If you blog about health issues or have considered starting a blog for your health-related organization, you should check out the first-ever Healthcare Blogging Summit happening on December 11th in Washington, DC. While I’m disappointed not to be able to attend, I am counting on fellow social marketing blogger Craig Lefebvre to report back on his experiences there, since he will be speaking on a panel on strategy and tactics for healthcare blogging.
Craig will be joining other bloggers I read regularly and would love to meet, including Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion as the keynoter, Fard Johnmar of HealthCareVox, and Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing. The other speakers look quite interesting as well.
And to make me feel even more worse about not being able to attend, the conference is being held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Woodley Park — my very favorite hotel in DC and right near my old ‘hood. I always loved the beauty of the hotel’s interior, and when I had an opportunity to plan a conference in DC I chose that venue myself. A couple of years ago when my family visited DC, the hotel sealed its favorite status for me when they gave the kids each a goody bag with activity books, sunglasses, a watch and other fun stuff, as well as sending a tray with milk and cookies up to the room when we checked in. I wish I could go just to stay in that hotel again!
Oh, but where was I before I got all misty-eyed? Oh yeah, the Healthcare Blogging Summit. If you want to attend, you can purchase tickets on the Transmarx registration site (choose the “Blogging Summit” option).
As a prelude to the conference, the Medical Blog Network and Envision Solutions LLC are conducting the “Taking the Pulse of the Healthcare Blogosphere” survey. The study is the “first systematic attempt to gather comprehensive opinion and demographic data from the global community of healthcare bloggers.” If you are a healthcare blogger, you have until September 29th to complete the survey. Results will be shared at the conference.
And while you are in a survey-taking mood, Eric Mattson of MarketingMonger.com and Professor Nora Barnes of the University of Massachusetts are exploring what makes blogging so unique. They are asking bloggers to fill out their “Thinking like a Blogger” survey to explore the dimensions of blogging including the attitude and behavior behind blogs that draws people to them. They are looking for people to complete the survey by August 23rd.
I have responded to both surveys and can vouch that they did not take very much time to complete, and they got me thinking about why and how I blog in a new way. Make sure your voice is added to the research too.
Technorati Tags: healthcare, blogging, conference, survey
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Nedra:
Thanks so much for highlighting the survey and for taking it! I’m sorry that we’ll not get a chance to meet at the conference, but maybe we can do it another time.
Best,
Fard