Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA)

6 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 HEALTHCARE CONVENT ION & EXHI B I TORS ASSOC I AT ION Feehan: “It seems to me that we’ve kind of let the genie out of the bottle with the virtual component, and it definitely does offer that ability for people who otherwise couldn’t be at the meeting to still participate. But lots of different industry resources and papers have demonstrated that face-to-face and live is really the preferred channel. We’ve all seen, with the attendance of meetings coming back, that people (particularly HCPs) really do want to meet face-to-face. That exchange and that scientific discourse is better suited to the ability to talk to your peers in a group. “The ability of the hybrid component to offer that to people who can’t attend in person, I think, is going to stay around. But I don’t believe to create varied experiences – everything from a basic, click-through landing page exhibits to full-blown 3D experiences, which simulate the live experience as close as possible. As COVID continued, we saw innovation playing more and more of a role. Once everyone got up to speed on the technology and the ability to have a virtual platform, very quickly you saw creativity coming into it. Different types of engagements. People venturing away from traditional booths and going into a variety of immersive environments that took you out of the standard virtual platform and into something unique.” BVM: Do you think it will continue to be a hybrid event space?