HEALTHCON 2019 is two and a half weeks away and we are getting excited. It is that time of year when we get to get together with our fellow coding and billing professionals, many of whom who have become friends over the years and have the opportunity for some top-notch education. Add to that the vendors that we will get to meet, which will expose us to new technologies, potential employers, publishers, and more in the exhibit hall. HEALTHCON is a special time for many of us.

It may be your first conference, or it may be a long time since you have attended a national conference. So, I thought I would address what things that I do as I prepare to head to Las Vegas and HEALTHCON 2019.

• Business Card – The first and most important thing to pack are your business cards. HEALTHCON is about networking. AAPC is about networking. The easiest way to network when you are meeting so many new people from so many places is to use your business card. So, make sure you queue up enough business cards to pack in your luggage. You do not want to run out of cards when handing them out. Hand your card out to everyone you meet and tell them what you do, or what you would like to do, what areas of coding, billing, or compliance are your expertise. You will leave a reminder of who they met and spoke with at HEALTHCON via your business card.
  • If you do not have a business card from work, go to Staples, Office Max, Office Depot or a similar place and get 500-1000 cards printed so that you will have a card to hand out. They do not have to be fancy, just your name, your certifications, your email, your phone number, and where you are located.
  • When you get cards from the people you meet, immediately note on the cards they give you what they just told you, where you met them (HEALTHCON 2019), what their areas of specialty are, if they told you and anything else that you learned about them that is of interest.
  • When you get home, (or when you get back to your room each night), enter the information from each business card that you collected along with the notations you added to them into your contact manager, such as Outlook. You will find that you are growing a wonderful networker of fellow professionals along with ticklers as to when you met them and what was special about that person.
• Dress Code – What clothes do you bring?
  • Dress is business casual. Keep in mind that you might be meeting your next employer at the conference. There are some that dress in nice jeans and tops, while others dress in full business attire.
  • Remember to bring layers since the climate in the conference center cannot always be controlled and there can be rooms that may be warm, and others may be very cold.
  • Wear comfortable shoes. There is a lot of walking in Las Vegas. Even though the conference center is in the hotel, you will find yourself exceeding your step goals every day. I find that I get more step exercise when I am in Las Vegas than when I am in any other city. You will find it more enjoyable with comfortable shoes.
  • Bring casual clothes for the evenings. Las Vegas is a fun city with shows and many restaurants. You and your friends will have a great time either just sitting in the bar talking about our passions or painting the town.
  • The hotel bars are always a gathering point to meet with other coders during off times to further network.
  • Bring your bathing suit if you like to swim. The weather in late April in Las Vegas may be nice enough for you to enjoy the pool during down time. The pool at Caesars is quite nice.
  • Leave room/weight in your suitcase or bring an additional folded bag in your suitcase for all the “goodies” you will get in the exhibit hall. You will be amazed how much room the goodies take up.
• Books to Bring – You should not need your code books unless you are taking a course or taking a certification exam at HEALTHCON 2019. So, if you are not taking a course that asks you to bring specific books (for example the CRC course may be asking attendees to bring their ICD-10 books) or sitting for a certification exam, you do not need to lug your manuals. You might want to bring a thin spiral notebook where you will take notes from your sessions. Personally, I use my iPad to take notes.
  • We will have access to the PowerPoint slides before the conference. I have seen that some people have printed out the PowerPoint slides for their sessions prior to the conference at home and brought them organized in a notebook. They then take notes on the slides.
  • I use my iPad and take notes on the PowerPoint slides using an app, called Cabinet which allows me to make annotations on the PDF files. I download the slides prior to arriving to conference.
• Jump In – When you get there, you may feel like a fish out of water because you see all these people who seem to know each other from attending many conferences. We use HEALTHCON as a form of a reunion every year. New attendees, however, should not feel left out. We want you to join the reunion. So, please reach out to introduce yourself to people you see and join in the circles of conversation, or just introduce yourself to an individual, one person at a time. Those of us who have attended HEALTHCON year after year make sure that we meet new people and embrace them into our circles or friends and into our network. Please do not hang back, unsure whether you are welcome, because you will be. And please do not be uncomfortable if someone walks up to you and introduces themselves to you and asks you to join them. This is your opportunity to dive in. And as uncomfortable as it feels, and as alone as you are, you will feel welcome and very much less alone once you meet some other people and join them in the excitement of HEALTHCON 2019.

I remember what it feels like to be a new person at conference who does not know a soul because I was once very much alone in 1997 in Orlando, at my first conference. I met my first friend, Jean Stoner, who was also a first-time attendee. And then we met a bunch of long time AAPC members, Linda Howrey, Jan Rasmussen, and others, who embraced us within their network of coders. My plan was to only go to one conference, to get my CPC exam done. That was back in 1997 and now I have attended every annual conference and many regional conferences because the experiences, the reunions, the networking, meeting new peoples, and the education makes attendance mandatory for me.

You all see my picture on this blog, so I hope you look for me at HEALTHCON 2019 and introduce yourself and give me your card. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks.