Session Details

Thursday, October 3

Opening Keynote:
The Secret to a Leader's Mental Wellness | Leading from Your Uniqueness
Molly Hildebrandt, International Speaker & Executive Coach, Hildebrandt Consulting, LLC

Leaders are beginning to understand the importance of filling one’s cup before trying to fill another’s, but are the acts of self-care, self-help or self-love actually FILLING our cup? Unfortunately, these approaches are just getting us back to EVEN from all the giving we’re doing - not into the positive. You can’t give what you don’t have. Join Molly Hildebrandt, Leadership Development consultant, speaker, coach as she leads a discussion on how leaders can intentionally lead from their uniqueness in order to GAIN energy everyday and begin their journey towards mental wellness!

Learning Objectives

• Determine uniqueness (who you are at your core)
• Understand how to create deeper and more meaningful connections with others
• Begin laying the foundation to mental resilience necessary to achieve mental wellness

Breakout 1.1
Bridging the Divide: Engaging Staff, Clinicians & Physicians through Internal Communications Strategies
Amy Freeze, Senior Communications Specialist, Froedtert Health

In this presentation attendees will delve into innovative approaches to fostering cohesive communication within healthcare organizations. The discussion will highlight the utilization of various channels such as group emails, intranet platforms, and internal messaging to effectively connect with staff, clinicians, and physicians. The presentation will showcase the versatility of internal communication tactics, demonstrating how initiatives like communications campaigns, ongoing video series, and livestream chats can help healthcare communications professionals connect to the diverse audiences we serve. Insights will also be shared on how these strategies can be repurposed for external culture and recruitment efforts, extending their impact beyond internal stakeholders.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding the importance of cohesive internal communication in healthcare organizations and identifying best practices for leveraging content.
• Exploring communication channels and tactics to engage staff, clinicians, and physicians effectively.
• Gaining insights into repurposing internal communication strategies for external retention and recruitment efforts.

Breakout 1.2
Don’t Let Your Arteries Get “Blogged”: Understanding the Heart Behind Healthcare Blogging
Zach Singleton, SEO Specialist, McDaniels Marketing
MacKenzie Taylor , Vice President of Account Services, McDaniels Marketing

We get it. It’s easy for your healthcare blog to become an afterthought in your overall content strategy. It’s hard to stay motivated writing another monthly awareness post that will get lost in the thousands of other posts just like it. However, a thoughtful and relevant blogging strategy can make a huge impact on your website’s user engagement and overall traffic, boosting your SEO and giving your blog a more meaningful purpose. We’ll talk through what it takes to write compelling content that people actually want to read, along with why blogging is a powerful SEO tool. Learn how keyword research can help you better serve your website’s visitors by creating posts founded in real organic search queries and how authorship builds trust for your readers and search engines. Take this opportunity to refocus your blogging strategy and increase your website traffic in the process!

Learning Objectives

• Understand the power of blogging for SEO and user engagement to learn how best to target high volume organic search queries.
• Differentiate between ranch-style and skyscraper blogging techniques while developing strategic content creation skills that keep in mind keywords, authorship, ADA compliance, and the impact of generative AI.
• Learning how blogging can improve your overall site structure through authorship and internal and external linking opportunities.

Breakout 2.1:
Unlocking the Power of Digital Healthcare Marketing to Generate Conversion
Heather Jurgenson, Account Strategy Director, Geonetric

Amid increasing healthcare competition, marketing teams are challenged with exceeding patient expectations in the face of HIPAA-guidelines, targeted patient acquisition, and streamlined communications.

In this session, we'll explore how to create a cohesive and targeted digital marketing strategy, utilizing both paid and unpaid digital marketing techniques, to achieve your healthcare marketing goals. We’ll showcase how two healthcare organizations – Hartford Healthcare and University Health – approached their service line search strategy, propelling conversions, appointments and ROI and discover how one service line increased conversions by 690%.

You’ll walk away with the motivation and guidance on how to level up your digital marketing strategy, from conducting audits, to building campaigns utilizing the benefits of both paid and unpaid strategies, to tracking results while maintaining strict HIPAA compliance.

Learning Objectives

• Learn how to incorporate a strategy that will help you execute more targeted digital marketing campaigns.
• You’ll understand best practices for tracking and optimizing paid efforts in a compliant manner, especially in light of the HIPAA Bulletin.
• You’ll walk away with real-world examples demonstrating how organizations have significantly increased conversions when combining efforts across paid and unpaid media.

Breakout 2.2:
Mind Over Marketing: Understanding Your Patients’ Mindset to Increase Engagement
Karen Bernhardt, Agency Creative Director, Vendi Advertising

Speaking directly to your patients’ headspace—understanding their anxieties, frustrations and goals is the key to crafting messaging that resonates. Using the technique of backward brainstorming, we’ll share a case study on connecting the solutions your organization offers to your patients’ mindset and addressing their specific concerns. The result? Increased engagement, higher conversion rates and a marketing strategy that drives measurable results.

Learning Objectives

• The power of patient-centric messaging
• How to use backward brainstorming to generate solutions for your patients’ problems
• A real-world example of how this strategy gets results

Breakout 3.1:
HIPAA-Compliant Digital Marketing - What We've Learned.
Sue Webb, Director of Strategy, Cork Tree Creative

The healthcare marketing community’s collective socks were blown off by the December 2022 HIPAA Bulletin, Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates. This bulletin defined current marketing efforts that may fall outside HIPAA compliance by intentionally or unintentionally disclosing PHI. Since then, healthcare organizations have been blindsided by lawsuits, fines, an additional bulletin, and A LOT of stress and confusion. So, what should healthcare organizations do to continue marketing in a safe, compliant environment? Sue Webb, Director of Strategy at Cork Tree Creative, will provide insight into where those vulnerabilities may hide in your current digital marketing strategy and the options available to mitigate your risk and protect your organization without blowing your budget.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this session, participants will have access to a HIPAA Marketing Checklist and better understand: 

• What these bulletins really mean.
• Where vulnerabilities lie on medical websites and actual solutions.
  
• How to safely and cost-consciously run digital ads and analytics. 
  

Breakout 3.2:
From Crisis to Confidence: Best Practices for Handling a PR Crisis Before It Occurs
Laura Gallagher, President & Founder, The Creative Company, Inc. 
Ben Sefarbi, Public Relations Media Specialist, The Creative Company, Inc.

Medical errors, data breaches, negative patient experiences. Are you prepared to handle these and other types of PR crises? Join The Creative Company to learn how to successfully navigate a crisis and protect your reputation. We’ll equip you to develop a crisis communications plan that enables you to drive the narrative, mitigate the spread of misinformation, and maintain public trust. You’ll also receive our Crisis Planning Guide; if you spend just 30 minutes with this document, you'll be more prepared, confident, and capable than before.

Learning Objectives

• The 7 steps in crisis communications planning
• The importance of staying calm
• The Four-Question Test
• The #1 goal during a crisis
• A process for determining who needs to be communicated with during a crisis

Breakout 4.1:
Put Accessibility at the Heart of Your Web Design and Web Content
Reba Thompson, Vice President of Client Partnerships, WG Content
Laura Garling, UX Architect, Palantir.net

Designing inclusive and accessible websites isn’t just the law, it’s our responsibility as good humans. Attend this session and learn how to remove barriers in both the design and content of your site, ensuring site visitors of all abilities and backgrounds get the best experience possible. You’ll leave inspired by health system and state department of health examples that prove investing in plain language and accessibility helps communities access essential health information with confidence.

Learning Objectives

• Help your web designers and content writers work together to support accessibility
• Ensure your site design and content are in WCAG 2.2 compliance
• Get inspired for investing in inclusion and accessibility through recent healthcare examples and actionable tips

Breakout 4.2:
Marketing for Recruitment 
Meagan Hardwick, Agency Director, Red Shoes, Inc.
Danielle Leon, Account Executive, Red Shoes, Inc.

A recruitment of medical professionals is essential for the success of any healthcare organization. The goal of effective recruitment efforts is to attract and retain quality workers who share a commitment to excellence in patient care. Recruiting high-quality talent can be a challenge, but there are several strategies our agency can share that will make it easier!

Learning Objectives

• Attendees should leave with the knowledge to develop marketing messaging that resonates both with prospective patients and prospective employees.
  

Dinner & Awards Ceremony

After a delicious dinner, we will recognize all members who have earned Pinnacle Awards and WHPRMS Leadership Recognition, and name this year’s recipient of our Professional Excellence Award

Friday, October 4

General Session:
Content That Connects: Children's Wisconsin's Blueprint for Engaging Physicians, Patients, and Health Plan Members
Nancy Vanselow, Marketing Development Senior Management, Children's Wisconsin
Laura Simson, Advertising and Brand Manager, Children's Wisconsin

Discover how Children's Wisconsin successfully harnessed the power of content strategy to drive engagement with physicians, patients, and health plan members. This session will explore the innovative techniques and best practices implemented by Children's Wisconsin and Chorus Community Health Plans to create impactful content that resonates with diverse audiences. Learn how strategic content creation and distribution can enhance relationships, improve communication, and foster a sense of community within a healthcare organization.

Learning Objectives

•  Explore Content Strategy Foundations: Understand the key elements of a robust content strategy and how Children's Wisconsin and Chorus Community Health Plans tailored these to meet the unique needs of physicians, patients, and health plan members.
• Engage Physicians through Targeted Content: Learn how Children's Wisconsin developed content specifically designed to engage physicians, support their professional development, and enhance patient care. 
• Connect with Patients and Health Plan Members: Discover effective techniques used to create patient-centric content that informs, educates, and supports health plan members, fostering a deeper connection and trust with Children's Wisconsin/Chorus Community Health Plans.

The Heart Connection: a simple formula for building trust (through video)

Breakout 5.1
The Hidden ROI: How Unifying Culture and Teams Drives Tamarack Health’s Rebrand
Cherie Morgan, Marketing Director, Tamarack Health
Joe Gunderson, Chief Creative Officer, Hailey Sault
Alison Schiek, Chief Strategy Officer, Hailey Sault

If you’ve been through a successful rebranding of your organization, you can likely identify with what success looks like outwardly: an evolved look and feel, improved awareness and perception, new patient engagement, and, ideally, growth of patient acquisition. But what we rarely emphasize is what a successful rebrand looks like from inside the organization, and how that investment generates returns on cultural alignment and team engagement, and creates the foundation for the external-facing brand to be successful. In 2023, Ashland Medical Center and Hayward Medical Center formalized their integration under a unified health system brand, Tamarack Health. While the external performance of the brand is exceeding expectations, what is driving performance in the first 12 months is all the groundwork that led up to the brand launch.

Learning Objectives

• Feeling Heard Matters. How internal focus groups and employee co-creation help inspire buy-in from the C-Suite to clinicians and support staff.
• Revolutionize Internal Communications: Discover a roadmap to an integrated marketing approach that ensures internal alignment. Go beyond videos, captivating collateral, and irresistible SWAG to foster clarity, unity, and belief within your team.
• Experience the True ROI: Understand the profound impact of team alignment and engagement on patient experience and brand performance, proving that a purposeful internal foundation is the key to external success.

Breakout 5.2
Enhancing the Consumer Journey with a Data-Driven Digital Content Strategy
Alyx Andrus, Senior Digital Content Strategy Writer, Advocate Health
Ashley Rogers, Digital Marketing and SEO Coordinator, Advocate Health 

Learn how Advocate Health has developed a consistent, repeatable process for creating content that expands our website audiences – especially via organic search – to drive engagement and conversions. In this session, our expert team of aligned content and SEO experts will unpack how they developed a strategy around three interconnected pillars – website content, SEO and content marketing – to align digital content decision-making and production to enterprise business priorities.

Learning Objectives

• Build awareness of your services, locations and providers using Google search tools and organic search strategies.
• Increase engagement across your entire enterprise website experience platforms including apps, emails, blogs and social platforms.
• Drive revenue to the programs and services with rich calls-to-action that drive engagement including phone calls and new patient appointments across your enterprise. 

Breakout 6.1
The Heart Connection: A Simple Formula for Building Trust Through Video 
Tony Gnau, Founder & Chief Storytelling Officer, T60 Health

You’re working hard to communicate with your audience. Emails, newsletters, social media, you name it. Strategy, data, and AI all play their part. That's a lot, and it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. You know, healthcare video content that builds a connection with your audience.

Do it right… earn trust. Do it wrong, and… click. Your audience leaves.

What you need is a north star. Something that puts you on the right path and holds you accountable. What you need is a formula for video success.

3x Emmy winner and Amazon #1 Bestselling author Tony Gnau has been telling corporate stories for 20+ years. He’s been a part of successful healthcare campaigns… and some clunkers. The key to the success stories? A simple formula you can apply to any type of content.

Find out how the formula has helped more than a few projects and even saved Tony’s life.

Seriously. It saved… his… life.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the key elements of a successful healthcare video content strategy: Participants will learn how to create video content that builds trust and connection with their audience, ensuring long-term engagement and effectiveness.
  
  

• Apply a proven formula for video content success: Attendees will be equipped with a simple, actionable formula that can be implemented across various types of healthcare communication, ensuring consistent and impactful messaging.

• Recognize the impact of storytelling in healthcare marketing: Learners will explore real-world examples of successful and unsuccessful healthcare campaigns, gaining insights into how storytelling can be a critical factor in building trust and driving audience engagement.

Breakout 6.2
A Practical Deep Dive into AI-Driven Healthcare Marketing
Lacey Reichwald, Marketing Director, Aha Media Group

Curious about AI in healthcare marketing? Let's get into the nuts and bolts. We're talking practical do's and don'ts; shining a light on how AI can enhance your content tactics and when it's not the ideal tool. This session aims to give you a well-rounded view, covering the impact of AI on your current content strategy and how to use AI wisely in your marketing efforts. Expect to leave feeling empowered, with clear insights on leveraging AI's potential while being mindful of its limits.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the latest abilities of AI tools, when to use them, when not to use them, and how to identify the best options for your organization.
• Learn about the effective integration of AI in content creation and data analysis, balancing innovative approaches with ethical considerations and accuracy.
• Walk away with practical tips and prompts to start using generative AI in your workflow.
  
  

Closing Keynote:
The Infinite ROI of Leading with Care
Danny Goldberg, Speaker & Workplace Expert, BOG Consulting

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the quest to retain top talent has never been more intense. As the dynamics of how, where, when, and with whom we work continue to evolve, the drivers of performance and commitment for each individual have been forever reshaped. No longer do one-size-fits-all approaches suffice; instead, a new, more individualized approach of care sets the best organizations apart. Enter Danny Goldberg acclaimed keynote speaker, award winning entrepreneur, and creator of the Modern Leadership Framework. With a proven track record of business success, Danny shares insights vital for nurturing high-performing teams in this new era of work. Through the Modern Leadership Framework, leaders at all levels gain actionable insights to foster depth, personalize their leadership approach, and lead in a way that inspires loyalty. This practical, inspiring framework empowers teams to not only be productive but also innovative, creative, connected, and psychologically safe. 

Learning Objectives:

• The importance of the Modern Leadership Framework to lead with care across generations.
• How to stop competing for top talent and instead motivate top talent to stay through care and connection.
• An actionable framework to create highly-engaged, productive, and committed teams