At the first Health IT Marketing and PR Conference (HITMC) 3 years ago, we quickly realized that one of the biggest values of the conference was interacting and learning from your peers. From that experience, we’ve created a number of unique ways to connect with your healthcare PR and marketing peers at the conference.
Let me highlight just a few.
Unconference Genius Bar
Last year we introduced a special unconference session on the 2nd day of the conference. The majority of attendees commented that this was one of the best parts of the conference. In 2017, we’ve doubled down and will have 3 unconference times where there is no agenda. The attendees create the agenda and all the conference attendees (geniuses) share solutions.
If you don’t see a session that will answer your biggest challenge or concern, the Unconference time is the perfect place to get your questions answered by all the genius attendees. A big thank you to Dodge Communications for sponsoring the Unconference this year.
Networking Events
While there’s huge value in the 50 presentations at the conference, there’s as much value in having a peer group you can stay connected with after the conference. That’s why we treat networking at HITMC as a priority.
For those whose flights arrive early, Wednesday afternoon we’ll be meeting up poolside (weather permitting). Most attendees usually head to dinner together as well. Then, later that night we’ll have a post dinner networking meetup (more details to come on this, but we’re planning something fun and unique).
Thursday evening we’ll be hosting our Evening Social at the beautiful Sayer’s Club with an open bar and light appetizers from 7-9 PM. For those staying Friday night, we’ll be meeting up and heading to one of the top Las Vegas clubs to enjoy a final night together.
No BS Panels
My co-organizer, Shahid Shah, and I make a real effort to ensure that the panels we offer at HITMC are high quality and so we encourage the moderators and attendees to call out when a panel is speaking in platitudes or offering little of value (That includes Shahid and myself).
Along with pushing our panels to provide value, we also encourage as much attendee participation as possible. We ask our panelists to really prepare for the panel with a deep set of questions and then we hope to never use them because the audience is so engaged with questions.
Here are the panels we have planned:
Customer Panel – Is there anything better than hearing from customers? We’re glad to have a wide variety of customers joining this panel from small group practices through hospitals to large health systems.
Press Panel – This is often a highlight for many attendees. You get a first hand account of the best way to work with the press. You hear how they like to be pitched, their pet peeves, and the types of content and topics they cover.
The Future of HIT – Our past attendees suggested we have a session that focuses on the trending topics in healthcare IT. Plus, they wanted to hear what other topics were going to become popular in the future so they could better plan their marketing and PR campaigns. This session will cover those topics.
Association Panel – Many associations contain the customers attendees at HITMC want to meet. This panel will focus on how companies can partner with associations to create a win win situation.
Content Creation Panel – One of the most popular themes at HITMC is always content marketing. This panel will focus on creating a strategy around topics, formats, lengths, and distribution in your content marketing efforts.
Of course, these are just a few HITMC 2017 program highlights. Be sure to take time to browse the full conference program.
There are only 2 days left to register for the conference and book the conference hotel at the special group rate. Register now and join hundreds of your peers in Las Vegas. You will not be disappointed with the value you receive from attending.
Startup and Non-Profit Discount
If you’re a startup or non-profit company, we’re happy to work out a rate to attend the conference that will work for your organization. Just reach out to us on our contact us page and we can work out the details.
We can’t wait to see hundreds of you in Las Vegas. Let us know if you have any other questions about the event.