2006 Winter Conference

Winter Conference 2006 took place Feb. 4-5, with meetings split between the Texas Medical Association building and the Austin Hyatt Regency.  In addition to more than 80 business meetings, 755 participants benefited from CME-accredited presentations on patient safety, health information technology, and leadership, along with candid discussions about issues for the 2007 Legislative Session including tax reform and physician payment. 

At 541, physician and medical student attendance has varied little since 1996, with the exception of 2003 when attendance jumped to 675 as a result of TMA's sesquicentennial celebration.

A New Meeting Time
Jon Hornaday, program director for the Fall Summit and Winter Conference, retired December 2005 after 42 years of service to TMA.  Production of the Fall Summit and Winter Conference are being managed by TMA's office of conference management.  Based on member needs, as collected from survey data, the production team modified the conference agenda to accommodate more business meetings on Saturday.  Conference evaluations verified the move was right on target.  On a scale of 5 (prefer most), 3 (neutral), and 1 (would not attend), participants showed a clear preference for weekend meetings.

Meeting Space: Keeping Apace with Change
As previously reported, it is increasingly difficult for TMA to negotiate adequate meeting space to accommodate more than 80 business meetings over a two-day period.  This is primarily due to the limited number of Austin hotels that can accommodate a meeting of our size, and the ratio of meeting space we require (100 percent of the facility) to the number of sleeping rooms our attendees book at the hotel.  Though registration numbers have remained constant, since 1995 TMA's room block has dropped from 460 rooms to an all-time low of 290 rooms. This is not an attractive scenario for an 800-room hotel that must try to sell more than half of its sleeping rooms when TMA has taken all of its meeting space.   As a result, TMA has found itself with only one viable option for 2006 and 2007 meetings - the Hyatt Regency Austin in combination with the TMA building.

Winter Conference 2006 allowed us the opportunity to welcome more than 280 physicians, medical students, and invited guests to TMA headquarters for business meetings. We heard many favorable comments from members who noted how enjoyable it was to come to the TMA building, some for the first time since joining TMA.  As an added benefit, meetings held at the building realized a 40 percent savings over those held at the Hyatt.

Pre-conference concerns about parking at the TMA building and shuttle availability were largely a non-issue.  However, some attendees did suggest that shuttles should run on the quarter-hour versus the half-hour, especially during the evening rush.  Staff has identified remedies to these concerns for the next meeting.

Responding to Your Feedback
To allow time for councils and committees to meet on Saturday morning, the Winter Conference General Session was pushed forward from the traditional 9 am start to noon. For those not involved in morning business meetings, a pre-conference seminar on patient safety offered continuing medical education credit and a TMLT professional liability premium discount.

Overall, members were very happy with the new format. However, staff will take action on the feedback you provided via the conference evaluations to make future conferences even better:

• We will increase seating capacity for the popular Dawn Duster/Pre-conference seminar.  These sessions are very popular, especially with local Austin physicians.
• Because the General Session now begins at noon, we will offer two pre-conference sessions on Saturday morning from 7:30-9 am and 9:30-11:30 am. 
• We hear you tea drinkers!  Hot water and tea bags will be available at the next meeting.
• Attendees expressed interest in a variety of educational formats from general sessions, to town hall discussions with expert panelists, and hands-on interactive breakout sessions.  Members can look forward to a variety of these formats at future conferences.
• We will shorten the Saturday schedule to get you home earlier! Saturday is a good time for meetings, but members indicate they are ready to wrap things up around 3 pm.  We'll adjust the general session timing accordingly.
• Sunday meetings - it appears the membership is still split on the issue.  We'll continue to monitor this on a case-by-case basis, knowing how valuable family and personal time is to our members.

If you have ideas for speakers and topics, or thoughts in general about TMA meetings, I encourage you to contact conference management staff Kim Harmon at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1410, or send an e-mail to kim.harmon[at]texmed[dot]org .

TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2006