When she attended her first AHIMA conference years ago, Trish Coffey didn’t know what to expect.
She had a paper agenda to help her try to plan, but she still felt overwhelmed.
“I didn’t really have anyone at the time who guided me or provided words of advice on where or how to start,” says Coffey, MS, RHIA, CPHIMS, CPHI, FAHIMA, now Academic Department Chair of Health Information Management and Medical Billing & Coding at Purdue University Global.
She learned on the spot and went to the sessions she thought would help her best in her new career. She also began networking and cultivating friendships with fellow health information (HI) professionals that remain today. For more than 10 years, she has attended the AHIMA conference regularly.
Coffey and other HI professionals say first-time attendees to AHIMA’s conference can make the best of their experience by preparing what sessions and events to attend in advance, being open to meeting new people and networking, taking advantage of career guidance opportunities, and not being afraid to interact or ask questions.
They say their tips will not only help first-time attendees but also enable regular attendees to get the most from AHIMA26 October 4-6 in San Antonio. And they say their advice can be used at other gatherings of HI professionals and students.
“Probably the number one thing is to make sure you plan out your schedule, and it’s so much easier now that everything’s electronic,” Coffey says. “If you don't know how to make that plan, connect with someone who's been before. I help my students make a plan by determining what their areas of interest might be.”
Learning the Ropes in San Antonio
AHIMA also lends a hand by offering the First-Timer Attendee Meet-Up & Orientation at the conference to help people learn how to navigate everything from the Exhibit Hall to CEU tracking. On October 4 from 3-4 p.m. CT, the session will help give attendees a clear plan and a few friendly faces to look for during the rest of AHIMA26. There’s also the Students and Emerging Professionals Meet-Up on Oct. 6 from 10-11 a.m. CT at the Exhibit Hall to network with peers and connect with leaders in the HI field.
In addition, first-time attendees and others can polish their resume and get a new headshot at the AHIMA Career Center. You can schedule a time to meet with AHIMA leaders and HI experts who will provide resume reviews, mock interviews, and LinkedIn profile assessments and offer guidance on career pathways to support your professional journey and advance your career.
Linda Williams attended the newcomers’ session at her first AHIMA conference, and it provided a helpful foundation for the gathering. She went to the event on her own and soon teamed up with another solo attendee to make the conference easier to navigate.
“Once you meet that first person, second person, or third person, you say, ‘OK, what session are you going to go to?’ I'll go to that one with you.’ And then you kind of stay together,” says Williams, MHA, RHIA, FAHIMA, Record Processing Section Head in the Health Information Management Division at the National Institutes of Health. “That’s what helped me. I felt more at ease.”
Williams, Coffey, and other conference regulars say you shouldn’t be reluctant to start a conversation with someone—you have nothing to lose. Sit near the front of session rooms by people you don’t know, so you can make new connections. Chat with people when you’re in line waiting for coffee and visit vendor booths to meet new people. And during sessions, raise your hand to ask questions instead of assuming someone else will.
“When I was looking for a new position, I was asking the vendors if they knew of any jobs," Williams says. "Now, vendors ask me, ‘Do you know anybody looking for work?’ ”
Making Connections and Hearing from HI Pros
In 1999, Aerian Tatum and 12 of her fellow classmates at East Carolina University traveled to Chicago for the AHIMA conference. Their professors encouraged them to go, so they got two hotel rooms and made it a group outing. Some were lucky enough to have hotel beds, while others ended up sleeping on rolling beds or the floor. While checking out the sites around town, they even ended up attending a taping of the Jerry Springer Show.
Their time at the conference wasn’t what they expected. It was better.
“We were just really flabbergasted. We were thinking there would be staunch professional people where you couldn’t crack a joke, and it was the total opposite,” says Tatum, DBA, MSHCA, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA, CPHIMS, now Chairperson and Assistant Professor at the Health Information Management Program at Coppin State University. “It was just a great time with good people and great information. We were in Disneyland.”
Tatum says she and her fellow students made networking a priority, and she recommends that students and emerging professionals do the same.
“We networked and had our own little business cards. Someone even made a button, ‘Looking for Work,’ ” she says. “I love the networking. As an educator, I’m always looking for vendors that want to train students and vendors that are hiring. And I’m looking for the next best thing we can utilize in the classroom.”
Looking Forward to a New Experience
Will Soles will attend his first AHIMA conference as a scholarship recipient through AHIMA’s partnership with HOSA-Future Health Professionals. He’s studying health services management at East Carolina University and sees AHIMA26 as a chance to learn more about health information.
“In my program, we've really been focusing on interprofessional education, kind of understanding the general basis of other careers and how they build up to one big system. I feel like the conference is a good opportunity to get to know another side of healthcare,” says Soles, who wants to become a hospital CEO someday. “Being a healthcare leader, I would want to understand different departments in healthcare systems.”
He started looking at the agenda to see what interests him the most. He’s looking forward to learning more about relevant topics such as artificial intelligence in health systems and applying the knowledge he gets to a career in healthcare once he graduates.
“My grandpa always told me that he didn't care what I did when I got older, even if it was just digging holes, but it better be the best hole he's ever seen,” Soles says. “In other words, you do the best you can in all situations, and that’s what I’m excited to do—step into this new field and absorb all this knowledge and come back to my college and share that with my classmates.”
Damon Adams is content production editor for AHIMA.