Conferences are a whirlwind of activity. Turn it up to 11 when the location is Las Vegas, which was the site of this year’s Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit (HMPS). Vegas is a bit much for me. Actually, it’s way too much. Sensory overload.
Despite the potential distractions of the location, the conference content held a tremendous amount of interest and delivered value for me and many others who attended.
The big theme this year was AI, which does not come as surprise. There is so much promise with AI to augment and assist what we do as communicators and marketers. I was also happy to see how many sessions were focused on better understanding the perspectives of consumer and patients.
Below, you will find my "top 5 inspirations" from the conference - pulled from several of the sessions I attended.
💡👇 TLDR: 5-slide summary of HMPS24
Grab the slides here:
Still reading? Great! Here are the daily recaps.
💡🎤 DAY 1
💡👇 Harness the Power of AI:
Here are a few highlights from an AI workshop with me, Chris Boyer, Patty Riskind and Pamela Landis.
"We don’t need AI to tell us that patients are stressed. We know that. We need to ask ourselves how AI can make the patient journey easier."
"There are lots of opportunities for AI to improve healthcare, but we have to have the guardrails in place to make it safe and reliable. There has to be governance."
"AI hallucinations can be opportunities to learn and improve."
"2024 will bring us AI-related legislation AND litigation."
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💡👇 Innovation & New Technologies: An Evaluation Roadmap:
Featuring Karen Wish who was on a panel speaking about emerging technologies:
"An organizational culture that allows for mistakes is the only way to get better."
"If you are a curious person, you can bring others along with you.”
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💡👇 Inspiration of the day:
"How often are you using your experiences – as a patient – to drive change in your organization?"
That was an insightful question that kicked off a great session with Denise Wiseman, Dean Browell, Joel English and Ahava Leibtag.
They all shared personal stories of getting care for family members, and how those experiences shaped how they are helping healthcare organizations drive patient-centered change.
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📽️ VIDEO: For more insights from day one, check out this video from Colin Hung of Swaay Health featuring me, Steve Koch from Cast & Hue, Joel Cessna from Aha Media Group. Chris Sutton from rater8, and Aaron Thaler from Feedback.
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💡🎤 DAY 2
💡👇 A Wake-up Call - The Future of the CMO:
Featuring: Chris Bevolo, Sarah Sanders, Lisa Schiller and Kristen Wevers.
"There is a historic disconnect between supply (not enough) and demand (more than enough) for healthcare. How many CEOs and CFOs are questioning the need for marketing today?"
"Cutting marketing is a short-sighted decision."
"Marketing isn’t going away. There are pockets of opportunity. Find them."
"If there is no need for traditional marketing to drive volume, look at other areas where you can add value and help the organization’s bottom line."
"Don’t keep doing the things you’ve always been doing. Deconstruct yourself."
"Now is the time to lead solutions for the biggest problems your organization faces."
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💡👇 Tap into Consumer Neuroscience to Create Extraordinary Experiences:
Keynote speaker: Adrienne Boissy, M.D.
"Patients are consumers WHEN they have a choice."
"75% of people make decisions based on emotions."
"You have to make it extraordinarily easy for people to do things."
"It is time to think holistically across the entire patient journey."
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💡👇 Coping with Controversies:
Featuring: Susan Alcorn, Rose Glenn, David Feinberg and Michael Knecht.
"Organizations don’t have to communicate on every issue."
"There should be a well-considered and socialized process for when statements are made."
"We need to set the right expectations for what communication can accomplish."
"Don’t make decisions based on emotion – make them based on strategy."
"During difficult times, you can’t stop positive messaging."
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💡👇 Inspiration of the day:
"Be an agent of empathy." – Adrienne Boissy, M.D.
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💡🎤 DAY 3
Wait, what happened to day three? Yes, there were sessions. No, I didn’t attend them! And there is no outlandish Las Vegas story there. I simply didn’t have a lot of good flight options, so I had to leave earlier than I wanted. I’ll plan better next year.
Instead of a day three summary, let’s try something totally different. Have you ever seen people posting about “pink socks” at a conference and wondered what it was all about? I received a pair two years ago from Colin Hung. Here’s the deal:
Pinksocks Life, Inc. is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization focused on promoting human connection around the world. The pinksocks movement empowers people from all walks of life to connect with anyone, anywhere, by creating a global tribe of pinksocks-wearing people who are focused on kindness, empathy, connection, and love. The movement has been decommoditized from its beginning in 2015 – all pinksocks are gifts. Every connection made between the gift giver and recipient is based on an authentic connection, not a transaction.
What a great concept! Learn more here.
📅 Upcoming events
There are plenty of great events coming up this year for marketers and communicators. Below are three you should attend if possible.
Swaay.Health Live: May 6-9 in Atlanta
SHSMD Connections Conference: October 13-15 in Denver
Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC): November 10-13 in Austin
I hope to see you at one of these conferences. Safe travels.
🎁 Bonus story
Since we're thinking about travel ... the airplane carry-on luggage crisis is real! And it’s very annoying. From The Atlantic:
"Among the many things to hate about air travel, the processing of cabin luggage is ascendant. Planes are packed, and everyone seems to have more and bigger stuff than the aircraft can accommodate. Precarity of stowage leads to mayhem."
"In the hellscape that results, passengers squeeze past one another as they roam in both directions down the aisles, in an often fruitless search for empty bins."
Why is this happening? What can be done about it? Read more here.
