Off to HIMSS - the saga

February 23, 2008 - Edmonton, CA. Well today, I am off to HIMSS, the largest health IT conference in the world. This year, the event is in Orlando, FL. We are presenting at the Venture Fair on the 24th and then exhibiting the balance of the week. These next few entries will be about my saga on this 'grand adventure.'

Day 1: the trek

After a too quick goodbye to the family I had a good flight to Chicago, accompanied by a screaming 1 year old 1 seat back, and next to a 30-something single electrician going on vacation with his folks to Disneyworld while he tried to pick up the stewardess when he wasn't watching Family Guy on his PSP.

My trip to Orlando was shoved between a 300-lb biker from Tennessee and the wall of the plane. I had to buy my own dinner and bring it aboard as United has no food service. Prefab ham sandwiches never tasted so good -- especially since that was the 2nd meal of the day. Yum.

After landing, I called the hotel shuttle. My driver was aspiring to look like Inigo Montoya (Princess Bride) and spent more time primping his hair than holding the wheel of the bus. After a short drive, I discovered there are 2 Hilton Garden hotels in Orlando. Guess which one I was at? After 2 hours of waiting for a cab, I checked in, unpacked, and collapsed tired. Wake up call @ 0530h local time (0330h MST). There is a shuttle every 15 minutes from this hotel to my required destination, the Orange County Convention Centre.

Day 2: the pitch

While, after stumbling out of bed at 0330h MST, I had the conference shuttle drive past me at the hotel. I was able to catch a cab, since he was sleeping the parking lot of my hotel. But since he didn't take a credit card and I had no cash, I owe some taxi guy $10. He's coming back to collect.

Orlando has been VERY humid. I am walking in a room temperature fog with modest sunshine. This country is beautiful down here. However, Orlando is sort of like Vegas -- no sense of time. Everything was as bustling this morning when I left as when I returned this evening.

Anyway, I walked into the Orange County Conventions Centre to be overwhelmed by the scale. Imagine West Edmonton Mall (WEM) for conventions. All of WEM is 1/4 of this conventions centre. And there are others like it around Orlando. I walked around for 30 minutes before I found the room I needed to be at. Even the local 'Ask Me' guides didn't know where to go.

I registered for the HIMSS Venture Fair and was invited into a networking breakfast with 30 companies and 80 investor groups. My opening discussions with several investors and companies was about how much the health IT indices have dropped in the past 6 months on the public markets. Advice to the companies was to hold out for 6 months to avoid punishing valuations.

My first presentation (at 0930h MST) was to a small and intimate group of knowledgeable investors who are in the dental space. That lead to a 1:1 pitch immediately after with one firm. We were joined by another partner in the firm for more cross examination. They are reviewing our informatino and will get back to me next week for more information.

My second presentation was to a group of 15 people -- companies from China, India, Canada and the US. One of the people in the room grew Expedia.com from startup to $1B before she left as CEO. She is now starting a health company and did her pitch with no financials, just names of heavy hitters. I guess you do it right a few times and people stop asking for excel.

Anyway, I went from the presentations to locate our booth space and then wandered through the opening reception (my 2 mile walk for the day). I met some interesting people with big egos with companies the size of mine doing some neat things. Nobody I want to talk to again.

The conference I am attending has 27,000 attendees. Apparently, last week this place was host to a construction trade show of 150,000 people. So, at this 'small' conference, I have managed to run into a few Canadians, and am meeting them throughout the week. Who knew guys from Toronto and Alberta could get along. Guess we have to bond against the 'common enemy' as one guy put it.

Tomorrow I am attending a number of sessions and getting our trade show booth together, which in this conference is a speck on the tradeshow floor. Imagine the largest, most glossy car show, now elevate the booths to 2 stories and 1/2 to 1/3 of a football field in size. Now stretch that across WEM. I narrowed down the list of companies to meet from nearly 1,000 registered firms to 100.

Well, bed calls. Eyes heavy. Fingers weak.

Hope you had an interesting weekend too.