The Iowa Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations (ISHMPR) is bringing together some of the brightest minds in the business for its 2009 spring conference.  Five outstanding “Ask the Experts” sessions, plus special networking opportunities, will make this one of the most engaging and informative ISHMPR conferences ever produced.  Among this year’s topics:

• Customer relationship marketing: Using a hospital case study and years of health care marketing experience, Brian Irby of CPM Marketing will show how to attract and retain patients, even in challenging small markets.
• Employees and the hospital brand promise: Join Amy Davis, director of brand management at the Mayo Clinic, as she shares how hospitals can build a corporate culture that engages employees at all levels.
• Small hospital marketing: Lori Bruss from The Roberts Group will help participants discover how coordinated internal communications and external marketing can bridge the perception gap for rural facilities.
• Winning patients in the age of transparency: ISHMPR member Ross Bruno of Waterloo-based Hellman will show how to make transparency a marketing weapon that kills negative perceptions and wins patient loyalty.

The 2009 conference will also see the return of one of ISHMPR’s most memorable presenters, Iowa State University (ISU) journalism Professor Barbara Mack.  Combining her expertise in communication, writing and language use with the humor and storytelling that has made her one of ISU’s most popular professors, Mack will teach practical skills that take the “wrong out of write.”

Despite this stellar line up, which includes expert speakers from five different states, this year’s ISHMPR conference is holding the line on cost; the registration fee is the same as 2008 and still includes lunch and breakfast.  Participants will also be afforded time to share bright ideas and engage in a roundtable discussions on current marketing and public relations issues and strategies.

The ISHMPR Spring Conference will be held April 27-28 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Johnston.

If you are interested in attending, you can register online.