We are less than a week away from the 2023 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in beautiful Chicago, IL and the health industry is buzzing. HIMSS continues to be one of the most influential health information technology events of the year, attended by 40,000+ professionals across the global health ecosystem focused on building relationships with industry peers through networking events, educational sessions, and innovation exploration to solve the health industry’s greatest challenges.
But traveling to HIMSS can be overwhelming if you don’t have a plan. Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a HIMSS veteran, we can all benefit from a few tips and tricks for a successful #HIMSS 23 experience.
- Set and Define your Goals for the Event
What do you hope to accomplish? Having a clear and defined objective is critical to your success. You should have a clear idea about your company’s goals and objectives are for attending HIMSS23. Are you attending to network and make new connections, gain industry knowledge and skills, collect research on competitors, or prospect new customers and partners? Depending on your objective, you should set clear SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound. We’ve heard this all before but measuring your success will depend on how well you defined your objective, mapped your plan to align with the objective, and define the method to measure your success.
- Schedule Time to Meet with Contacts
The team should identify key attendees they’d like to schedule a meeting, coffee chat, or lunch with. By having a target list of customers/partners, you can streamline the process and have a schedule ready at hand. Request for meetings should always include a clear and actionable method for scheduling, along with follow-up reminders to ensure the meeting is still confirmed or if schedule adjustments are needed. No different than how we manage our day-to-day calendars, the more seamless the process, we increase our probability for success and a better experience for all.
- Establish Key Speaker and Professional Development Sessions you’d like to attend
Education is key, so take full advantage of the HIMSS23 schedule and note down keynote speakers, panel sessions, presentations, and learning sessions you’d like to attend. The number of sessions can be overwhelming, so rather than going through each page of the schedule, use the search function to look up terms associated with topics you’re interested in learning more about. From this, you can identify which sessions are a must-attend and which ones you can miss.
One speaker session to note is “Building the Next Generation of Patient Engagement: Turning Patient Encounters into Long Lasting Relationships” led by Larry Burningham, AVP of Digital Experience at Maine Health. Join Larry as he leads us through digital engagement strategies leading healthcare organizations utilize to build loyalty fast and reduce overall costs by retaining patients and increasing preventative care.
You can join Larry’s session on Thursday, April 20 at 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM CT, South Building, Level 4 | S402.
- Promote your Presence
Let everyone know you’ll be there. Before the event, start promoting your attendance to your audience to drum up interest and anticipation about the event and the rare opportunity to meet face to face. Utilize tools like email marketing or social media marketing to get your meeting request and promotions in front of the right audience, schedule meetings and attract visitors to your booth before you even get there.
- Network
HIMSS23 provides a great opportunity to network with industry peers and your success is contingent on your ability to connect with the right people at the right time. There are a number of ways to meet people whether it be during the exhibition hours, happy hours, or company parties. Research what HIMSS sponsored networking, HIMSS Chapter events, and partner events you’d like to attend and ensure you are fully registered.
If you’re a patient access professional interested in connecting with your peers and patient access thought leaders, be sure to join the Premier Networking Party for Patient Access Professionals, Wednesday, April 19 at 8 PM. Join the National Association for Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM), SpinSci and Intelepeer to party with a purpose and network with the industry’s leading Patient Access professionals while consuming tech, food, fun, and drinks.
Don’t miss this opportunity. Request more information about the party here.
We hope to see you there!
