The HCEA
100 Index of Healthcare Meetings
The HCEA (Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association) 100 Index does not measure the biggest health care conventions in existence, but a cross-section of health care events that represent the major meetings in their respective medical specialties. This means that the HCEA 100 Index is comprised of both large and small meetings to create a barometer that is representative of the health care industry as a whole, rather than just measuring the largest conventions in the largest medical specialties. HCEA is uniquely positioned to be able to measure these 100 leading medical events along with reported event information from the industry as a whole in the HCEA 2007 Comprehensive Industry Research Report on Healthcare Meetings and Exhibit Marketing. This provides context and a second benchmark with which to compare industry trends. And why is this important? Because leaders of the flock tend to indicate change before the flock does.
Attendees Welcome
Attendance is the economic engine that drives health care conventions. When comparing 1997 to 2006, average reported professional attendance within the HCEA 100 Index increased 16.7 percent over the last decade.
However, the data indicates that reported professional attendance during the first five years of the decade (1997-2001) was inconsistent. Over the course of this five-year period, attendance rose and fell from year to year. Then, in 2001 and 2002, the data indicates that professional attendance stabilized. From that point forward (2002-2006), reported professional attendance rose relatively steadily.
So, how does this reflect on the health care convention industry as a whole? The data indicates that while reported professional attendance in the HCEA 100 Index was sputtering up and down from 1997 to 2002, average professional attendance in the industry as a whole was in steady decline. During the same time period from 1997 to 2002, the U.S. economy was steadily slowing as well. Then, in 2002, it began to pick up. This may illustrate the point that as leaders in their respective medical specialties, the HCEA 100 Index medical conventions were better able to weather the storm compared to medium and smaller meetings within the same medical specialties.
When average reported professional attendance stabilized within the HCEA 100 Index meetings in 2001-2002, it preceded the rebound in average reported attendance at all meetings, which started to climb back in 2002 and have shown relatively steady increases in growth since then to 2006.
Fewer Exhibits, Bigger Exhibits
The data indicates that from 1997 to 2002, the average number of reported exhibits fell 9.3 percent. But, when the industry began to rebound, the average number of reported exhibits grew 8.6 percent between 2002 and 2006. There are 1.5 percent fewer reported exhibits in 2006 than in 1997, indicating that the average reported number of exhibits has nearly caught up with the levels reported 10 years ago. The data also indicates another important exhibit trend - that while the number of exhibitors may have waned, they actually purchased more exhibit space; from 1997 to 2006, exhibit net square feet has increased 40.3 percent within the HCEA 100 Index meetings and 38.6 percent for all health care meetings.
What's It Cost?
Exhibit space costs rise every year. From 1997 to 2006, the cost of a 10'x 10' exhibit space in HCEA 100 Index health care meetings increased 35.2 percent compared to 18.2 percent for all health care meetings. When adjusting for inflation, this number indicates that space cost is actually less expensive now than it was 10 years ago. However, for HCEA 100 Index meetings, average 10'x 10' space cost in 2006 is actually 6.8 percent higher than the inflation-adjusted rate.
Industry benchmarks from the leading medical conventions are important for measuring the context of growth. While the HCEA 100 Index serves as a new industry benchmark from which to gauge trends in bellwether medical meetings, it can also be used as a directional indicator for the industry of health care meetings and conventions as a whole.
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