Medical meetings have been enjoying great success of late,
according to the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association. In
ranking the largest medical meetings of 2010, the Atlanta-based group
found the average total attendance of the top 50 shows was nearly 20,000
(19,512), a 5.1 percent increase over the year before. The average
number of medical professionals attending each of these shows was
13,227, a 7.2 percent year-over-year jump.
The question is: In
the face of prolonged economic uncertainty and increasingly complex
regulations surrounding health-care professionals, why do so many large
medical events forge on with such success? The reasons are ripe with
lessons that can apply to all meetings.
Be consistent
"In
a word, it's continuity," says Steve Drew, the assistant executive
director of scientific assembly and informatics for the Radiological
Society of North America, when asked why his medical meeting is
thriving. "That's one of the main ingredients here," he adds. Indeed,
the meetings department at the Oak Brook, Ill.-based RSNA reports to
Drew, who has been at the society for 23 years and counting.
"We
have similar kinds of longevity among employees across the meetings
department and throughout the organization," Drew explains. "Being able
to maintain a good, cohesive team ensures the continuity from year to
year. We could build on what was the best from last year and improve on
things that maybe didn't work as well as we would have liked."
The
RSNA's 2010 Annual Meeting ranked second on HCEA's list, having drawn
more than 58,000 attendees to the McCormick Convention Center.
Attendance at the 2011 meeting, held at the same venue from Nov. 27 to
Dec. 2, grew by nearly 2 percent, to 59,097, and the number of
radiologists in the house was a record-setting 16,272.
The
notion of continuity applies as well to the RSNA's volunteer board of
medical professionals. Board members sign up for an eight-year
commitment, Drew notes, which affords them plenty of time to familiarize
themselves with the scientific-assembly content for the gatherings
before transitioning to a broader leadership role within the
organization (with greater oversight for the meetings).
Invest in quality content
The
scientific and medical professionals at the Washington, D.C.-based
Society for Neuroscience play a major role in crafting an alluring
meeting agenda. "What drives attendance is excitement and an avid
enthusiasm for learning about emerging discovery," explains Mona Miller,
the society's director of communications and public affairs. The
society's annual event ranked in HCEA's top five in 2010, drawing nearly
32,000 attendees, and the slightly larger 2011 event was the
second-largest meeting in SfN's history.
"More than 16,000
abstracts are presented during the meeting, so half of the total
attendees -- and more than half of the scientific attendees -- are
presenters," adds Miller. "We ensure that scientists decide what is
really exciting, and thus what is presented." Likewise, she notes,
marketing efforts really focus on the science and the sessions.
Consider location and timing Health-care
professionals often have grueling work schedules, and their availability
can be difficult to guarantee. The RSNA sticks to its continuity theme
in this respect, too, to be a part of the busy schedules of its
constituents: Its annual meeting occurs at the same time (the week after
Thanksgiving) and venue (Chicago's McCormick Place) every year. "That
has become so institutionalized," notes Drew, "that the time or two that
we talked about changing dates or cities, both on the professional and
the industry side, people said, 'Oh gee, you know our whole annual
calendar revolves around this conference -- in terms of all of our
planning, our product releases, all of our education, the content that
we submit.' " It's a good restriction to have, Drew admits. "We don't
compete with any other events at that time of year, and it's become a
no-brainer as the place to go for people in the industry."
The
Chicago Dental Society, which ranked sixth on HCEA's list of 2010
meetings with more than 31,000 total attendees, takes a similar
approach. The society's annual event, known as the Midwinter Meeting, is
held at McCormick Place every year in late February. That has its pros
and its cons, admits director of communications Keri Kramer.
"One
of the reasons that we pull so strongly from the region is that
everyone is suffering from Midwestern winters," Kramer explains, "so
it's no big deal to go to Chicago in February. On the other hand, we
simply don't have that bring-the-whole-family, destination-event
allure." That likely restricts potential attendees traveling from
elsewhere, she admits, noting that a substantial
percentage of professional attendees come from the surrounding states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Still,
the number of dental professionals attending the Midwinter Meeting
remains pretty consistent from year to year -- typically within 2
percent of the previous year's numbers. And with such a sizeable show,
says Kramer, there has been no talk of changing the date or city. What's
more, the exhibitors love the February time frame and use the Midwinter
Meeting as a platform for unveiling new products for the year.
Yet
another organization that counts on McCormick Place is the American
Society of Clinical Oncology, which has contracted to hold its annual
meeting there through 2020 -- always on the Friday after Memorial Day.
"It's an easy location for people to get to," says a spokesperson for
the society, which is based in Alexandria, Va. "And it has the meeting
space and hotel rooms that we need to carry on a meeting of that size."
It doesn't hurt that the Windy City is considerably more temperate in
late spring than in midwinter.
ASCO drew 32,700 attendees in
2010, and slipped just slightly, to 31,800 people, last year. More than
50 percent of the attendees come from outside the United States.
Use tech to boost engagement
Like many planners, those responsible for large medical meetings are
using social media and virtual meeting platforms to increase engagement
throughout the year. For the Chicago Dental Society, that's also a way
to increase the group's reach beyond the Midwest, from which it pulls
most attendees for the annual event. Virtual event attendees are far
more geographically scattered, says Keri Kramer, and there has even been
talk of turning a fall virtual event into a hybrid meeting as a way to
broaden the society's reach -- and draw in-person attendees from afar to
Chicago at a more temperate time of year.
The Radiological
Society of North America for the first time added a virtual component to
its annual meeting this past fall. It was a big success, says Steve
Drew, and the organization is hoping it translates to more in-person
attendees next year as a result. More than 3,400 people registered for
the virtual event, with fewer than 10 percent of those professionals
also attending at least part of the physical event. More than 1,100
registrants went to courses and sessions in real time on the one day
devoted to live session streaming and virtual Q&A. The organization
has received countless requests to expand its real-time online offerings
next year, says Drew.
On-site, too, interactive technology plays
a major role for the RSNA. "We try to push the limit of what we can do
with technology," notes Drew, "in all aspects of the meeting."
For
example, last year the society developed a software app in-house called
Diagnosis Live for its fall meeting. The web-based app was designed to
run on smartphones and iPads, which attendees were encouraged to bring
with them to the two courses that featured the app. Attendees were
arbitrarily assigned to one of two teams upon entering the room, and
they were asked to log in on their mobile devices with provided
passwords. Hypothetical cases would then pop up on their devices, in
either multiple-choice format or as an image onto which the attendee had
to circle the anomaly and offer a radiological diagnosis.
Presenters
instantly received participant answers, which could be displayed
onscreen. A leaderboard and bar chart broadcasted team scores, says
Drew, and the session became very competitive. "It was really a lot of
fun," he says, "and really well accepted. We've been getting tons of
inquiries as to how people can get this software and use it in their
departments for training purposes."
There's talk now, notes
Drew, of incorporating this competition into the virtual show next year,
and opening it up so that it's truly global.
Keep it affordable
The sluggish economy, combined with increasing air, fuel and lodging
costs, certainly affects the mindset and travel decisions of potential
attendees. "As dentists have been hit by this tough economy, so have
we," admits Keri Kramer of the Chicago Dental Society. But overall, as
she and several other sources report, the economy hasn't played a major
role in attendance figures for these mega meetings. One reason, says
Kramer, lies is just how affordable the Midwinter Meeting is.
"We
endeavor to keep attendee costs very low -- about half of our
continuing education courses are free," Kramer notes, adding that
meeting registration is free for members. (Dental associations have
fewer constraints regarding continuing medical education standards than
many medical societies, Kramer adds, providing the CDS leeway in that
respect.)
Retain momentum Factors
affecting attendance often are of a cyclical nature, says Kramer. Take,
for example, continuing education. "The licensure renewal cycle in
Illinois is now three years," she explains, "which means dentists have
three years to collect CE credits prior to renewal. We definitely see
bumps based on renewal periods." This year could be a charm, she adds,
as the renewal period for dentists will end this coming September.
Likewise,
there is the cycle of competitor shows. The CDS keeps an eye on the
IDS, the International Dental Show held every other year in Cologne,
Germany. "During their off years, we definitely see a spike in our
attendance among dental industry professionals and the dental trade,"
says Kramer.
Other factors can threaten the success of any event,
large or small -- weather, disease, civil strife. For an event like the
American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting, where
international travelers made up 53 percent of the attendees for the past
two years, these are major concerns. "The main items that have caused
attendance issues are things such as the swine flu epidemic in 2009,"
says an ASCO spokesperson, "or the volcano eruptions."
There
isn't very much an organization can do in advance to account for such
factors. According to the ASCO spokesperson, "We always keep our fingers
crossed for a healthy and easy travel environment."