Yesterday was the first day of HIMSS and, as usual, it was extremely busy. In my experience, Monday is the busiest day since you have people who attended CHIME or came in early for pre-conference sessions that wanted a day on the HIMSS exhibit floor to meet with vendors and look at the new products. It isn’t a coincidence that almost all the major vendors have their primary client dinners and receptions on Monday evening. It appeared to me that the projections on attendance and number of vendors was on the 
mark since the halls were as crowded as I’ve ever seen them and the huge New Orleans convention center was filled with vendor booths. While Tuesday will also be very busy, I believe that overall attendance will decrease as the week goes on.
In addition to trying to touch base with as many people as I could and spend time at our booth, I attended a couple of interesting education sessions. My focus for the Monday morning education sessions was analytics. First I listened to a very interesting and entertaining session on what Denver Health is doing with Big Data and then I learned about how Cleveland Clinic is using enterprise business intelligence to transform their processes. It’s sessions like these, where you get practical information from health providers, which are really valuable at HIMSS. I’m looking forward to another busy, productive day on the show floor.
