Are Healthcare Conferences Worth It?

Sending a team of 5 people to a conference like HLTH in Las Vegas could cost $25K.

5 people at $2500 per ticket = $12,500
5 people's round trip plane tickets = $2,500
5 hotel rooms X 3 nights at the Venetian = $6,000
Ubers, food, miscellaneous = an extra $700-$1,000 per person?

Maybe $24,000-$26,000.

If you're getting a booth or sponsoring a happy hour, you're likely closer to $35K-$50K.

Here's a story of conference ROI.

It was 2019, I was just an SDR at my first healthcare conference attending with a great friend of mine. It was our company's first time at the conference. Just the two of us and a booth that was maybe 5 feet wide.

Maybe we had one customer at the conference...
Was anyone in our pipeline later that month? Nope.
Was anyone in our pipeline for 3 months after that conference? Nope.

BUT, later that year, I got an email from the CTO of an EHR I met who wanted to embed us as their preferred virtual visit platform....6 months before COVID started.

A FULL year after that conference, a community mental health center brought in a consulting firm to evaluate virtual care platforms and the CMHC asked to include us in the evalution. Where'd they hear about us? A conversation I had with the Chief Administrative Officer...and a once a month email I sent him for the following year.

A year later I was the AE leading the deal and they signed a 3 year deal worth six figures per year.

Having a booth once doesn't make a difference.
Sending a follow up email campaign through your marketing department doesn't make a difference.
Measuring conferences based on your pipeline a month out doesn't cut it.
Two of us turned a conference that cost less than $15K into more than $500K in total contract value.

And don't even get me started about the value of actually being face to face with customers in a remote world...

If you're debating HLTH or other conferences this year, let me know if I can help.