As of Monday morning, Feb. 24, HIMSS14, the annual conference of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information Management & Systems Society, attendance was 35,509, up 8 percent over the 32,576 on the Monday of HIMSS13, held in New Orleans. HIMSS14 is being held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Further, this year's attendance is nearly 4,000 above the 31,756 of the Monday of HIMSS12, held in Las Vegas.
In addition, according to HIMSS officials, the number of exhibits at this year's HIMSS Conference was up 7 percent over last year, with 1,233 companies exhibiting this year.
Also, more than 400 vendors are exhibiting for the first time this year, 15 percent more than were first-time exhibitors last year. And they're taking up more space, too: exhibitors are using 537,000 square feet this year, over 435,000 last year.