As one of the healthcare industry's most influential gatherings, HLTH serves as a premier platform for the leaders and organizations driving transformation across healthcare. The event brings together more than 12,000 attendees annually, including executives from health systems, payers, technology companies, startups, investors, and government organizations.
At the heart of HLTH is a content team known for curating forward-looking conversations on the trends reshaping the healthcare ecosystem. With a reputation for elevating diverse perspectives and industry-leading expertise, HLTH offers speakers a unique opportunity to engage with the decision-makers influencing the future of health. We sat down with Jody Tropeano Greene, Head of Content at HLTH to learn the biggest updates to expect from the HLTH agenda this year, how attendee expectations have shifted over the years, and more. Plus, find out what makes a HLTH speaker submission truly stand out, perfectly timed with their call for speakers closing very soon (June 12th!).
Want to be in the room where the latest in healthcare is debated? Make sure to use our exclusive discount code for $250 off your ticket. Register here with the code H26PAR_CRED250.
What excites you the most about this year's conference?
Jody: Our theme this year says it best “The Age of Intelligent Health is Here. Buckle Up!” The explosion of AI across the industry is really reaching a new level this year and we are seeing a massive step change in how healthcare companies operate and how patients access care.
Our event will showcase how this new era is playing out. HLTH has always been a must-attend event, but in today's climate, we are positioned better than ever. We are the trusted community for the leading voices building the future of healthcare to connect and collaborate. If you are not hearing from those leading this change and actively participating in it yourself, you are behind. This urgency is palpable, and it's changing the energy in the room. We're not theorizing anymore. The people coming to our stages are the ones whose decisions will determine what intelligent healthcare actually becomes. That accountability makes for a very different kind of conference this year.
What do you think resonates most with attendees about the HLTH experience?
Jody: HLTH USA is for human connection. We’ve always invested a lot into our attendee experience to amp up the peer to peer connection that is only possible with in-person events. Our community feels that difference the moment they walk into the event and it’s what brings them back year over year. We've also worked hard to make the program more focused and more intentional this year, with new formats specifically designed to get people to put their phones down and actually listen to and interact with each other. The density of the right people in one place, having real conversations, that's what keeps people coming back.
Have attendee expectations changed over the last few years? If so, how?
Jody: There's a heightened sense of urgency now that didn't exist a few years ago, pressure to adopt AI faster, prove ROI now, and not get left behind. Attendees are coming in sharper and with less patience for anything that feels like noise rather than action. They want programming that feels authentic, not a sales pitch, and can actually inspire new ways of thinking. Our main program has never been pay-to-play and never will be, Our attendees can trust that the conversations on our stages will be truly top-notch. Given that audience attention spans have also shortened in recent years, our sessions have always been on the shorter side and we encourage speakers to get right to the meat of the topic — no time for fluff.
What separates a solid speaker application from one that immediately stands out to your team?
Jody: We always say that we choose people, not companies. The applications that get our attention are from people with unique experiences, strong opinions, and an unabashed way of expressing themselves. What we're looking for is someone who can walk onto a stage with a group of peers and say something real, not a talking head delivering a PR-coached line, and definitely not a sales pitch. We want speakers who actually have something unique to say about where we're headed and what it will take to get there.
Also we want people with gravitas! So we do our research to make sure the leaders being proposed have the experience and appeal to capture our audience’s attention.
What are the most common mistakes you see from applicants looking to speak at HLTH?
Jody: A few come up every year.
Pitching a full panel or a customer case study is an immediate no. We won't accept those, and we're upfront about it. Pitching a company instead of a personal perspective is another one.
We also see people who are very specific about who they will and won't share the stage with, and my honest advice is that if you're picky, HLTH is probably not the event for you. We love putting unique mixes of leaders on stage together and hopefully pushing people a little out of their comfort zone.
And finally, people who apply with one very narrow topic, applicants who offer a few areas of expertise, including some broader ones, give us a lot more to work with.
What emerging healthcare trends or conversations are you hoping to spotlight more on stage in the future?
Jody: A few areas! The employer story is one with rising costs, shrinking options, employers caught in the middle and it intersects with everything from GLP-1s to mental health to women’s health.
I also think we've only scratched the surface on the women’s health conversation. We’ve heard a lot about menopause in the past few years, which is wonderful, but women’s health encompasses all of the conditions that differently or disproportionately affect women.
Longevity and healthy aging is another topic I'm excited about! There is a lot of buzz around longevity when it comes to health optimization, but most of those solutions are unattainable to a majority of the population, so how do we focus on the basics to actually help people live more healthy years.
And I want to keep pushing on who's paying for all of these new trends and how no care model, technology, or partnership will scale to the level of actually making an impact without getting the financial and policy foundation right. There is so much more! We have so many incredible sessions planned this year that will get people thinking about these trending topics a little differently.
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