Oct 8 Chat – What if healthcare leaders had a conference?

Post by Lisa Fields

Last week Colin Hung did a great job with both our blog and moderating our topic healthcare conferences. There were so many ideas and resources shared last week.

Tom Varghese, MD gave our community a very specific feedback regarding the value of this chat.

Towards the end of our chat I threw out the following tweet:

A number of folks in our community seemed to like the idea. Let me be clear there is nothing being planned at this point, this is simply an exercise. What flavor would we be if we had a conference?

I discovered Jack Andraka loves vanilla. As a matter of fact, he loves it so much that he drank vanilla milkshakes two nights in a row during the #MEDX conference. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly nothing wrong with vanilla, but I was just so surprised with so many flavors of ice cream to choose from, Jack would choose plain vanilla.

Choosing your ice cream flavor is personal and so is choosing a conference.

After all, attending conferences is expensive, time consuming, and even the best ones are exhausting. On the other hand, I also know the good ones stimulate my mind and spirit. Twitter has uniquely added value to all the conferences I attend.

• T1: How could a #HCLDR Conference add further value or be different from the other medical conferences that are already taking place?
• T2: What topics would you like to see offered if we had a conference?
• T3: What specific ideas do you have for funding a conference? How could we ensure our patients would have scholarships to facilitate their participation?

Resources
How I choose which conferences to attend
http://susannahfox.com/2013/04/25/how-i-choose-which-conferences-to-attend/

What Makes a Great Conference by David Rowan (Wired UK) http://www.conferencebasics.com/2010/11/what-makes-a-great-conference-by-david-rowan-wired-uk/#sthash.Skp91iNV.dpuf

Tags: #hcsm, communication, conference, direction, employee engagement, healthcare, leadership, social media, twitter