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Q & A with John Kelly of IDN Summit and Reverse Expo

by Diana Bradley, Staff Writer | April 19, 2012
John Kelly
From the April 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Exclusive: IDN Summit

Held biannually, the IDN (Integrated Delivery Network) Summit and Reverse Expo has become the go-to source for networking, educational and informational resources and professional services for health care supply chain stakeholders. With cost-effective patient care as its main focus, the event covers best practices, enhanced communication and improved business processes.

This month’s event takes place April 23-25 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in Orlando, Fla. DOTmed News spoke with the Summit’s owner, John Kelly, CEO of Bluegrass Media, to get the skinny on the event, themed: “Change Brings Opportunity.”

DMBN: Tell us a bit about the Summit’s background.

KELLY: The tradeshow began in 1986, when the original owner wanted to have a networking event with some of his clients and a few health systems. I particularly loved the reverse expo platform and the unique opportunity this event gives health systems and their suppliers to interact. Bluegrass Business Media purchased the event from NCI Consulting Group in 2008. It’s just grown from there.

DMBN: How has it has changed since you got involved?

KELLY: We have placed emphasis on our content offering for health care providers, suppliers and other interested parties; we want to keep suppliers up-to-date with market trends. For example, we have put a lot of resources into the content for breakout sessions and general sessions. We feel an obligation to ensure when providers come on-site, they get outstanding content they can’t find at other venues. Our attendees get a good cross-section of suppliers that they get to visit and engage with. It doesn’t matter if you are the largest health care supplier in the world or you’re a brand new startup — you’ve got an equal opportunity to get in and state what you think your company can do for these health systems. I think that’s probably one of the biggest changes that has taken place since Bluegrass has taken ownership of the IDN Summit.

DMBN: What’s new at the show?

KELLY: For the first time ever, we will have a knowledge partner present at our event: The Jack Welch Management Institute [part of Strayer University]. The dean of that program, Dr. Trish Gorman, is going to lead three in-depth sessions focusing on the concept of change in health care. Further to this, our Event Reception is going to be devoted to Hope2Others International — an organization that drills water wells in Africa via hand drilling, a very low-cost method. This is a very efficient way of helping a lot of people get clean water. Dave Reierson, the guy who is responsible for Hope2Others, has really impacted a lot of people in Africa with his hand-drilling method. He is an amazing person who works as a full-time pilot for United Airlines. In essence, he also runs this organization full time and goes back and forth to Africa and sets up these organizations to drill these wells. We are going to try to raise money for this fantastic organization at this month’s show.

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