I’m not one to go to a lot of conferences. Although, I’ve been going to one all day today and tomorrow and it’s been quite interesting. Although, the best part has definitely been the in depth discussions about EHR that I’ve had with numerous attendees at the conference. More on that subject coming soon.

I’m also hoping to go to HIMSS 11 in Orlando. I had a great time at HIMSS 10 and I’d be remiss to not go to HIMSS 11. Let’s hope that I can find some sponsors for my coverage of HIMSS 11 to help offset the cost of the trip (any takers?). Here’s some links to find my coverage of HIMSS 11 on EMR and HIPAA and HIMSS 11 on EMR and EHR.

HIMSS just announced a couple of the keynote speakers for HIMSS 11. These are the 2 keynote speakers don’t necessarily specifically tie to healthcare in the traditional way:

Michael J. Fox – Popular actor and author Michael J. Fox shares his experiences as a patient and patient advocate.

Richard Boyd – Richard Boyd, expert in simulations for computer gaming, defense and film industries, will share his experiences with technologies used in the film “Avatar’ and their importance for the healthcare industry.

I must admit that I think Michael J. Fox will be a fascinating speaker. I’ll definitely be staying for that one. I don’t know Richard Boyd at all so we’ll see what happens with that one.

I’m definitely planning on approaching HIMSS in a very different way than I did last year. I had FAR too much scheduled time last year and tried to do too much. I’ll be freeing up my schedule this year to just discover new things and to have more quality time with great people than less time with more people. At least that’s the plan.

I know it’s early, but who’s planning on HIMSS 11?

Today is the last day for early registration of HIMSS 10. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of HIMSS the organization, but it’s hard to argue with not attending the HIMSS 10 conference. I could be wrong since this will be my first time attending, but I think that it’s going to be a very interesting conference for me. This is especially true thanks to the $18 billion of ARRA EHR stimulus money.

Ok, I can admit that going to the HIMSS conference for me is like a little kid in a candy store. This and my other EMR blog are all about great content and advertisers. Seems like HIMSS will provide the perfect mix of that for me.

Anyway, just wanted to remind people that today was the last day before the jack up the prices. Plus, I’m interested to hear about other people that are planning to attend. I’ve also heard rumor that there might be a meet the bloggers session at HIMSS. Sounds like fun to me! I know there’s a number of healthcare IT bloggers that I’d love to meet.