healthcare

Healthcare professionals want participant-driven events. 75% of healthcare professionals want to have input into the content of meetings they attend. Yet 36% have never been asked to provide input into any agenda or program. These disconcerting statistics are two of the research findings in a February 2016 report The Future of Meetings [free download] commissioned by Ashfield Meetings and Events.

Healthcare meetings ranked just behind professional journals (92%) as the second most popular (87%) regular channel for learning. But the survey of 237 healthcare professionals from 11 countries across the Americas, Asia, and Europe found:

“nearly 40 per cent of those interviewed have not had a positive delegate experience at the meetings they have attended.“

So remember, healthcare professionals want participant-driven events!

I expect these findings, from a relatively well-funded meeting sector that can certainly support high-quality meeting design, apply to most conferences. And yet, the majority of conferences still rely on a small group to preplan a fixed session program.

Meeting owners and planners: It’s time to supply what your attendees want!

A hat tip to MeetingsNet‘s Sue Pelletier for making me aware of the report via her article “Research Puts Some Science Behind Scientific Meetings“.

Photo attribution: Flickr user markhillary