So conference season is in full swing and I’ve found myself in more places and in more planes than the whole of 2020 in the last few weeks
There’s good and bad to all of that. The good is it’s really nice to see and meet people. Not just healthcare but people in general. As noted in a recent HISTalk update – amongst the other insights is the steady downward trend of time with others
Time spent alone hums along at fours hour per day until the mid-30s, when it steadily increases to nearly eight hours per day for those in their 70s.
And as noted in the excellent blog by Tim Urban – Wait but Why and “The Tail End” we need to be thoughtful about where and how we spend our time:
- Living in the same place as the people you love matters
- Priorities matter
- Quality time matters.
So there is a real bonus to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones and conferences remain one of the main places for this
Everyone Came Back
From an economic standpoint, this is good news for our economy (inflation to the side for a second) on many levels, especially for the conference organizers who weathered a zoom-filled drought. But that also means a bigger growth than potentially anticipated and HLTH22 was no exception
The opening session highlighted I think everyone’s positive feelings around getting back to in person and noted some real progress in gender and racial diversity as well as some exciting expansions of the conference internationally it was great to see Alexandra Drane and Greg Adams CEO of Kaiser Permanente sharing some real progress and a little history of the path and challenges in this area.
As one friend noted it was a packed house and that theme played out for the balance of the evening at the networking event.
A packed house for #HLTH2022 This is the first conference I've been to this year where the opening keynote is standing room only. #HITsm #hcldr pic.twitter.com/JEWZakoROx
— Colin Hung (@Colin_Hung) November 14, 2022
One of the bonuses and well-done areas by the HLTH team has always been the networking event in the evenings but the XS Nightclub felt packed to over capacity. In the 2 hours, I spent I never managed to grab anything to eat as the lines for all the food stations seemed to be one continuous circle with no beginning. Walking around was a challenge and I suspect the unseasonably cold weather did not help with the heaters struggling to put out warmth to combat the cold wind.
I did manage to connect to a number of folks but we had to move inside out of the cold wind which made conversations difficult over the background music and the throng of folks
Looking forward to the next day and finding more opportunities and potential gems – people, ideas, and connections
