear Nashville flair or your favorite team's gear.

Lunch on Monday is off-site at Assembly Food Hall, right outside the Renaissance, on a gift card from LocumsNow. Complimentary headshots run in the late morning and early afternoon.

Tuesday, November 10: The Scrimmage, Breakouts and Casino Night

• Networking and Learning Simulation, "The Scrimmage" (9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, two parts): A team simulation and debrief led by Jeff Heil of Breakthrough Learning. Locumsmart expects every team member to take part, so don't schedule anything else that morning.
• AI in Action, "The New Recruit" (1:00 PM): Locumsmart Senior Director Jason Call on how AI is being added to the platform.
• 2:00 PM breakouts: Compliance for HCOs and vendors with Jake Larsen, Locumsmart's invoice compliance lead; "Why Headcount Doesn't Equal Access" with Ron Flower of 3Dhealth; a session on women leading at the healthcare executive table with Tarese Dubiel; and separate "Locker Room Chats" for HCOs and vendors.
• 3:15 PM breakouts: The Integrated Float Pool, hidden system efficiencies with Nikki James, "The Contingent Workforce Reset" with Jason Call, and "The Physician Workforce Is Changing" with Lindsay Gaughran of Weatherby Healthcare.
• Keynote: "Dream It, Make It, Own It" (4:15 PM): Michael Waterman of CHG Healthcare on building a career around the one thing that doesn't change.
• Cocktail Reception, Awards Dinner and Casino Night (7:00 to 10:00 PM): The Locumsmart Certification Excellence Awards, followed by Casino Night. Black tie or holiday best is encouraged, and business or smart casual is fine.
  

Wednesday, November 11: Credentialing Panel and Veterans Day Event

• Credentialing Panel, "The Draft Room" (9:00 AM): Screening, provider, vendor and HCO representatives work through real scenarios with live audience polling, led by Rhonda Jackson of Reality Check Screening.
• 10:30 AM breakouts: "AI 101: Training Camp," metrics and scaling with Sara Viola, scheduling for HCOs and vendors with Kori Arnone, and a vendor Locker Room Chat.
• Veterans Day Charity Event (11:30 AM): Attendees build Family Support Kits for the Call On Me Foundation, which supports families who have lost a veteran. Reality Check Screening and SOURCE 309 sponsor the session.
  

The program wraps around noon on Wednesday. The Locumsmart Learning Lab (L3) runs through Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with one-on-one stations staffed by account management, business intelligence, quality assurance and software development teams, using your organization's own Locumsmart data 

LEC26 Registration Pricing

Registration for healthcare organizations is $850, and staffing firms that contract with Locumsmart pay $1,500 as vendor members. Exhibitor packages have sold out, and cancellations stopped being refundable after September 1, 2026.

Hosted user scholarships are no longer available. Locumsmart also offers a downloadable justification letter on the pricing page if you need sign-off from your manager.

Your LEC26 Pre-Trip Checklist

The busiest part of LEC26 is Monday and Tuesday, so most of this list is about arriving ready. Each item takes a few minutes.

• Find out who's paying for your travel: If Locumsmart is hosting you, don't book until its instructions arrive, then book only through ITILITE.
• Sort out your room: The discounted Renaissance block expired at midnight on October 12 and was only available through registration, so book at the open rate or pick a nearby hotel from the list below.
• Pick up your badge Sunday: Check-in runs from noon to 4:30 PM, and that's where you get the jacket, swag bag and Assembly Hall Pass.
• Keep Tuesday morning clear: The Scrimmage runs from 9:00 AM to noon and expects your whole team in the room.
• Pack for two dress codes: Nashville flair or team gear for Monday's SkyDeck, and holiday best or smart casual for Tuesday's awards dinner and Casino Night.
• Book a Wednesday afternoon flight: The last session ends around noon, so an early-afternoon departure works. Nashville International Airport (BNA) is about 8.4 miles from the hotel.
• Write down your 1:1 questions: Know the two or three things you want from Monday's HCO/vendor meetings before you walk in.
• Plan how receipts and folios come back: Agree on a cost code with finance, and decide who collects the hotel folio. The piece on why hotel folios go missing explains where that usually breaks down.
  

Meet ITILITE at LEC26

ITILITE is an LEC26 sponsor and exhibitor as well as the official travel partner, listed on the exhibitor page as "Gold Standard for Locum Travel Management". Find the team at booth 02 between sessions and talk through how your organization handles provider travel today.

For staffing firms and health systems, the travel management for staffing and recruiting firms page shows how ITILITE runs provider and recruiter travel, and the guide to virtual cards in corporate travel explains how single-use cards keep hotel charges off providers' personal cards.

Stop by booth 02 for a quick chat, or book a 30-minute walkthrough ahead of time if you'd rather lock in a slot.

Find us at: Booth 02, Renaissance Nashville Hotel