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Cavendish Venues one leading conference venues in London, has long specialised in this sector. They recently reported a 86% increase in medical events (year on year) We try to examine why. “The medical community did not work from home during Covid-19,” says Megan Finnell, CMP, director of meetings and conferences with Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). “Their experience during Covid was not like an office worker’s experience.”

Finnell is talking about why medical meetings came back fast and came back strong, both during early Covid recovery in 2020 through 2022.

“The community was familiar with distance, handwashing and medical masking so meeting with those protections in place was less of a barrier to meeting in person,” she says.

A recent survey on the website carecloud.com of over 5,000 clinicians in the US showed how they saw conferences as their second most important source of information after peer to peer.

The nature of the events is changing a bit. Many more events are streamed, though now we are seeing most organisers charging the same actual or virtual attendance. In fact, in many cases attendees are willing to pay a little more, maybe they understand this is a consequence of having the flexibility to attend either virtually or live. Other trends include a big increase in events dealing with mental health. A change in the mix of exhibitors, with many events also being used as something of a recruiting tool etc.

Here at Cavendish Venues we have specialised in hosting medical events for many years. The close proximity to the traditional medical district of Harley Street in London helps. As does the history of our Hallam Venue, the building was purpose built for the General Medical Council in 1915 to house their conference / meetings and tribunals.