HIMSS Spreads to the Middle East
Michael Hart -- Tradeshow Week, 9/2/2008 11:52:00 AM
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society will launch its third international event in the past four years May 5-7 in Manama, Bahrain.HIMSS MiddleEast09 will join World of Health IT, held the past three years, each time in a different European city, and AsiaPac, held the past two years in Asia. HIMSS also stages the fast-growing HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, which rotates around the United States and was No. 54 on the most recent Tradeshow Week 200.
“World of Health IT was intended to encompass Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” said HIMSS President and CEO Stephen Lieber, “and we found that was just too diverse a region.”
Lieber said he made his first trip to the Middle East a year ago to investigate the possibility of developing an event for the region.
“There’s a tremendous amount of investment in health care in the Middle East,” he added, “and along with that is a significant investment in technology.”
HIMSS Senior Manager Catherine Ryan said her best “guestimate” is that attendance at the Bahrain meeting will be about 700. However, she pointed out that both European and Asian launches of HIMSS meetings attracted more than 1,000 attendees.
Unlike other HIMSS events, the Middle East meeting will primarily be a conference with educational tracks. Only 10 exhibitors will be invited to provide tabletop exhibits, and six sponsors have been chosen to participate in planning the event.
“That has not been part of the HIMSS model in the past,” Lieber said.
However, he added, because it is such a new geographic region, he was reluctant to promise much to potential exhibitors the first time out.
“Being in a brand-new area like this made us decide to do it a little differently this time,” Lieber said.
While HIMSS has been ambitious during the past several years in launching overseas shows and developing programs outside of the United States – it now has offices in Singapore and Brussels, Belgium – HIMSS MiddleEast09 will probably be the last major foreign event the association starts for at least a few years.
“What we’re hoping to do is some more customized programs,” Ryan said.
Lieber added, “While we’ve grown, we’re not all that large an organization. It’ll be at least a couple of years before we start another show of this size.”
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