Conference News: CHIME-ing In; Live Events post COVID; Bio-IT CFP

CHIME-ing In From DC, Atlanta & SLC: The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives/CHIME – which annually holds spring and fall forums for hospital systems CIO members – announced they will also run a new and innovative CHIME21 Summer Executive Forum from 16-17 June. Acknowledging current travel restrictions and members’ safety, the executive forum will broadcast live from 3 headquarter locations: Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, and Atlanta, facilitating a program focused on current and emerging topics facing the industry’s senior leaders. However, should conditions safely allow in-person meetings in June, CHIME will incorporate an expanded, hybrid program to include executive meet-ups and networking activities for an additional, personal experience.

Summer in Singapore: Last year the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Informa Tech signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to launch Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG), a new flagship tech event for Asia that challenges conversations at the intersections of technology, society and the digital economy. They also noted that CommunicAsia would join Asia Tech x Singapore as the anchor event. Well, they just announced the dates: 13th – 16th July! The hybrid event will bring together government, businesses in the infocomm/ media/ tech ecosystem, start-ups, enterprise communities and the global titans of tech. The event also intends to showcase Singapore “as an unparalleled gateway to Asia – the world’s fastest growing digital economy.”

Submission Opportunity: For 20 years, the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo has been a premier event showcasing technologies and analytic approaches that solve problems, accelerate science, and drive the future of precision medicine. The conference hopes to have both an in-person and virtual component when it returns to Boston/online from 21 – 22 September. Attendees include life sciences, pharmaceutical, clinical, healthcare, informatics and technology experts in the fields of biomedical research, drug discovery & development, and healthcare from 30+ countries. If you have a topic that falls within one of the conference tracks, submit your speaker proposal by 12 April for consideration. 2021 tracks cover: Data Storage Infrastructure; Data Management; Software Applications and Services; Cloud Computing; AI for Drug Discovery and Development; Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics; Data Science and Analytics Technologies; Bioinformatics; Genome Informatics; Clinical Research and Translational Informatics.

Lunchtime Learning: Want a glimpse of what live events may look like in the immediately post-pandemic era? Mobile World Congress Shanghai – which hosted 20k attendees in-person as well as several thousand virtually when it made a triumphant return to China last month – offered this video showcase of the event’s highlights. In the near term, conference goers should expect to continue wearing masks, utilize hands-free registration and expo booths, and perch on spaced-apart session seating. Some attendees may still choose to take advantage of hybrid/virtual registration options. But the tradeoff for adhering to these safety precautions offers a return to face-to-face deal making, fewer session glitches, and good old-fashioned human interaction.

Coming Up Next Week: Harvard Business School’s annual HBS Tech Conference gets underway 6 March, covering topics like AI, robotics, blockchain, technology & social justice, and scaling. WSJ Women will celebrate International Women’s Day with a virtual program on Money Matters on 8 March. Delegates can expect to hear best practices on decoding your financial mindset and fortifying a financial safety net. From 9-10 March, Fast Company will run its first-ever Most Innovative Companies Summit, designed to provide an early look at major business trends and offer the inspiration and practical insights on what it takes to innovate in 2021. If it’s March, then you know it’s South by Southwest season, and first up we have SXSWedu. Kicking off virtually next Tuesday, SXSWedu is known for marquee-level speakers in the education space, and this year is no exception, with Oprah joining major influencers and teaching innovators as keynotes. And at HCI Engage Remote Teams (10 March) – the first in HCI’s “Engage Your People” virtual event series – HR leaders can learn how to build connections and community in a distributed workforce.