Day 1 of the 2015 AHIP Institute in Nashville is Almost Over

Daylight of Day 1 of the 2015 AHIP Institute in Nashville is almost over and the Opening Night Concert event with Martina McBride is about an hour away. What a great day for those of  us who work for or are connected to health plans. There were educational sessions for every area of interest and the exhibit hall was active but not crazy packed like they can be at HIMSS events.

Some observations and highlights from Day 1:

Nashville – Not comfortable in business attire

In Arizona we joke that “it’s a dry heat.” In Portland it’s humid but most often quite cool. In Nashville today, it was warm and humid. Sticky and wet. And wearing a suit coat adds to the discomfort. For future events in similar weather, one must consider how best to dress to remain comfortable.

Music City Center is Huge!

The Music City Center at over a million square feet spread across four floors provides plenty of space to host an event like the AHIP Institute. It was nice to not have to wait in lines, to be able to walk freely at whatever pace you wanted and to feel the openness of the venue throughout the entire day. I wish the venues HIMSS uses were more like this venue.

Customer and Engagement are the Focus

If there’s a common theme at the Institute, I’d say it was the evolution of healthcare to focus on the customer, member, patient – or whatever you prefer to call the person that health care is really all about. Nearly every organization in attendance, whether a health plan, software vendor, service provider, hardware vendor or other, had some sort of focus or tack on the customer. Finally!

Exhibit Hall & Vendor Booths were Nice

Like the Music City Center itself, the exhibit hall and vendor booths were spacious and approachable - not overly crowded. It was pretty easily “navigated” but one thing that needs to be improved is the exhibitor map. Exhibitor spaces weren’t numbered in any orderly fashion on the Exhibitor Map that AHIP handed out. If there were twice as many exhibits this would have really sucked.

Refreshments!

The AHIP folks did a nice job keeping plenty of coffee, bottled water and all kinds of "Cokes" (as many call all "sodas" in the South) readily available seemingly everywhere.  And plenty of free boxed lunches were offered. And the venue had other options that were quick and easy. Nice!

Day 2 Approaching

Given what I learned today, I expect tomorrow’s AHIP Institute experience to be even better. Whether you’re here attending or following from afar, consider following the #AHIPInstitute Hashtag and AHIP’s social media ambassadors.