Mastering Healthcare Event Management: A Comprehensive Guide
The success (or failure) of a healthcare event can make or break a healthcare organization’s reputation. Effective event management is crucial—but what exactly does that look like?
At Superevent, we’ve supported dozens of healthcare organizations in executing successful events. We’ve distilled this experience into the following guide, which covers all aspects of healthcare event management—from pre-planning to post-event evaluation.
Let’s dive in.
What is Healthcare Event Management?
Healthcare event management is the process of planning, organizing, and executing events related to the healthcare industry. These events can be for various purposes, like education, marketing, networking, fundraising, advocacy, or research.
Some common healthcare event formats include:
- Conferences: These are large-scale events that bring together healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, patients, and other stakeholders to share knowledge, insights, and best practices on a specific topic or theme.
- Webinars: These are online events that deliver information, training, or demonstrations to a targeted audience via a web-based platform.
- Workshops: These are small-scale events that provide hands-on learning or skill development opportunities for a specific group of participants.
- Exhibitions: These are events that showcase products, services, or innovations related to the healthcare industry. They can be standalone or part of a larger event, like a conference or a trade show.
For an example of a real-world event, take HLTH 2023.
Source: HLTH 2023
This is an annual conference held in Las Vegas that focuses on various aspects of healthcare and medical advancements. It brings together researchers, professionals, and industry experts to discuss and showcase the latest developments in the field of healthcare.
The conference covers a wide range of topics, including neurodegenerative diseases, biomarker development, artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, and more. HLTH 2023 aims to foster collaboration, share insights, and promote advancements in healthcare technology and treatment options.
Benefits of Effective Healthcare Event Management
Healthcare events are important opportunities for healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and patients to collaborate and improve healthcare.
Here are some of the benefits of effective healthcare event management:
- It enhances collaboration among healthcare professionals. In an industry where information and resources are often siloed, healthcare events can help break down barriers and create an open exchange of ideas.
- It promotes knowledge sharing across all areas of medicine. By bringing together experts in different fields, healthcare events provide a platform for open dialogue about new developments and research that can be put into practice.
- It increases engagement with the public and policymakers. Healthcare events can bring together various stakeholders from the public, private, and government sectors to discuss challenges and solutions.
- It helps develop innovative solutions and strategies for patient-centered care. By creating an environment that encourages collaboration and creative thinking, healthcare events are key for developing new approaches to improving healthcare delivery.
How to Manage Healthcare Events
1. Develop a clear purpose for your event
Start with a clearly defined, measurable goal—this will guide the entire planning and event management process.
To help, here are two questions you can use to sketch out the purpose and objectives of your healthcare event:
- Who is the target audience? (e.g., healthcare providers)
- What do you want to achieve with the event? (e.g., increase awareness of new treatments)
Putting those two example answers together, you could set a goal to “increase healthcare providers’ understanding of new treatments.” To make this goal measurable, set a success metric, like “90% of healthcare providers surveyed post-event will understand the treatments.”
2. Set a budget
This will determine how much you can realistically accomplish with your event. To start, figure out the basics:
- How many people do you expect to attend?
- What type of event will you be hosting (e.g., virtual or in-person)?
- What kind of equipment or software do you need?
Once you have these questions answered, create a budget spreadsheet that lists all of your projected expenses. This will help you stick to a realistic goal and make sure you don’t go over budget.
3. Secure a venue and equipment
If you’re planning an in-person or hybrid event, you’ll need to source a venue that’s appropriate for your event. Consider the layout of the space, accessibility needs, and any equipment you might need to rent or buy (e.g., audiovisual equipment).
If you’re hosting a virtual or hybrid event, look into what technology you need to make sure your attendees have a great experience. Superevent is an example of an all-in-one event management platform that provides tools for creating event resources, managing attendees, and keeping them engaged.
Events are divided into three categories within the Superevent platform:
- Virtual events: Entirely online—features include live-streaming, personal agendas, polls, Q&As, video breakout rooms, and more.
- In-person events: Entirely onsite—features include check-in, mobile apps, attendee resources, voting, social features, and more.
- Hybrid events: A combination of the two.
4. Choose a date and time
When choosing a date and time for your event, it’s important to make sure that it’s convenient for your audience and does not overlap with other significant events in your industry or region.
Additionally, if you have attendees from different locations, it’s essential to consider any time zone differences. Conducting market research or surveys can be beneficial in determining the optimal time for your event.
5. Develop a comprehensive event plan
To effectively plan your event, it’s important to provide a comprehensive overview of the various aspects involved. This includes outlining the agenda, identifying the speakers, sponsors, and partners, explaining the registration process and associated fees, detailing the communication strategy, discussing contingency plans, and determining evaluation methods.
Consider using project management tools to help with this process.
Tools like ClickUp offer event planning templates that help you keep tasks and timelines organized. Having a well-developed event plan ensures that all involved parties are on the same page and aware of their expectations, reducing the chances of something falling through the cracks.
6. Assemble the right team
To successfully carry out your event plan, it’s essential to assemble a competent and enthusiastic team. Depending on your requirements and financial resources, you may need to consider hiring or recruiting personnel, volunteers, contractors, or consultants.
It’s important to maintain clear communication with your team members and make sure that they receive the appropriate training and support. Setting up a dedicated workspace in Slack or Teams can help make sure that everyone is on the same page.
7. Secure speakers and presenters
You need to find speakers and presenters who are experts in their fields and can deliver engaging and informative presentations to your audience. You have to contact them early and confirm their availability, fees, travel arrangements, and presentation materials.
Likewise, you have to provide them with the details of your event and the expectations of your audience. You should also prepare a backup plan in case of any cancellations or changes.
8. Promote your event
Marketing your event should be a multichannel approach. You need to leverage both online and offline channels (media outlets, your website, email newsletters, social media networks, etc.) to reach the widest audience possible.
Additionally, use paid ads on Google or LinkedIn to amplify your message and drive more targeted traffic. Lastly, create a unique hashtag for your event to make it easier to find and engage with your content.
9. Engage your audience during and after the event
To make your event memorable and engaging for attendees, it’s important to create an interactive experience. Superevent offers various interactive features like live polls, Q&A sessions, and chat rooms that can keep your audience engaged during the event.
After the event, you can use Superevent to send follow-up emails, share event highlights, or distribute presentation materials. This helps to maintain the connection with your audience and extend the impact of your event.
10. Facilitate networking opportunities
One of the main reasons people attend events is to network with other professionals in their field. You need to provide opportunities for your attendees to connect with each other and exchange ideas, contacts, or opportunities.
You can use various tools or platforms to facilitate networking, like online forums, chat rooms, social media groups, or mobile apps. For example, Superevent supports video breakout rooms and chats, allowing attendees to have real-time conversations with each other in a secure environment.
11. Measure and improve your results
Finally, you need to measure and analyze the success of your event.
This will help you understand what worked and what didn’t so that you can improve for future events. Remember that goal we set earlier? It’s time to circle back to it and determine whether you achieved what you wanted.
Collect feedback from attendees, analyze the data points you’ve collected throughout your event planning journey, and share the insights with your team. This will help everyone learn what worked and what didn’t so that you can optimize for future events.
Conclusion
Healthcare event management requires careful planning, coordination, and execution. With the right tools and strategies, it can be a rewarding way to engage with your audience, deliver valuable content, and showcase expertise.
At Superevent, we offer event organizers a simple, effective way to create event assets like apps, programs, sponsor pages, polls, and more. Combine that with engaging tools for interacting with attendees, and you have everything you need to create a successful healthcare event.
Create a free event today and see what Superevent can do.