How 2 regions increased provider leader attendance at their symposium

Leadership of the January 2025 HFMA Western region symposium, held in Las Vegas, credits scholarships and peer-to-peer outreach for increasing attendance at the event by more than 10% in two years.

Event leaders engaged 14 HFMA chapters across regions 10 and 11 to establish a planning strategy. Keys to the symposium’s success were prioritizing provider finance leadership participation, developing business partnerships and delivering a solid educational program, according to Lisa Kirk, vice president of sales at professional Credit, Springfield, Ore., and Jeffrey Johnson, chief client officer for professional Credit, the regional executives for HFMA’s region 10 and region 11, respectively.

The symposium drew 939 attendees, a third of whom were finance leaders at health systems and other healthcare providers.

Steps to secure provider participation

To increase provider participation, the event committee awarded nearly 300 scholarships — funded by sponsorships from business partners. Scholarship levels included director level or higher (providing complimentary registration and hotel stay) and manager level or higher (providing complimentary registration for some and 50% registration discounts for others).

Kirk credits the provider outreach committee with increasing response rates by establishing deadlines for accepting scholarships.

“It created incentive for people to commit and register more quickly,” she said. “That was really important.”

Chapters also helped generate interest by allocating funds to cover finance leaders’ travel expenses and by engaging in direct peer-to-peer outreach and video marketing via social media and email.

“Outreach that came from chapter members to provider finance leaders was stronger than it had been in previous years,” said Johnson.

Coming full circle

Increasing provider attendance to 297 from 280 in 2024 and from 270 in 2023, the event committee achieved 118% of sponsorship goal, with $736,250 in sponsorships sold. The total amount of scholarships was about $89,700.

“Putting some onus on provider finance leaders who were taking advantage of the scholarship programs, we requested they network with business partners on the exhibit floor,” Johnson said.

“Featuring relevant topics and engaging speakers is key to drawing attendees,” Kirk said. “And for business partners to continue to sponsor, we have to get the provider finance leaders there, which is why it’s important to increase participation while offering quality education.”