I am proud of the fact that there will be 39 exhibitors at the Lab InfoTech Summit on April 9-11, 2008, in Las Vegas and number 40 has just signed up. It's the largest clinical lab software exhibition of its kind. I recently attended HIMSS in Orlando where there was little LIS presence. I understand that the Cerner's, Siemens', McKesson's, and GE's of the world all have an LIS and that they all had large exhibits in Orlando. However, it was difficult to find evidence of the existence of the lab software of these major companies at HIMSS. I will be posting a subsequent note about why I think that lab computing is largely ignored at HIMSS.
I must confess that I personally find the "boat show" atmosphere of HIMSS disorienting and inefficient. Others may share this opinion because rumors seem to be flying that Cerner will not be participating next year. For obvious reasons, I am interested in exhibitor attitudes toward "table" conferences such as Lab InfoTech Summit and large "booth" conferences such as HIMSS. Mr.HIStalk recently published an interview with John Holton, President and CEO of SCI Solutions, entitled: On Not Exhibiting at the HIMSS Annual Conference. He makes a number of interesting points that merit further discussion. Below is an excerpt from the interview:
I agonized over the decision not to exhibit at HIMSS for several years before withdrawing three years ago. We were spending $250,000+ on our 20×20 booth when all direct costs of attending HIMSS were included ....We closely monitor our traffic at HIMSS and the ultimate outcome as to whether a sale occurs. To be honest, in the last year of exhibiting, only three legitimate prospects could be traced back to HIMSS and I was convinced that we would have found them (or they us) even if we didn’t exhibit. So it came down to — was it worth $88,000/lead?....HIMSS is a real challenge for all but the largest vendors. It is just very hard to compete with the big guys at essentially their own time-tested game; grabbing the attention of prospects with flash and dazzle. I think HIMSS is aware of the issue for small companies, as I saw they had a reception for new vendors and several areas where new vendors could present, but I think it is still an exclusive show for a few large vendors.
Lab InfoTech Summit as well as its predecessor, AIMCL, have been "table" conferences for 26 years, meaning that all exhibitors are assigned one table of the same size to display their products and interact with conference registrants. This approach accomplishes three major goals. First of all, the exhibitor displays take up much less space so less time is required to navigate through the hall. Secondly, all of the exhibitor representatives position themselves in front of their relatively small tables. You therefore don't need to hunt for someone from the company to speak with. Lastly, it's impossible to distinguish between large versus small companies on the basis of the booth size.
This "egalitarian" conference style places more emphasis on the quality of the products than "booth amenities" and bowls of swag. This approach doesn't seem to bother the large companies and puts the smaller ones on a more equal footing. One of the strengths of the LIS industry has been the continuing emergence of small innovative companies that can technically challenge the larger ones. I want to do whatever I can to help these smaller companies succeed because it creates a more interesting and competitive mix in the industry.
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