New Study Shows Exhibits and Business Travel Help Drive Profits

Convention and exhibition participation yields an average return of $4.00 to $5.99 per dollar invested, according to new findings from a study conducted by Oxford Economics and sponsored in part by the Destination & Travel Foundation, a combined effort of the U.S. Travel Association and Destination Marketing Association International. Other findings from the study include the following:

• More than half of business travelers said that five to 20 percent of their companies' new customers resulted from participating in exhibitions.
• For every dollar invested in business travel, companies experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.
• The average U.S. business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year if it eliminated business travel, and it would take over three years for profits to recover.

"Business travel is economic stimulus," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. "In order to grow, businesses have to invest. This research shows that face-to-face meetings ... are among the smartest investments companies can make." Oxford Economics' analysis covered 14 economic sectors over a span of 13 years. View Full Study

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Obama Nominates Regina M. Benjamin as U.S. Surgeon General

President Barack Obama announced on July 13 his nomination of Regina M. Benjamin, Founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, as Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services. According to a White House press release, “Health care reform is about every family’s health and the health of our economy. And if there’s anyone who understands the urgency of meeting this challenge in a personal and powerful way, it’s the woman who will become our nation’s next Surgeon General, Doctor Regina Benjamin.” View the White House release on the nomination.

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Nancy Hoppe of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Named President of HCEA

Nancy Hoppe, CME/H, Associate Director, Global Congress and Convention Management, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, was named President of the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) for 2009-2010. Hoppe was officially installed as HCEA President during the HCEA Annual Meeting in Tampa, June 13-16, 2009. Full Story »

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HCEA’s Distinguished Service Award Presented to Pat Friedlander of Word-Up!

Pat Friedlander, President, Word-Up!, was presented with the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) Distinguished Service Award during the 2009 HCEA Annual Meeting, June 13–16, in Tampa. The award, HCEA’s highest form of recognition, was given to Friedlander to recognize her nearly 20 years of service in the healthcare convention marketing and exhibitions industry and her dedication to HCEA. Full Story »

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Eric Allen Blog
Skepticism in Healthcare Convention Marketing?

It's very difficult (and may soon be impossible thanks to state prescriber privacy initiatives) to measure the effectiveness of exhibit marketing from a sales perspective in healthcare. That can be true even among devices, where long sales cycles make it difficult to say exactly what medium most directly contributed to the sale. As a result, our industry needs to get more deeply involved in measuring effectiveness from a marketing perspective. Some of this has been done at a fairly rudimentary level -- booth recall studies, for example, or message awareness research. But to really start to speak the language of the brand teams and higher level marketing executives at healthcare companies, we're going to have to go deeper. Full Story »

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Eric Allen Blog
The Healthcare Exhibitors' Matrix of State Laws and Regulations

There is widespread confusion in the industry right now about state laws targeting healthcare convention marketing. First of all, no one seems to know how many there are. Most counts I've heard say four, but some say five, some six. Second, no one seems to know which states they are. California and Massachusetts usually make the list. From there, confusion starts to set in. Some say DC. Some Vermont. Some Minnesota. Third, no one seems to know what's in these laws. Are they gift-to-physician limits? Are they bans or do they just require reporting? Or are they detailer registration laws? Or something else? (And for pete's sake, can I just get an answer on the cappuccino machine?) Full Story »