Sam Nazarian, Founder, Chairman and CEO of sbe Entertainment Group and co-founder of The Estate, will take the Encore Summit Stage at the International Luxury Hotel Association's INSPIRE 2026 conference on December 16, opening the event's second day with a session titled "Longevity: The Next Frontier of Luxury" at JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa.
The conversation, conducted with ILHA Co-founder Jonathan Edelheit, will explore how longevity is redefining what guests and investors expect from high-end hospitality — and why operators who ignore the trend risk falling behind a fast-moving category.
The Longevity Hospitality Bet
Nazarian spent two decades shaping the lifestyle hotel sector, launching SLS Hotels in 2006 and building sbe into a widely recognized hospitality and entertainment platform. His newest venture, The Estate, co-founded with Tony Robbins, takes a different approach: purpose-built resorts, branded residences, and urban longevity clubs designed explicitly around extending healthspan. The model moves the guest relationship well beyond the traditional check-in/check-out cycle, threading together real estate ownership, recurring membership, and immersive wellness programming into a single integrated offering.
For hospitality operators and developers tracking where capital is flowing, that hybrid structure is worth watching closely. The longevity economy — spanning medical wellness, longevity science, and preventive health — is attracting investment from across the hospitality and real estate sectors as affluent travelers increasingly treat health outcomes as a core part of the luxury value proposition. Our hospitality industry trend coverage has tracked growing operator interest in medical wellness programming as a revenue diversifier beyond traditional spa and F&B offerings.
What the INSPIRE Session Will Cover
Nazarian's keynote will address three specific topics: why longevity has become the defining new luxury category; how residential real estate and urban longevity clubs extend the guest relationship beyond individual stays; and where owners and investors currently see the strongest opportunity within the longevity economy.
The Estate will also appear on a December 15 panel, "Medical Wellness as the New Luxury Differentiator," featuring Kenneth Ryan, Chief Longevity Officer of The Estate — giving INSPIRE attendees two dedicated touchpoints with the brand across the conference.
"Sam has spent his career seeing where luxury is going before the rest of the industry gets there," said Edelheit. "His move into longevity is one of the most important conversations in hospitality right now, and our audience of owners, operators and developers will want to hear how he is building it."
Nazarian joins a speaker lineup that includes Tina Edmundson, President of Luxury at Marriott International; Carolyne Doyon, President and CEO of Club Med North America and Caribbean; and Barry Bloom, President and COO of Xenia Hotels & Resorts. The breadth of that roster signals that INSPIRE 2026 is positioning itself as a forum for the structural questions — investment models, guest loyalty, wellness integration — that are reshaping luxury restaurant and hospitality operations heading into 2027. Registration is open at ilha.org/inspire.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
