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Glenn J. Kalinoski, Editorial Director | October 07, 2016
From the October 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCP has its fall conferences fast approaching, and HealthCare Business News connected with Jason Green in advance of their events to learn more. The five conferences span a number of health care focuses: Hospital Pharmacy; Supply Chain; I.T.; Radiology & Imaging; and O.R. & Surgical.
HCB News: What made you decide on those five, and are there plans for any additions, subtractions or consolidations?
JG: Our first conference was a combined Hospital Pharmacy and Supply Chain event. My partners and our co-founders, David Mason and Nelson Hendry, had the strongest relationships with those health care professionals. They saw, firsthand, the necessity for our events to address the needs those providers faced on a daily basis. One of HCP’s guiding principles is that you’ll build your best business where you have built your best relationships, and that’s consistently proven true as we’ve grown.
Other factors in choosing new verticals have been identifying the major profit centers of the hospital and how the executives in those departments and the suppliers who do business with them could benefit from our events. It’s been fascinating to watch the synergies develop across those verticals and see the resulting relationships our attendees have built with each other. In fact, last year we launched an exciting new concurrent conference model where we host some of our conferences at the same time. Our Radiology & Imaging conferences are now held concurrently with our Hospital & Healthcare I.T. conference. And our Hospital O.R. & Surgical conferences are now held concurrently with our Hospital Supply Chain conferences.
The new format allows twice as much networking and relationship building with half as much time spent out of the office. Attendees from both conferences are together for the networking events, such as meals, hospitality suites and dinner and entertainment evenings. But we structure each agenda so each conference is able to maintain dedicated focus on their target audience during most of the education and reverse expo sessions. It’s a new model for us within the last year, but it’s been incredibly successful so far. We are very excited about the potential.
HCB News: Which vertical is the most popular and why?
JG: Our Hospital Pharmacy conferences are our flagship events. HCP has been in that vertical the longest — 10 years — and we have the most established relationships with those attendees. The atmosphere at those conferences is much like a family reunion. It’s exciting now, as we see that begin to happen with our other verticals. And with our new concurrent conference model, there is even more excitement around each of our events.