HIMSS24 Conference Wrap: Mike Mistretta Says, as Conferences Evolve, CIOs Must Adjust Accordingly

Then only thing that’s constant is change, which means the key is being observant. At least that seems to be the key when navigating the industry’s changing mega-conference dynamic. In the spring, there used to be just HIMSS, with the CHIME Spring Forum affixed to the front-end. Now, CHIME partners with HLTH on ViVE. With a week in between the two, it’s clear many will have to choose one or none, rather than both. Mike Mistretta, SVP/CIO at VCH Health, was able to attend both this year. In this interview with healthsystemCIO Founder & Editor-in-Chief Anthony Guerra, Mistretta gives his impressions of both conferences, provides insights on how their identities are tracking, and offers general advice on how CIOs can get the most out of whatever professional traveling they decide to take.

LISTEN HERE USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR SUBSCRIBE THROUGH YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING SERVICE. 

Bold Statements

As far as the networking side of it, I think that’s where it diminished a bit, for me anyway. They had the whole executive track that they tried to re-establish since CHIME pulled out. But there isn’t nearly, for me anyway, the amount of networking that there used to be in previous years.

I think what HIMSS was trying to do with the executive track forum is have leadership from across the industry. It didn’t matter who you were as long as you had a healthcare affiliation and a leadership job description – there were a lot more vendor CEOs, not CIOs, but vendor VPs and things like that, sales VPs, going into those executive tracks now. It’s definitely, in my mind anyway, becoming much more – even the executive side – sales oriented than it was. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On that track, I actually met two reasonable contacts, and we’re probably going to follow up about some product. But it’s just not the same flavor.

This job is about relationships, at the end of the day. That’s really what it comes down to. Where do you want to invest in those relationships, and who’s going to bring the most benefit out of that? Because when you get hit with a cyber-attack or you get ransomware, who are you going to be able to count on? It’s the people you’ve got those relationships with.

Anthony: Welcome to healthsystemCIO’s post-HIMSS interview with Mike Mistretta, SVP and CIO at VHC Health. I’m Anthony Guerra, Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Mike thanks for joining me.

Mike: Thanks for having me, Anthony.

Anthony: Very good, Mike. We’re a few days out from the show, the big HIMSS Conference, annual conference. What were your impressions? Is it coming back?

Mike: It’s coming back. The last couple of years, it was dead, a lot of empty booth spaces and a lot of room on the vendor floor. Some of the education sessions I thought had dropped off quite a bit. It’s coming back. It’s a different flavor, I think, now than what it had prior to COVID.

We had talked, I think last time a little bit, about some of the differences between the two conferences (HIMSS and ViVE) a little bit. I still think that holds true. But HISS has more of an international flavor right now, I think, permeating the conference now than was there before. But yes, it’s starting to come back.

Anthony: Yes, it definitely seemed like a lot of activity. I heard some good things. I heard some people were happy in a lot of ways. I guess that’s what you’re talking about, that energy seemed to be back.

Mike: Yes, quite a bit more.