Category: Conferences

Healthcare Social Media Events This Week

I’m taking three days off for travel this week, and look forward to a big virtual event on Tuesday and interacting in real life on Wednesday and Thursday at some interesting healthcare social media events.

  • On Tuesday, I’m going to be in Chicago for some meetings and then to present a Webinar for Ragan Communications based on our social media experience at Mayo Clinic. Registration is FREE and open until noon CDT on Tuesday, August 4, so there is still time to sign up if you’d like to join. The Webcast runs from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesday. I will be tweeting using the #mayoragan hashtag.
  • On Wednesday, I will be in Indianapolis for the Eli Lilly Web 2.0 Summit. I understand there will be about 20 outside presenters for this event, which is for Lilly employees, so I look forward to an opportunity to meet some folks face-to-face with whom I’ve previously only conversed via Twitter. Not sure what the Twitter hashtag will be, but if you follow me on Twitter (always a good idea!) you’ll discover it soon enough.
  • On Thursday, I’m in Omaha for a breakfast with the American Marketing Association’s healthcare interest group. Contact Megan O’Dea if you want more info.

The interest in social media among healthcare communicators, marketers and medical staff is extremely high right now, as this story from Forbes.com indicates. For example, I understand that more than 1,500 people have signed up for the Ragan Webinar. They aren’t all necessarily involved in healthcare; some may be from other industries. So, I’m looking forward to that “broadcast” opportunity to reach a large and widely dispersed group, but the in-person meetings will also be great, allowing more in-depth discussions.

And speaking of in-person discussions, if you’re involved in health care and interested in social media, I hope you’ll consider attending the social media summit Mayo Clinic is hosting and co-sponsoring with Ragan in October. It will be on our Mayo Clinic Scottsdale campus. I’m excited about the faculty we’ve assembled and I’m confident it’s going to be a great couple of days in which we can all learn from each other.

MHSCN Accomplished

Yup…that’s how they say the acronym for the Minnesota Health Strategy & Communications Network. I’ve noted before that health care communications organizations seem to have the opposite problem of cardiology clinical trials: while the latter insert extra letters (or pull them from the middle of words in studies’ titles) to create acronyms like HOPE, LIPID, PICASSO and CABANA, Minnesota’s is only one of several health communications organizations that need to just buy a vowel! (Florida has FSHPRM, and Wisconsin has WHPRMS.)

Here’s the presentation I’m offering as a keynote this afternoon for the MHSCN 2009 Summer Conference (PDF):

MHSCN Presentation on Mayo Clinic Social Media

View more presentations from Lee Aase.

Update: As I sometimes do, I mentioned my granddaughter Evelyn a few times in this presentation, and showed some video of her. I also mentioned how much we enjoy getting to see her across the miles via Facebook and Skype. So after my presentation, Deb McKinley of Stratis Health asked me to turn on the Flip so she could send a message back to Evelyn. Here it is:

Speaking at BlogWell

I’m looking forward to participating in my third BlogWell conference on Thursday, August 13 in Minneapolis. I presented in Chicago in January and attended in New York in May. Both were excellent.

BlogWell is sponsored by the Social Media Business Council (formerly called the Blog Council.) The August version of the event will be held at General Mills headquarters, and in addition to my Mayo Clinic presentation will include case studies from:

  • General Mills
  • H&R Block
  • CME Group
  • Ford
  • McDonald’s
  • Walmart
  • Progressive insurance

If you’re in Minnesota (or can get there…we do have fine airlines serving our state) and are interested in seeing and hearing examples of how large organizations are using social media, this is a great chance to pick up some tips and to find models you can emulate in your organization. It’s a fast-paced afternoon and I’m sure you’ll find it worthwhile.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about it, or go here to register.

FUEL Social Media Presentation

I had the opportunity late this afternoon to do a presentation to FUEL, a relatively new group sponsored by the Rochester, MN Chamber of Commerce, on “how to use social media to grow your business and advance your career.”

Here are the slides:

Rochester FUEL Presentation

View more presentations from Lee Aase.

After my presentation, we had a panel discussion that included Wade Beavers and Joe Shriver of DoApp, Becky Ross of Fox Sports North and Fox Sports Wisconsin and Alan De Keyrel of Corporate Web Services.

We started a Twitter hashtag for Rochester community conversations, #RSTMN.

It was a great discussion with lots of good questions, and I appreciated the perspectives the other panelists brough. Becky made the great point the given the intensity of sports fans, it was important for @FSNorth to keep up a strong Twitter stream, because people who follow them. Alan beat me to the punch in saying that people need to stop thinking about the separation of personal and professional lives in social media, and realize that the distinction is really futile. I don’t think it’s even really desirable. Wade and Joe also brought a lot of good insights.