For those of you who couldn't make it to Seattle for Connections 2018, here are a few of the highlights from the content and speakers that kicked off this year’s event.
Kickoff keynote – Johnny Cupcakes
Customers want a unique experience that makes them feel like every day is their birthday
You offer that experience by forming a correlation with customers
Focus your marketing and engagement on humans, not labels like B2B or B2C
Check out the five minute intro video we watched before Johnny's presentation on Sunday:
Surviving and thriving during M&A activity – Me, Tammy Graves and Karina Jennings
Brand: Strive for simplicity and resist compromising for the wrong reasons
Integrating teams: Take the time to listen and learn first then build a new vision and org structure together
Driving strategy: Agile methods and nimble governance can drive growth and value during integration
Trends in digital health – Indu Subaiya
Q1-Q3 2018 investment in digital health technology has more than doubled since 2017
Digital technologies are making assumptions that we are moving to value-based care
Of the hundreds of thousands of digital health apps available, only a handful are connected to EMRs
Traditional healthcare companies are extremely worried about new entrants
Current care models don’t do well at managing chronic care
We need to extend care beyond our walls
New digital competitors won’t wait for us to embrace their technology; they can hire their own doctors to deliver it
Health care customer experience: Managing Customer Convergence – Panel discussion
The number of uninsured will grow from 29 million to 35 million in 2 to 3 years
M&A activity will continue to bring change
Consumerism will continue to grow
Your whole organization needs to live the brand experience
The traditional healthcare model was physician-centric and we did things on our time, not on the schedule consumers want
Walgreens sees 10 million customers daily – 8 million in person; 90 million members are engaged in the company's customer loyalty program. They are potential patients for a retail-based care system
Walgreens is striving to be a digital health navigator. Their new app is driving patients to partner health systems
Walgreens is working with partners to offer lab service in stores. 30% of lab orders today overall aren’t filled because it’s too inconvenient for patients to visit traditional sites like hospitals and MOBs