ISHMPR’s Fall Conference

Bi-State Conference

October 2-4, 2024

This year’s ISHMPR/WHPRMS Annual conference brought together the best and brightest healthcare marketers from across Illinois and Wisconsin. The bi-state event drew compelling speakers on some of the hottest topics, trends, and insights in our industry. Attendees mixed and mingled, connecting with old and new friends alike and building those invaluable relationships that pay dividends long after the conference ends. Event sponsors highlighted unique products and services, sharing how they can help make lives easier for attendees (and who doesn’t need that!). Finally, the Pinnacle Awards recognized the best of the best in organizational marketing and professional commitment. 

We want to thank all of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees who helped make the ISHMPR/WHPRMS Annual Conference a success! 

For a sneak peak at what’s in store for the 2025 conference, explore the photos, General Information, Conference Outline, and Sessions below from the 2024 event below. This will give you a small glimpse of what’s to come. We can’t wait to see you all at our future gatherings!

General Information

Deadlines:

Early Bird Registration: August 23, 2024

Final Registration Deadline: September 17, 2024

Rates:

ISHMPR/WHPRMS Member – Full Conference: $400.00

ISHMPR/WHPRMS Member – One Day: $225.00

Non-Member – Full Conference: $550.00

Non-Member – One Day Only: $325.00

Hotel Reservations:

The Ridge Hotel

W4240 WI-50

Lake Geneva, WI 53147

A room block has been reserved for attendees of this event at a special discounted rate of $139 per night. Reserve your room by calling (262) 249-3800 and request the “WHPRMS-ISHMPR Bi-State Conference 2024” block.

Don’t wait! The deadline to reserve a room in the block is September 2, 2024.

DISCLAIMER: The Ridge requires a one-night deposit on all hotel reservations, charged to guests’ credit cards at the time of booking.

Conference Outline

Wednesday, October 2nd

3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Registration
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Welcome Reception

Thursday, October 3rd

7:30 a.m. –  4:00 p.m. – Registration
8:00 a.m. –  9:00 a.m. – Breakfast
9:00 a.m. –  9:30 a.m. – Annual Meeting
9:30 a.m. –  9:45 a.m. – Break
9:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. – Welcome and Opening Session
11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. – Break
11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Breakouts Round 1
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. – Lunch and Exhibitor Introductions
1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. – Breakouts Round 2
1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – Exhibitor Showcase
2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Breakouts Round 3
3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. – Break
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Breakouts Round 4
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. – Cocktail Hour
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. – Dinner & Award Ceremony

Friday, October 4th

7:30 a.m. –  11:00 a.m. – Registration
7:30 a.m. –  8:30 a.m. – Breakfast
8:30 a.m. –  9:30 a.m. – General Session
9:30 a.m. –  10:00 a.m. – Break and Visit with Exhibitors
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Breakouts Round 5
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. – Break
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. – Breakouts Round 6
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. – Lunch & Closing Session

Sessions

Thursday, October 3rd

9:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Hildebrandt Consulting, LLC - Molly Hildebrandt

“The Secret to a Leader’s Mental Wellness | Leading From Your Uniqueness”

Leaders are beginning to understand the importance of filling one’s cup before trying to fill another’s, but are the acts of self-care, self-help or self-love actually FILLING our cup?

Unfortunately, these approaches are just getting us back to EVEN from all the giving we’re doing – not into the positive.

You can’t give what you don’t have.

Join Molly Hildebrandt, Leadership Development consultant, speaker, coach as she leads a discussion on how leaders can intentionally lead from their uniqueness in order to GAIN energy everyday and begin their journey towards mental wellness!

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Froedtert Health - Amy Freeze

“Bridging the Divide: Engaging Staff, Clinicians & Physicians through Internal Communication Strategies”

In this presentation attendees will delve into innovative approaches to fostering cohesive communication within healthcare organizations. The discussion will highlight the utilization of various channels such as group emails, intranet platforms, and internal messaging to effectively connect with staff, clinicians, and physicians.

The presentation will showcase the versatility of internal communication tactics, demonstrating how initiatives like communications campaigns, ongoing video series, and livestream chats can help healthcare communications professionals connect to the diverse audiences we serve. Insights will also be shared on how these strategies can be repurposed for external culture and recruitment efforts, extending their impact beyond internal stakeholders.

McDaniels Marketing - Zach Singleton & MacKenzie Taylor

     

“Don’t Let Your Arteries Get “Blogged”: Understanding the Heart Behind Healthcare Blogging”

We get it. It’s easy for your healthcare blog to become an afterthought in your overall content strategy. It’s hard to stay motivated writing another monthly awareness post that will get lost in the thousands of other posts just like it. However, a thoughtful and relevant blogging strategy can make a huge impact on your website’s user engagement and overall traffic, boosting your SEO and giving your blog a more meaningful purpose. We’ll talk through what it takes to write compelling content that people actually want to read, along with why blogging is a powerful SEO tool. Learn how keyword research can help you better serve your website’s visitors by creating posts founded in real organic search queries and how authorship builds trust for your readers and search engines. Take this opportunity to refocus your blogging strategy and increase your website traffic in the process!

1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Geonetric - Heather Jurgenson

“Unlocking the Power of Digital Healthcare Marketing to Generate Conversion”

Amid increasing healthcare competition, marketing teams are challenged with exceeding patient expectations in the face of HIPAA-guidelines, targeted patient acquisition, and streamlined communications.

In this session, we’ll explore how to create a cohesive and targeted digital marketing strategy, utilizing both paid and unpaid digital marketing techniques, to achieve your healthcare marketing goals. We’ll showcase how two healthcare organizations – Hartford Healthcare and University Health – approached their service line search strategy, propelling conversions, appointments and ROI and discover how one service line increased conversions by 690%.

You’ll walk away with the motivation and guidance on how to level up your digital marketing strategy, from conducting audits, to building campaigns utilizing the benefits.

Vendi Advertising - Karen Bernhardt

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“Mind Over Marketing: Understanding Your Patients’ Mindset to Increase Engagement”

Speaking directly to your patients’ headspace—understanding their anxieties, frustrations and goals is the key to crafting messaging that resonates. Using the technique of backward brainstorming, we’ll share a case study on connecting the solutions your organization offers to your patients’ mindset and addressing their specific concerns. The result? Increased engagement, higher conversion rates and a marketing strategy that drives measurable results.

2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Cork Tree Creative - Sue Webb

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“HIPAA-Compliant Digital Marketing – What We’ve Learned”

The healthcare marketing community’s collective socks were blown off by the December 2022 HIPAA Bulletin, Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates. This bulletin defined current marketing efforts that may fall outside HIPAA compliance by intentionally or unintentionally disclosing PHI. Since then, healthcare organizations have been blindsided by lawsuits, fines, an additional bulletin, and A LOT of stress and confusion.

So, what should healthcare organizations do to continue marketing in a safe, compliant environment?

Sue Webb, Director of Strategy at Cork Tree Creative, will provide insight into where those vulnerabilities may hide in your current digital marketing strategy and the options available to mitigate your risk and protect your organization without blowing your budget.

The Creative Company - Laura Gallagher & Cassandra Bretl

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“From Crisis to Confidence: Best Practices for Handling a PR Crisis Before It Occurs”

Medical errors, data breaches, negative patient experiences. Are you prepared to handle these and other types of PR crises? Join The Creative Company to learn how to successfully navigate a crisis and protect your reputation. We’ll equip you to develop a crisis communications plan that enables you to drive the narrative, mitigate the spread of misinformation, and maintain public trust. You’ll also receive our Crisis Planning Guide; if you spend just 30 minutes with this document, you’ll be more prepared, confident, and
capable than before.

3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

WG Content & Palantir.net - Reba Thompson & Laura Garling

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“Put Accessibility at the Heart of Your Web Design and Web Content”

Designing inclusive and accessible websites isn’t just the law, it’s our responsibility as good humans. Attend this session and learn how to remove barriers in both the design and content of your site, ensuring site visitors of all abilities and backgrounds get the best experience possible. You’ll leave inspired by health system and state department of health examples that prove investing in plain language and accessibility helps communities access essential health information with confidence.

Red Shoes Inc. - Meagan Hardwick & Danielle León

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“Marketing for Recruitment”

A recruitment of medical professionals is essential for the success of any healthcare organization. The goal of effective recruitment efforts is to attract and retain quality workers who share a commitment to excellence in patient care. Recruiting high-quality talent can be a challenge, but there are several strategies our agency can share that will make it easier!

Friday, October 4th

8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Level Ten Healthcare Advisors - Jennifer Horton

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“Portfolio Mapping: How to Guide Your Organization’s Growth Strategy

Struggling to decide which service line deserves your marketing focus? Join our session to discover the transformative potential of portfolio mapping! Regardless of your organization’s size, prioritizing marketing resources can be a daunting challenge, with each department demanding your attention (and resources). Portfolio mapping is more than just ranking your service lines. It is about purposefully choosing what to do—and as importantly—choosing what not to do.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to work with your senior team to visually map out your service lines (and other growth areas), identifying high-impact areas that drive revenue and growth, and define your marketing priorities for the year. Once your growth strategy is defined, we’ll share tips for gaining buy-in and understanding across the organization.

By the end of the session, you’ll be equipped to confidently prioritize marketing efforts, ensuring maximum return on investment. Don’t miss this opportunity to streamline your marketing strategy and drive your organization forward!

10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Tamarack Health & Hailey Sault - Cherie Morgan, Alison Schiek & Joe Gunderson

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The Hidden ROI: How Unifying Culture and Teams Drives Tamarack Health’s Rebrand

If you’ve been through a successful rebranding of your organization, you can likely identify with what success looks like outwardly: an evolved look and feel, improved awareness and perception, new patient engagement, and, ideally, growth of patient acquisition. But what we rarely emphasize is what a successful rebrand looks like from inside the organization, and how that investment generates returns on cultural alignment and team engagement, and creates the foundation for the external-facing brand to be successful. In 2023, Ashland Medical Center and Hayward Medical Center formalized their integration under a unified health system brand, Tamarack Health. While the external performance of the brand is exceeding expectations, what is driving performance in the first 12 months is all the groundwork that led up to the brand launch.

Advocate Health - Alyx Andrus & Ashley Rogers

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“Enhancing the Consumer Journey with a Data-Driven Digital Content Strategy

Learn how Advocate Health has developed a consistent, repeatable process for creating content that expands our website audiences – especially via organic search – to drive engagement and conversions. In this session, our expert team of aligned content and SEO experts will unpack how they developed a strategy around three interconnected pillars – website content, SEO and content marketing – to align
digital content decision-making and production to enterprise business priorities.

11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Children's Wisconsin - Nancy Vanselow & Laura Simson

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“Content That Connects: Children’s Wisconsin’s Blueprint for Engaging Physicians, Patients, and Health Plan Members

Discover how Children’s Wisconsin successfully harnessed the power of content strategy to drive engagement with physicians, patients, and health plan members. This session will explore the innovative techniques and best practices implemented by Children’s Wisconsin and Chorus Community Health Plans to create impactful content that resonates with diverse audiences. Learn how strategic content creation and distribution can enhance relationships, improve communication, and foster a sense of community within a healthcare organization.

Aha Media Group - Lacey Reichwald

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“A Practical Deep Dive into AI-Driven Healthcare Marketing

Curious about AI in healthcare marketing? Let’s get into the nuts and bolts. We’re talking practical do’s and don’ts; shining a light on how AI can enhance your content tactics and when it’s not the ideal tool. This session aims to give you a well-rounded view, covering the impact of AI on your current content strategy and how to use AI wisely in your marketing efforts. Expect to leave feeling empowered, with clear insights on leveraging AI’s potential while being mindful of its limits.

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

BOG Consulting - Danny Goldberg

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“The Infinite ROI of Leading with Care

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the quest to retain top talent has never been more intense. As the dynamics of how, where, when, and with whom we work continue to evolve, the drivers of performance and commitment for each individual have been forever reshaped. No longer do one-size-fits-all approaches suffice; instead, a new, more individualized approach of care sets the best organizations apart.

Enter Danny Goldberg acclaimed keynote speaker, award winning entrepreneur, and creator of the Modern Leadership Framework. With a proven track record of business success, Danny shares insights vital for nurturing high-performing teams in this new era of work.

Through the Modern Leadership Framework, leaders at all levels gain actionable insights to foster depth, personalize their leadership approach, and lead in a way that inspires loyalty. This practical, inspiring framework empowers teams to not only be productive but also innovative, creative, connected, and psychologically safe.

Sponsorship Opportunities Available

We offer a diverse range of options tailored to meet your marketing goals. Dive into our comprehensive sponsor prospectus to discover the full spectrum of possibilities and learn how you can elevate your brand with us.

Don’t miss out! Secure your spot today by registering below.

2024 Pinnacle Awards

The Pinnacle Awards Presentation was held on October 3, 2024.

We had such a great group of entries this year. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

  • 81 total submissions
  • 30 Honorable Mentions
  • 28 Award of Merit winners
  • 10 Award of Excellence winners
  • 1 Best in Show for Illinois and 1 Best in Show for Wisconsin

We want to give a huge thank you to all of you for submitting your outstanding work.

Congratulations to all Pinnacle Award winners and thank you all for your continued support of ISHMPR.

We have invited marketing and thought leaders from all over the State of Illinois to share their insights into how your organization can stand out in today’s healthcare market.

View the 2024 winning submissions here: http://pinnacles.ishmpr.org/

A group of business conference participants discussing a presentation in the hotel foyer together.

Bi-State Conference Sponsorships:

Past Conference Gallery