Healthcare conferences can accelerate the growth of your practice and introduce you to key people and technologies in the industry. EDGE, an immersive two-day conference for Nextech’s healthcare practices, is no exception. The conference provides workshops and sessions on how to improve your operational efficiency with the most up-to-date software and processes.
Over the past 10 years, conference attendees have utilized conference sessions and workshops to transform their healthcare businesses. While benefits vary, common ones include:
- Discovering new revenue streams and ways to increase a practice’s bottom line
- Learning how to create workflows that save time and money
- Gathering tools and tips to provide a better patient experience
If you attend with the right mindset and preparation, you can supercharge the conference’s benefits for your practice. Here are the six things to do before attending the conference if you want to maximize its impact.
Set a goal
EDGE has over 700 attendees each year. That’s nearly 350 practices with different goals, improvement areas, and problems that need to be solved. Luckily, there are workshops and sessions for all those goals and problems (150 sessions to be exact!).
But with lots of sessions comes decision overwhelm. If you go into the conference without a goal, you could easily end up in the patient engagement breakout session when the Schedule Design & Optimization breakout would provide better insight into your practice’s needs.
At the end of the day, EDGE is YOUR conference. Before attending, you should clarify what it is you hope to get out of the conference. A clear goal ensures you attend the right sessions and get the answers to your most pressing questions.
To make this process intentional, write down one to three main goals for the conference. These goals could range from finding a new revenue stream to collecting ideas about how your staff can more effectively navigate your EHR system.
Review the agenda and pick out your sessions
Setting a new year’s resolution to lose weight with no intention of visiting the gym is planning to fail. Similarly, there’s no point setting a goal for your conference if you don’t have a plan to make it a reality.
Once you have your primary one to three goals set, review the agenda for the conference and choose sessions that align with your goals. Consider benchmarking current performance for your practice before the conference. Having a benchmark of where you currently are will help you get to where you want to go — plus, it will help you focus on getting the most out of your EDGE experience.
Since there are so many session choices, our team has developed a quick five-step process to plan out your agenda.
How to build your own agenda
- Download the conference mobile app — the app will be available at the end of February. While you can find all the sessions on our webpage, the EDGE app will make it easier to organize your agenda.
- Once you have downloaded the app, you can search through available sessions and filter them by track, role, and session type. Consider your goal and what type of session would help you achieve it. For example, if you want to learn more about the regulations your practice must follow, select the regulatory track. You can also search multiple categories at once so if you also want to learn more about EHR sessions, you can select Nextech EHR and regulatory.
- As you read through each session type, save sessions of interest in the app.
- While it’s a good idea to set your agenda ahead of time, it’s not set in stone. The app makes it easy to add and drop sessions as needed, even after the conference has begun.
Get your Nextech questions answered
You have questions, we have answers! While it’s (very) possible that our sessions and workshops will answer many of your questions, we understand that some questions are a bit more personal. To offer customized advice, we have Nextech staff on hand to meet with practices one-on-one.
Walk up to our Product Support Station for a 15-minute Q&A session or schedule a dedicated one-on-one session with product experts (based on availability). Want to spend more time getting your Nextech questions answered? Head to the Consulting Station to speak with professional practice consultants or hit the Sales Station to see how you can better optimize your suite of Nextech products.
Like any meeting, you want to consider what you want to get out of it. Here are some questions to ask yourself and your team before your one-to-one with Nextech:
- What are the main questions you want answered?
- What are your team’s biggest struggles?
- What are you confused about within the Nextech interface?
Network, network, network
While our sessions and speakers have the potential to change your practice, there’s a hidden benefit of attending EDGE: networking.
Along with attending sessions and workshops, add a couple of social events to your agenda and make time to visit the expo hall. Each year, our conference brings together innovative practices and conference sponsors who can provide insight into your practice’s problems.
Put a plan together to implement what you learned
Once the conference is over, you do have to return to work…and your practice most likely will want to know what you learned and how it will benefit your team and patients. Implementation is something you should consider during and after the conference.
During the conference, plan to take notes on your phone, laptop, or notebook. When you’re taking notes, consider any ideas about how to implement takeaways into your practice.
For example, if a speaker discusses how their practice utilized payment plans to increase the number of offered elective treatments, take notes on how they did so AND how your practice could use a similar strategy.
Once you are home, it’s time for the real magic to begin (after you catch up on emails and what happened while you were OOO). Consider scheduling a meeting with key decision-makers within the first week back. Before this meeting, you can refer back to the notes you took during the conference and organize them into an action plan.
Pack the right stuff
If you’re anything like us, your biggest question before a trip is “what should I pack?” To help you out, we’ve created a packing list that includes the attire, footwear, and technology you should add to your suitcase.
EDGE conference packing list
- The EDGE conference app already downloaded on your phone
- Business casual clothing for sessions. Bring a jacket too in case the rooms are cold!
- Casual attire for evening events
- Comfortable shoes as both the conference and evening events require significant walking
- Devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and chargers
- Toiletries
The EDGE conference should be a fun, uplifting event. But it’s also YOUR conference and you have the power to tailor it to your practice’s goals. Get the most out of EDGE by clarifying your game plan before you step foot in Orlando.