In action: Denise Hennig (right) at Medica, the world's largest medical trade show

Many healthcare technology companies announce their product launches at important trade shows such as HIMSS, ESC, Medica or RSNA. In Denise Hennig's experience, most companies welcome journalists to their stands and gladly provide them with the latest news. “Unfortunately, many healthcare companies still try to equip us with overloaded, heavy press kits,” says the editor. “For press kits at a trade show, less is clearly more. I prefer to get only the top piece of information on paper and the bulk of the press kit should be delivered in a digital format.” Companies can provide such information on a USB stick or simply by sending their digital package to the journalist directly after the show. “Digital information is much more helpful and seems so much more fitting to companies delivering state-of-the-art healthcare technology. Besides, presenting the bulk of the information in digital format is much more climate-friendly than producing a lot of paper.”

At trade shows, many companies also take the opportunity to present their latest news in the formal setting of a press conference. “Sometimes, two or three press conferences will take place at the same time,” observes the editor. “As we are all extremely busy at these shows, we could sometimes use a clone to be present at more than one press event. Many colleagues engage in press conference hopping.” The decision as to which conference to attend is solely based on the relevance of the subject to the magazine’s readers. “We cover both pan-European developments and national stories,” explains Denise Hennig. “If there’s a press conference on a new IT application from Norway, it could be very interesting to our readers in Norway as well as in other European countries. For me, that’s a good reason to attend such a presentation.” What applies to press kits often goes for press conferences as well: “Again, less is more. Companies will often present news which, as far as journalists are concerned, is not all that interesting to write about, for example that they have sold their 100th medical device this year. This information should be included in the digital press kit, but the actual presentation at the trade show should be limited to 10 presentation slides. It’s better to focus on the highlights, as journalists have to cope with information overload at trade shows.”

While Denise Hennig regularly visits the major healthcare exhibitions, she finds smaller trade shows are becoming more attractive. “I have a particular interest in IT and telemedicine and I sometimes visit smaller specialized symposia and in-house exhibitions. They often give me a chance to view IT solutions in healthcare from several perspectives, usually including the users’ view.” She values the direct contact with hospital staff who can give an unbiased insight into how the technology works in a hospital setting. “At smaller trade shows, journalists have more time to talk with healthcare technology providers,” concludes the editor. “That means we can delve deeper into the technology, potential applications and benefits to the hospitals.”(AG)

Contact Denise Hennig at dh@european-hospital.com