More Than 40,000 Attendees at HIMSS17; Nearly Identical to HIMSS16 Attendance

As of mid-morning on Monday, Feb. 20, 40,453 attendees were in attendance at HIMSS17, the annual conference of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, taking place this week at the Orange County Convention Center in downtown Orlando, Florida. That figure was nearly exactly the same as at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas, where at the same moment in the conference last year—the first full opening day—40,510 attendees had logged in. Both HIMSS17 and HIMSS16 attendance were just slightly below that of HIMSS15 in Chicago, which saw 43,043 at the same moment in that year’s conference. This year’s figure was reported on Monday midday by Carla Smith, a vice president of HIMSS, during the HIMSS Media Lunch, during which HIMSS senior executives and volunteer leaders discussed the results of the HIMSS Leadership Survey—this year renamed the “2017 Leadership and Workforce Survey.”

Meanwhile, HIMSS17 has netted 1,249 exhibitors, whose booths and exhibits are occupying 600,000 net square feet. That is very similar to the “more than 1,200” exhibitors Smith described as participating in HIMSS16 at the Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas.

According to Smith, 40 percent of this year’s attendees report that they work in a care delivery setting; 16 percent, in a consulting firm; 7 percent in a payer or financial services organization; 5 percent in a government setting; and 30 percent, “other.”

By title, 30 percent say that they are in the c-suite of their organization; 17 percent are in senior management; and 23 percent describe themselves as IT professionals.