by admin | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog
It’s a physical and mental marathon. It’s five straight days of being on point, on message, and on your feet. It’s HIMSS and to help you survive it, here are some tips from the team at Amendola, who have years of HIMSS conferences under our belt.
Michelle Noteboom, Senior Content and Account Director: Assume you won’t get eight hours of sleep a night but find a way to get at least six. Make sure to drink a ton of water, which helps to hydrate you from all those late night adult beverages, and, seems to help a bit with swollen feet. Assume your feet will be swollen and your shoulders aching from lugging all the trinkets you collect from exhibitors. To that end, don’t forget Advil and Band-Aids for your feet. Bring healthy snacks for your hotel room, and finally, don’t skimp on coffee. That weak hotel room stuff doesn’t cut it when you have to be “on” for 18 hours straight. HIMSS requires a Venti Starbucks!
Margaret Kelly, Research Coordinator: Bring an emergency kit. For women, pack a clear-plastic and easy-to-get-to bag full of small amounts of Tylenol (or pain reliever of choice), Tums, “handitizor” (as my granddaughter calls it), bandages for the shoe blisters, safety pins, Chapstick, protein bar, and breath mints. The men’s version just substitute the safety pins with duct tape, and a fanny pack for the plastic bag!
Todd Stein, Vice President: Be sure to schedule time for lunch. Many people fill up their schedules without remembering to leave time for eating. Me, for instance. Every darn year.
Amy Koehlmoos, Senior Account Director and Resident Germaphobe suggests bringing the following:
- Raw almonds (they’re small, portable, healthy and provide good energy)
- Anti-bacterial wipes (for the trays, arm/head rests in the plane; and the faucets, door handles, light switches in the hotel room)
- Small Ziploc baggies (I put remote controls in these as those suckers are the #1 place for nasty germs in hotel rooms!)
- Hand sanitizer (you shake lots of hands at these events!)
- Earplugs (help you get a good night’s sleep in a hotel, where there are often weird sounds and loud neighbors)
- Shoes with arch support (my philosophy is you look better wearing an orthopedic pair of shoes with confidence than you do limping around with a pained expression on your face and a pair of sassy heels on your feet)
- Phone/connections to loved ones (mental health is important and having easy access to pictures of family and the ability to Facetime them at night makes it a bit easier to be away from home).
Mariesa Whitaker, Senior Writer: I do some of these exercises on long flights. They can sometimes feel brutal, but it keeps me feeling better and they supposedly prevent blood clots. http://www.seanogle.com/travel/airplane-excercises
Ken Krause, Senior Content Director and our other Resident Germaphobe:
- Drive instead of fly. Planes are breeding grounds for germs, and they keep recirculating.
- Assume everything you’re about to touch has been previously touched by a small child with a runny nose. Proceed accordingly. That goes double for your hotel room.
- Eat like your significant other is there watching you. Nothing good comes from visiting the snack machine.
- Try not to touch your eyes or nose after touching a common surface such as a doorknob until you can either wash your hands or use a cleanser such as Purell.
- Get to sleep as soon as you can rather than staying up watching TV or reading. Sometimes business travel calls for working on minimal sleep, but don’t go out of your way to get into that state.
by Jodi Amendola | Feb 23, 2016 | Blog
It’s hard to believe that HIMSS is next week. In addition to meetings with new business prospects and partners, networking, and reunions with friends and former colleagues, you can maximize your HIMSS experience by arranging media and analyst interviews during the show. HIMSS is a golden opportunity to meet one-on-one with these key industry influencers and differentiate your company from the competition. You can also leverage these meetings to identify and secure opportunities to be included in print or online articles, blog posts and industry reports.
These industry movers and shakers are incredibly powerful: One positive mention and your sales leads could skyrocket. One negative comment and the opposite can occur. Don’t panic. The following media training “cheat sheet” can help you achieve your goals and generate positive coverage:
- Do your Homework. One of my most embarrassing HIMSS moments was when a client told an analyst that he “really liked his magazine.” The client obviously hadn’t taken the time to read our prep book! Before a meeting, research the background of the editor or analyst and become familiar with his/her areas of expertise and interest. Always customize your answers to address their audiences needs and pain points.
- Remember your Manners. Nothing is more annoying than being interrupted. Listen to the entire question being asked and tailor your responses. Address the questions within the context of the target audience(s) and avoid dominating the conversation with a product or service pitch. Sometimes it will be appropriate to share your knowledge, vision and thoughts on the industry rather than focus on your company.
- Body Language. Be confident, enthusiastic and friendly. Smile, lean forward and make direct eye contact. Don’t cross your arms or fidget. Remember, how you deliver your message can be as important as the message itself.
- Get to the Point. Prepare an “elevator” pitch a two to three sentence description of your company that is easy to understand. In other words, how would you describe your company and its products and services to your mother or the person sitting next to you on an airplane? Make sure it includes the key points you want editors or analysts to remember.
- Avoid Jargon. Explain your product or service in layman’s terms. It’s your responsibility to make the pitch simple, clear and memorable.
- Power of Three. Focus on three main talking points and weave them into the conversation whenever possible. Often a reporter/analyst will ask if there is anything else that you would like to add at the end of an interview. Use this opportunity to restate your three core messages.
- Tie to Hot Topics. Demonstrate that you are a thought leader and can address hot topics such as meaningful use, ACOs, and where the industry is heading — not just talk about your product or company. Share the bigger vision.
- Zen of Interviewing. When asked a difficult question, maintain eye contact, control your gestures and breathe. Listen to the question and request clarification if necessary. Give yourself time to collect your thoughts and then respond. If you don’t know, don’t make it up. Offer to get back to the reporter/analyst with the appropriate information.
- Tell a Story. People remember stories. Talk about client successes and lessons learned that highlight how your products deliver real-world value. If possible, include relevant ROI data in your storytelling.
- Build Relationships. Be yourself, be genuine and have fun. Let editors and analysts know that you can address multiple topics and to feel free to call on you for commentary or to discuss industry trends. Offer your clients as sources for future articles. Remember, these editors and analysts can have an incredible impact on your company’s reputation and marketplace visibility. Take the time to establish and strengthen these important relationships. Your investors, board members and employees will be glad that you did.
by Administrator | Feb 23, 2016 | News
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), has redesigned its website to create an immediately meaningful experience for visitors. Along with information about Amendola’s services and capabilities, the new site showcases the agency’s broad portfolio of successful client campaigns, plus incisive, insider advice for healthcare and technology organizations seeking to effectively communicate their message.
Following website best practices, Amendola’s new site emphasizes visual impact over text-heavy content, and features distinctive graphics and a color palette of rich ambers and other desert hues in a nod to Amendola’s Arizona headquarters.
Thought leadership advice from PR and marketing veterans
Just in time for HIMSS, Amendola’s free guide “Hacking HIMSS: Your Guide to Conquering the Annual Conference & Exhibition” and free eBooklet “Can I Quote You On That? Becoming a Media Interview Rock Star” are both available for download at the new website. Additionally, the new site includes a weekly blog from Amendola’s team of public relations and marketing veterans on all topics related to delivering an effective message in the healthcare and healthcare technology arena.
A platform for agency’s client work
An experienced agency, Amendola has a long track record of success and a portfolio of referenceable client work to prove it. The new site includes a prestigious collection of Amendola’s PR, marketing and creative work for clients like Health Catalyst, The Joint, Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange, Bernouilli, Recondo and many others. A library of case studies outlining Amendola’s successful campaigns for public relations, marketing, content marketing, social media and strategic counseling initiatives is also on the new site.
“Every facet of Amendola’s redesigned website was created with the visitor in mind, from the eye-pleasing layout to easy access to samples of our work and a blog that answers the questions we most consistently hear from clients and the industry-at-large,” stated Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications.
Visit Amendola’s new website at www.acmarketingpr.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation for times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s A Team, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by Stephanie Fraser | Feb 16, 2016 | Blog
It’s a brand new year and HIMSS season (a.k.a. #HIMSSanity) is officially upon us. The Amendola team is in full swing preparing clients for the big show in Las Vegas, from media kit development and booth collateral to social media campaigns and on-site support for interviews and analyst briefings.
It goes without saying that garnering media attention at the healthcare IT industry’s largest annual conference is no easy feat. With 125 credentialed press floating among a sea of 43,000-plus attendees and over 1,300 HIMSS exhibitors, rising above the noise takes hard work, tactical planning, and a little bit of luck to land the coverage your company desires.
No matter what time of year, it’s always a challenge for us healthcare PR folks to determine what will tickle the media’s fancy. But even more so when the industry’s journalists are flooded daily with pitches, product launches, and interview and meeting requests the months before and during the conference.
So how can you make the most out of your HIMSS investment and improve your chances of getting noticed among press, analysts, and ultimately, potential customers? I asked four respected healthcare IT journalists what advice they would give to attending vendors to maximize their efforts, remain relevant, and stand out among an overly “transformative,” “disruptive,” “innovative,” and “solution”-saturated HIMSS conference world.
Fred Bazzoli, Editor-In-Chief, Health Data Management, @fbazzoli “Many companies feel compelled to release news at HIMSS. This happens to such a degree that, sadly, most news releases issued during HIMSS are hardly noticed in the email onslaught. Nor is it true that five releases issued during HIMSS are better than one. Your best bet is to manage your news release to occur before HIMSS (one to two weeks) make it as strong as possible, and be ready to discuss it at HIMSS, especially opportunities for follow-up or second-day coverage, if the outlet did not cover the release earlier.”
Kate Gamble, Managing Editor, HealthSystemCIO.com, @khgamble “Journalists receive tons of requests for meetings during HIMSS. If you’d like your request to stand out, customize it. Tell us why you would like to meet with us in particular (for example, you have a specific interest in an article series our publication is running, or you have someone you can recommend for an interview). And if we can’t take a meeting, please be understanding – we really are bombarded with requests, and we only have so much time to cover the conference. Also, please do not have multiple people from the same company reach out to us. And lastly, thank you for your interest – we do appreciate it, even if we can’t accommodate you.”
John Lynn, Blogger and Founder, HealthcareScene.com, @techguy “Don’t shout on social media, engage. No one cares that you’re at Booth #0000 at HIMSS, so don’t shout that out on the #HIMSS16 hashtag. Instead, focus your social media efforts on engaging with those talking on the #HIMSS16 hashtag that could be customers or could be influencers that your customer watch. No one will remember your booth, but everyone remembers someone who sincerely engages with them. Others will notice that sincere engagement too.”
Neal Versel, Reporter, MedCity News, @nversel “Respect our time. There are 1,300 vendors, and we can’t meet with everyone. We also have to find time to do our regular writing assignments, and can’t afford to spend all day meeting with vendors. Plus, a lot of the educational sessions are excellent and worthy of coverage. A lot of vendors don’t understand that it isn’t just the zoo of a show floor.”
by Matt Schlossberg | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog
Matt Schlossberg spent more than seven years at HIMSS where he wore many publishing and marketing communications hats. Now at Amendola, Matt and the team have created a guide to HIMSS16 full of insider insight into how to make a big splash at our industry’s biggest event.
Get the Amendola “Hacking HIMSS” guide here.
