OVERVIEW

Around 900 emergency-medicine physicians, residents, and fellows will convene in the Crescent City next month for the National Association of EMS Physicians’ (NAEMSP) Annual Meeting — three days of education, networking, and an exhibition of some of the latest research and technology in their field.

CHALLENGES

NAEMSP’s Annual Meeting has been growing by leaps and bounds, which presents a (welcome) challenge for the planning team. “Because of the projected growth, we have to pick properties that have room for growth,” said Caitlin Arnold, manager of meetings and expositions at association-management company Kellen. “The growth of this meeting has also meant we are trying to keep up with the growth and keep up with meeting trends — which is hard when five years ago the meeting only had 500 to 600 attendees.”

INITIATIVES

The 2017 meeting will feature some showbiz touches: “In 2016, we incorporated more production elements such as lighting, music, and staging to ramp up the look and feel of the conference, and we plan to continue this trend,” Arnold said. Her team is also working on a new, more flexible agenda for the meeting’s educational components. “For 2017, we revamped our education scheduling and slotted time for some late-breaking news to accommodate for national events that happen after our schedule was finalized and published in September.”