From HIMSS 2/22/12 Inga’s Update

From Inga

I participated in Medicomp’s Quipstar. I lost, but I am blaming my sunglasses because I couldn’t see the keyboard to find the answers. However, Medicomp did donate $5,000 to my favorite charity, so I accept the humiliation of my loss. Plus, the green M&Ms and IngaTinis in the Green Room (see above) were pretty awesome.

The SIS girls – definitely the cutest and most fun girls I met. Me: why do you have blue hair? SIS girl: why don’t you have blue hair?

That’s my feet getting a foot massage at the DrFirst’s booth. Serious heaven.

I noticed many black patented leather flats. Not too many flip flops, but if they work for you…

Standing room only in the Stage 2 Meaningful Use overflow meeting room. Cute boots for standing in.

Hot pumps on the escalator.

Today was full of sensory overload, with cute shoes, the Quipstar contest, and Stage 2 Meaningful Use news. Mr. H already provided a high level overview, so I won’t say more for now. I was seated in the overflow room and got to watch the presentation via video feed. I also attempted to attend the ONC Town Hall, but both the regular session and the overflow room were full by the time I arrived. Bummer.

Thanks to all the HIStalk sponsors who proudly displayed signs recognizing their HIStalk support, including Iatric, Billian’s, MEDSEEK, Access, GetWell Network, Trustwave, CareTech, and Cumberland. If you see one of the those signs, please tell the sponsors thanks for supporting us.

I am not a big complainer, but it seems the lines to get food and drink are crazy. My post-HIStalkapalooza body waited 15 minutes to get coffee this morning. I should have gotten a muffin because by the time I was ready to find lunch, the lines were horrendous. My friend and I opted for the wine food group for lunch because we wanted to catch up and didn’t have the 20 minutes to wait for $20 worth of bad food. Many thanks to the sponsor who took pity on me and gave me one of their leftover fruit cups.

Either I missed them or someone has finally convinced companies that if you are spending $100,000 and beyond on booth space, you can’t afford to have your staff checking their phones the whole time. I seriously saw very little of that going on today.

Friendliest booth guys today were either the FormFast folks (who gave me a hat) or JarDogs (whose sales guys were also very cute.)

Nicest change of pace: Carstens had classical music playing in their booth.

I appreciate sales folks who can give an elevator pitch in less than a minute. Especially good jobs by the staff at  Trustwave and Elsevier.

More to come…