HIMSS was quite the whirlwind week — we thought you might like a break from all of the recaps, implications, and announcements that are flying around.

Instead, let’s indulge in a bit of #HIMSS19 fun: Here are some of our favorite companies from this year’s show in Orlando.

Uber Health: the “Best Booth Before You Even Got to the Convention” Award

Both Uber and rideshare competitor Lyft showed up strongly at this year’s event, with both making announcements early in the week. They’ve got the benefit of being the primary mode of transportation to the event, so we shouldn’t have been surprised to receive a “welcome” email from Uber shortly after getting in the car from the airport.

Epic Systems: “Am I in the Lobby of the Four Seasons?” Award

Epic’s known for having a campus that visually transports you to a myriad of scenes — including a farm, an NYC subway, London’s King’s Cross, and even Heaven — for HIMSS this year, they seemed to transport us to.. A hotel lobby. We didn’t mind. Huge kudos awarded to Epic CEO Judy Faulkner for showing up and staffing the company’s booth.

IBM: “This Booth is Bigger Than My House” Award

This one nearly went to Epic — whose booth was large enough that it had its own pathway winding through it — but the award goes to IBM. Both companies had booths in excess of 13,000ft2.. Needless to say, you could fit a couple (few?) houses in there.

While much of the excitement had died down by Thursday, AI took center stage when IBM Watson announced a 10-year, $50M collaborative AI research partnership with Brigham and Vanderbilt to help improve public health initiatives.

Stoltenberg Consulting Inc.: “Most Likely to be Confused for a Ride at Universal Studios”

Cheers to Stoltenberg Consulting for providing the only dino spotting on the show floor. Complete with a geodesic dome and DANGER: KEEP OUT sign, this Best in KLAS-winning HIT consulting firm showed up and reminded us that we were — indeed — in Orlando, FL.

Philips Healthcare: “Most Likely to Be Confused for an Airport Sky Lounge”

With that being said — we’d be happy to stay in the Philips booth forever. All week, PhilipsLive! sessions took place inside of the space, and we were impressed with the swath of connected offerings and Philips’ presence across the conference. If you haven’t read our thoughts on big tech success in healthcare, check out the blog.

Orchard Software: “Best Literal Interpretation of a Company Name”

I mean... What else could you want out of this booth?

Cerner: “Most Likely to Be Used as a Shortcut”

While we could talk shop about provider operations, the integration of AI into solutions like Cerner, the implications of their tech for opioid management, and Cerner’s contextually aware experiences for hours... We also found their expansive booth presence extremely convenient for cutting between rows of the show floor. Huge kudos to Cerner for providing some of the only healthy sustenance on the show floor — after some rough travel days, the fruit, protein bars, coffee, and water were so appreciated.

Halo Communications: “Earliest Happy Hour (and Best Use of Ice)”

We enjoyed Halo’s sharp in-booth presentations on the customer journey and clinical communication inside of health systems — and then on both Tuesday and Wednesday, a delightful cart of chilled libations rolled out just before 3PM.

We’ll also award client Halo the “Best Use of Ice,” award for their happy hour, in contrast to the HIMSS floor’s lone ice sculpture (from LRS Output Management), which we’ll hereby dub “Worst Use of Ice.”

Nuance Healthcare: “Best Booth Messaging” & “Most Worth-it Waiting in Line”

The power of you, multiplied.

Strong coffee & powerful AI solutions served here.

Imagine Making 98% of Physicians Happier

How could you say no to messaging like this — and coffee, of course. With a line worth waiting for (dare way say more worth it than most at Universal Studios or Disney?), the health tech geeks in all of us got excited as client Nuance Healthcare rolled out their AI-powered “exam room of the future.”

Google Cloud (Healthcare & Life Sciences): “Best Branded Socks”

Another big tech company with a strong showing at this year’s convention — if you don’t believe us, just check out the patterned socks they gave out. However, we may have to subtract some points for their HIMSS Fax Demo, which drew quite a bit of attention on Twitter.

“Best Presence Without a Booth”

This award goes out twice:

Once to Omada Health, whose Chief Privacy and Regulatory Officer, Lucia Savage, showed up extremely well on a panel and also live-tweeted throughout the event.

And once to Carium, whose Chief Transformation Officer, Lygeia Ricciardi, was a Champion of Health IT and whose Marketing Manager, Ashley Dauwer, absolutely crushed it live-tweeting both Lygeia's speaking roles and the entire event, delivering Carium’s perspective along the way.

If you weren't at the show, I'd be happy to give you a recap of important news, announcements, and trends that we saw coming out of the event. We had a blast supporting clients like Capsule, Geisinger Health, Halo Communications, Nuance Healthcare, Sansoro Health, and Teladoc Health..

We also gave some of you a sneak peek at some upcoming research — on both health plan decision-makers as well as on physicians and the various things that influence them. Want to learn more? Email me.