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Continuing Medical Conversation
What did we learn from our exclusive roundtable of senior- level medical meeting planners? That they’re worried about compliance and exhibitor attrition, coming around to the power of Strategic Meetings Management — and excited about the fact that ‘our meetings are a way to engage people throughout the whole year.’
By Christopher Durso
Lisa Astorga, CMP Director of Meetings International Society on Throm- bosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)
Ben Hainsworth Director, Congresses and Meetings Division, European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
What is the biggest challenge facing medical meeting planners right now? Felix Niespodziewanski With the changes that are taking place in health-care delivery and reimbursement, our biggest challenge is to maintain our exhibitor base. We’re starting to lose some of our largest exhibitors, because they’re feeling that we’re too broad of an organization. And some of them have switched their focus to be more visible and active with regional or even smaller chapter state meetings, and also to focus more vertically. While the college is an umbrella orga- nization for all of surgery, the largest contingent of member- ship are general surgeons, and general surgeons are sort of the steak and not the sizzle, as I say it. One of the reasons, I’ve been told, is [exhibitors] struggle now gaining access to the provider, because so few of them
Felix Niespodziewanski Director of Convention and Meetings, American College of Surgeons (ACS)
Barbara Smith, CAE Executive Director, American Thyroid Association (ATA)
now are independent practices. They’re part of a large group, or if not a large group, they’re employees of some kind of an institution. And frequently the buying deci- sion now has been moved from their hands to someone in finance procurement, to determine what’s going to be pur- chased for the entire institution. And access to the provider has become more and more difficult for pharmaceutical and device manufacturers.
Barbara Smith I think the rigors of CME have gone over- board. This is true on all fronts. Right now, I’m in the middle of actually submitting for CME. It used to be that we would take our entire program, which has 32 hours of CME credit. Which means we have 130 faculty, all of whom volunteer their time; no one is getting paid. They don’t get honoraria.
AUGUST 2013 PCMA CONVENE 71