February 10-14 I spent 4 days in Orlando, FL (USA) to attend the HIMSS trade show.

HIMSS is the largest trade show in the world dedicated to healthcare technology, attended by over 40,000 people.

Another year, another HIMSS. It’s all so similar that I thought I was staying in last years’ hotel, although I was in a different Fairfield Inn and Suites, very conveniently located next to a great Japanese restaurant, and with shuttle bus to the Convention Center. Same hype, same (mostly) people, same expectations, same IBM executives and partners breakfast, same after-show parties, same maddening schedule… But there was something unique about this year’s event. On the one hand everyone was paying a lot more attention to us, from media to competitors and potential customers. On the other, it was the first event where we were openly entertaining the idea of an investment (either us buying a competitor via LBO, or us being the target of an M&A). To that end our financial advisors sent one of their executives to join us for meetings and the show. It was amazing to see him in action, completely focused on his objective, undistracted by the marketing campaigns, gadgets, marketing, and the overall circus that inevitably a large show like this becomes.

Of course the results from those meetings are under NDA, and still ongoing, so nothing to report… yet. What I can share is an interview that GenomeWeb put me through (with a couple of incorrect points, but I’m used to media inaccuracy by now).

A big thank you to the Spanish Agency for Export Promotion (ICEX) which helped organize everything at the booth for us. See you next year?