Are you reading this while at HIMSS 2010 in Atlanta? Unfortunately I’m not there with you if you are. If you’re elsewhere like me and wish you were at HIMSS let me know – maybe there are enough of us that I’ll start a Facebook group! If you’re elsewhere and happy to be far away from the educational sessions and tradeshow floor, then let me be one of the few that will try to convince you to attend in future years.
If you work for a vendor and are happy to be one of the “lucky” ones not drafted to work the booth, let me tell you that is a duty I’d pull any time the opportunity was presented. Where else can you be that potential customers (maybe not decision makers but often influencers) come to you? Sometimes they WANT to hear your elevator speech. Others are just there for the trinkets. Either way, this is a chance to sharpen your skills. What do you need to say to capture the attention of the woman who only came in to get a mint or bouncy ball for her kid? This is where you have hundreds of people who are there for you to become better at what you do. Maybe the last prospect got away not because of the content of the message but the way it was delivered.
Are you working for a vendor in a customer-facing position and don’t want the chance to meet new people? I can’t understand that. Yes, it absolutely wears me down. Long hours standing, shaking hands, talking. But this is what WE do! For me, it charges me up and revitalizes me for the next year of trying to sell.
OK… so what about the employee of the hospital, physician practice or other organization that is glad to be in the safe confines of your office? HIMSS is a tremendous learning experience. Sure there are education sessions that are similar to ones you saw last year and the year before that, but you don’t have to pick those again! Branch out. Learn about something outside your comfort zone. What a crazy thought! Come back with a fresh idea that could change the way your organization uses information technology because you picked an educational session that had NOTHING to do with your day to day job!
Tired of being schmoozed by your HIS vendor? Don’t go to their booth! Check out the competitors! Learn what they are doing that your vendor is not. Not to change vendors, but to get your vendor to enhance their product – to add functionality that you didn’t even know you were missing until you saw the other guy had it!
There are lots of reasons not to go. There are just as many to attend. I miss HIMSS. Maybe next year.
-Jeff Kerber
Director, General Consulting