Let The HIMSSanity Begin!

By Ken Congdon, Editor In Chief, ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com
Follow Me On Twitter @KenOnHIT

I can’t take credit for the term “HIMSSanity.” I first saw it on an infographic that CDW published last week. However, it’s a perfect term to describe what the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition has become. In an economy that has taken its toll on several trade shows and events, HIMSS continues to grow stronger. The conference had a record 36,531 attendees last year. A number it hopes to eclipse this year. If the shortage of hotel rooms in the New Orleans area is any indication, it has a good chance to do so.

HIMSS 13 also boasts more than 1,100 exhibitors that will showcase their health IT products and services on a show floor that is more than 1.5 miles long. As a member of the press, I was contacted by PR representatives from just about all of these exhibitors over the past few weeks. In fact, I became so inundated with HIMSS meeting requests that I actually stopped picking up my phone. I had to. If I didn’t, I would have spent the majority of the last two weeks telling PR representatives that my HIMSS schedule was full, and I would not be able to accommodate an onsite meeting.   

HIMSS definitely provides a great stage for health IT vendors to highlight their capabilities, but it’s also a crowded one. So much noise is generated at HIMSS that vendors can have a hard time standing out. However, many come up with creative (and often expensive) tactics in an attempt to get noticed. Invitation-only parties, cocktail receptions, boat cruises, tchotchkes, and giveaways are all bait used to lure HIMSS attendees to vendor booths. However, I question how effective many of these tactics are at actually enticing attendees to stick around long enough to listen to a vendor messages and value propositions.

I started receiving some of these clever marketing messages in the mail two weeks ago. My favorite came from MediQuant, a healthcare revenue lifecycle management company. They mailed me an 8” x 9” x 2” box with a label that read “Album Press Pre-Release – Be The First To Check Out Our Debut Single Legacy System Blues Before Its Release At HIMSS.” Inside the box was an actual vinyl 45, supposedly containing a song that the company had recorded for HIMSS. I have no idea because I was unable to listen to it. I don’t have a record player. I’m sure few people do in this day and age. The record label also instructed me to bring the 45 to HIMSS to see if I’m an instant winner. Let me see if I got this straight, you want me to pack a vinyl 45 with my luggage for HIMSS? Odds are it will break. In any case, that’s more trouble than I want to go through in preparation for a busy show. The point is this — MediQuant got my attention with its cool mailer, but this tactic was ultimately ineffective at delivering the company’s message to me or compelling me to learn more. I hope this promotion resonates better with others that received it.

So, the entire Health IT Outcomes team and I are in New Orleans this week covering the insanity that is HIMSS. My schedule is completely booked, and I will only be able to take in a small fraction of what HIMSS has to offer. No doubt some big industry announcements will be made — in fact, rumor has it Cerner and McKesson will make a significant interoperability announcement later today. I, for one, am most looking forward to meeting with and interviewing health IT leaders from several respected providers while at HIMSS. I hope to gain detailed insight into their health IT initiatives, challenges, and successes so that I can share them with you. I also look forward to President Clinton’s keynote and my own presentation on BYOD best practices on Wednesday 3/6. Finally, I look forward to meeting many of the industry visionaries that I regularly interact with on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets, in person at the show. I’ll be tweeting incessantly using the #HIMSS13 hash tag to chronicle my HIMSS experiences real time while at the event. You can follow along with me at @KenOnHIT.

Before I dive into the week’s activities, I have one suggestion for HIMSS. As mentioned, this year’s event includes more than 1,100 exhibitors covering a show floor more than 1.5 miles long. According to the infographic CDW created, it would take an attendee 7.6 days to meet with every exhibitor for just 10 minutes. Yet, there is no rhyme or reason to how exhibitors are positioned on the show floor. There is no organization to it. Granted, most attendees aren’t attempting to meet with all (or even most) of the exhibitors at HIMSS. It’s impossible. However, most attendees do come to HIMSS to search for and evaluate very specific health IT solutions — whether it’s EHR systems, telehealth and mHealth technologies, or revenue cycle management solutions. With the way the HIMSS exhibit hall is currently configured, an attendee might have to travel from one end of the show floor to the other to meet with all of the vendors on their EHR wish list. Can’t the show floor be organized more like a department store, where vendors offering similar technology solutions are grouped together? ProMat, a leading supply chain and material handling expo, successfully organizes its show floor in this manner. I realize vendors may not like having their booth in the same vicinity as their competitors, but configuring the exhibition hall in this manner would make navigating the event infinitely more convenient for the attendees.