Someone e-mailed me recently with a really good question: What medical conference models are doing well financially in today’s regulatory and economic climate?
While the scale and plushness of the properties used for conferences nowadays have been dialed back, so has the commercial support available, especially for smaller, regional meetings. Or so I hear. And, of course, while I'm all for the ACCME's new requirements in terms of measuring results, all those pre- and post-tests come at a cost. So it's costing more to put on an activity than in the past, and there is less funding available. But there are still a lot of activities going on, according to the most recent ACCME Data Report. Last time I checked, this was still a business. So someone has to be making money off of it, right?
What types of medical conferences are doing more than struggling to break even these days? Is it possible to still make a profit when it comes to CME events, specifically? Or is it wrong to even talk about CME in terms of monetary profits these days (i.e., does it scare commercial supporters to think their dollars could possibly contribute to profit for the provider)? If you have any thoughts about what's working, financially speaking, I'd love to hear them either in the comments below or via e-mail.
