The Health Industry Distributors Association had their annual conference October 10th through the 12th in Chicago, and Bovie Medical Corporation was once again in attendance. This year they named it the 2012 Streamlining Healthcare Conference, and adapting to the times, it had many new features. The first change, and this was a big one, was that we didn’t leave the hotel to go over to the convention center. Everything was contained inside the Hyatt. If you didn’t want to leave the building, you didn’t have to. That being said, you did have to go outside to smoke cigars with the guys, rules are rules, but back to the changes at the meeting.
We had suites meetings, where we met with many of our distribution partners, and a booth in the exhibit hall which showed our entire product line, including our soon to be released surgery light from Medical Illumination, the System Two LED.
There were things that remained the same, like the Chairman’s Dinner, which allowed the outgoing chairman and President of All Med, Andrea Logan, to introduce the incoming chairman Doug Shaver, the Senior VP Business Development at McKesson Surgical Corporation. At the dinner they also presented the 2012 Industry Award of Distinction, HIDA’s highest award, to Steve Meyer, the CEO & President of Welch Allyn. Steve is a gentleman, and I am proud to call him a friend. In 2008, I happened to receive the same award from HIDA and I am honored to be in the same club with him.
The executive business exchange is a reverse trade show and a standard feature of the conference. In this case the distributors sit at a table and every twenty minutes you rotate to another table to discuss how we can grow our mutual business together. Everything wasn’t perfect, but they really made an effort to make it a success and justify the expense.
Personally, because I was in meetings all day, (the distance from our suite on the 34th floor to the exhibit hall was just too far to run between meetings when they didn’t overlap) I didn’t get to walk the show floor and didn’t get to see some of my good friends. I almost missed Jack Harrington, who is absolutely one of my favorite guys in healthcare! He was getting ready to leave the meeting, having been there the same amount of time as I, but we were both locked away most of the time and our paths didn’t cross till the final minutes. As a side note, he is also one of the best speakers in the industry and I really don’t understand why he isn’t on the circuit doing that professionally.
I would like to see some time where suites meetings are forbidden and there is some form of networking event. The After Party conflicted with the vice presidential debate, and that drew some people away and the energy level consequently was a little lower than usual.
The HIDA team led by Matt Rowan and Ian Fardy should be proud of the direction they are taking this organization, and I look forward to seeing what this event becomes.
J. Robert Saron
President
Bovie Medical Corporation
