Late in the afternoon on July 30, the leaders of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced that the association’s HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition would be moved from early spring next year to Aug. 9-13, 2021, and will be held in Las Vegas.
HIMSS21 will be held at the Venetian-Palazzo-Sands Expo Convention Center and the Wynn-Encore resort, both on Las Vegas Boulevard, commonly referred to as “The Strip.”
This year, HIMSS20, which had been slated to be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando March 8-12, was canceled at the last minute, on March 5, with some educational sessions later converted to virtual sessions, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States with its full force.
Back in March, when HIMSS leaders made the announcement that the 2020 conference would be cancelled, just a few days before it was set to begin, Hal Wolf, the association’s president and CEO said at the time, “Based on evaluation of evolving circumstances and coordination with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week.” HIMSS officials, citing that it was the first time the annual conference would be cancelled in 58 years, called the situation “unavoidable.”
HIMSS leaders have stated that they would announce their plans for 2021, and this announcement alerted potential attendees and exhibitors to the change of plans. HIMSS19, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, attracted more than 42,000 attendees. HIMSS’ national and international membership totals more than 80,000 healthcare professionals in the United States and internationally.
