HIMSS14 Promises Bigger, Better Experience
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
A bigger venue, more vendors, extended hours, and more than 37,000 attendees add up to what HIMSS hopes will be its biggest conference yet
From Feb. 23-27, Orlando will be host to more than 37,000 attendees for the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition. The conference will be taking place in the 2.1 million square foot Orange County Convention Center, which as an infographic from CDW Healthcare points out, is large enough to hold more than 13 of Cinderella’s castles.
More than 1,200 exhibitors are expected to display the latest and greatest healthcare has to offer, and they will cover more than 500,000 square feet of space and exceed the number of exhibitors who attended last year. To make sure there’s time to visit as many booths as possible, HIMSS has also extended exhibition hall hours.
“Each year, we listen to our attendees and exhibitors as we prepare for our next annual conference. They asked for more time on the exhibition floor, and so, we have increased the hours to provide more time for interaction and networking between our exhibitors and conference attendees,” said Elli Riley, Director, Exhibits and Meeting Services, HIMSS. “In addition, we have added new features to the floor, such a dedicated area reserved for first-time exhibitors and startup companies, the Intelligent Medical Home as part of the Intelligent Hospital, a reimagined Interoperability Showcase, the Connected Patient Learning Gallery and much more.”
This year’s lineup features four keynote speakers, including Mark Bertolini, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Marilyn Travenner, and Erik Welhenmayer. It also features more than 300 education sessions in the form of speakers, forums, roundtables, and e-sessions. CDW points out this all adds up to more than 80 waking hours in just 5 days of the conference.
HIMSS14 organizers expect this year’s conference to be their largest yet in size and social presence. Last year, the conference averaged 4.6 tweets per minute for a total of almost 40,000. These tweets came from more than 6,000 Twitter participants and made nearly 102 million impressions. If that’s any indication of what can be expected this year, HIMSS will certainly have made its 2014 conference one to remember.
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