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I am interested in hearing honest reviews from anyone that has attended a past CHUG Centricity Live conference. Staff of ours have attended other Centricity based conferences in the past which they reported back as being more of a marketing and sales convention. We are hoping to attend one this year that can show tips/tricks/tools for navigating our current Centricity product and maximizing it's potential in our organization. Do the CHUG conferences meet these elements? Have you attended any and have an honest review to share?
TIA,
Alicia
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:08 am
Last year was my first year attending. I went to CHUG at Centricity Live in the Spring and I thought that was very informative on several different topics. When I went to the regular CHUG conference in the Fall I had the same impression as your staff members. I felt that most of the sessions felt more like sales pitches for either GE products or add ons from other vendors. If you're going to go to one this year I would recommend going in the Spring just based on my past experiences. Hope that's helpful.
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:14 am
I have attended many CHUG conferences and always learn a great deal at them. I have attended a like 3 different Centriciity conferences and except for the last one in Florida I always swore I would never go back. The biggest problem with CHUG I have is that it never fails that there are always a few times where there is nothing of any interest to me and then a few times where I would want to attend 5 of the 7 offerings. It works out well to go with a couple different people so you can split up. I say YES to CHUG conferences!
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:19 am
My First CHUG was at Florida last year, and I went in knowing that roughly 1/2 of the sesions were going to be sales pitches. with that knowledge, I knew when to walk away, and when to stay for a whole session. here are my tips that I found useful for enjoying the conference:
- Review the schedule beforehand, and plan on what are your MUST SEE items.
- have a backup session to attend for each time block, in case the one you thought would be amazing is just a sales pitch.
- Ask questions! Either at a session or in the hallways, sometimes the most useful content from CHUG isn't from the sessions, but from the people.
- Take notes. Share with your team at CHUG, and then your clinic when you return. A few things that I learned about, but didn't seem important to me, was actually super-helpful to others in our clinic.
- if all else fails, take a break. if there was no session for an hour that I wanted, I would catch a nap or get a snack. There is nothing worse than being burned out at the good sessions because you wasted an hour of your life on a bad one.
Final Answer: I really love the CHUG Conference, and I am excited to go again this year!
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:33 am
Additional Question from Alicia's coworker...
Is there a preference of CHUG at Centricity LIVE vs. the CHUG Conference (stand alone)? I thought the LIVE Conf was very sales pitchy and was hoping CHUG would be more user-based, but had never heard of CHUG being offered congruously with LIVE and wondered what conference would be best.
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:48 am
Last year I preferred CHUG at Centricity Live but it was my first time attending the CHUG conference in either form so it may not be that way every year.
Posted : January 13, 2016 9:53 am
I have attended several CHUG conferences and I would say you definitely want to attend.
1. YES there are multiple vendors on site trying to pitch their products , you might actually find a product that would make an extreme difference in your clinic.
2. Pick your agenda wisely( read the descriptions and who is sponsoring)
3. Plan on attending any hands on or collaborations that occur through out the day.
4.GE will have a specialist available for just about every aspect of the system and you actually get to sit down and interact with a live person ( very helpful) I suggest you take your laptop so you can access your home system if needed so they can see your configurations and workflows.
5. ALWAYS TAKE MORE THAN JUST 1 PERSON!!!!!
Posted : January 13, 2016 10:05 am
I would rather attend CHUG stand-alone. For the 10+ years that I have been attending that is how most of the ones I attended were. Even when they were combined the CHUG part was first and then the Centricity portion would be after that. The one in Florida was the only one that I have ever been too where it was very combined. I thought it was a little confusing even though I stayed on the CHUG track but did meet a lot of differnt people from different Clinical Information Systems and that was interesting but as EMR support not very helpful. That would probably be more helpful to a CIO. I still would rather attend a stand alone CHUG becuase that is where you network with fellow users, get ideas from them, form connections, and actually learn useful tricks. Make sure you take business cards and exchange as many as you can.... write on the back of them why you took that person's card. Nothing worse than knowing you talked with someone at CHUG about something but not remembering who it was. If you want a sales pitch from GE or other Sales people Centricity Live is the way to go. If you want to learn useful information, work arounds, tips, tricks, and share content CHUG all the way!
Posted : January 13, 2016 10:09 am
I think that Dawn summarized it best in the first response above: If you want a sales pitch from GE or other Sales people Centricity Live is the way to go. If you want to learn useful information, work arounds, tips, tricks, and share content CHUG all the way!
We have attended numerous CHUG conferences over the years. After attending CHUG @ Live, we determined that we will continue to attend CHUG, but will never attend another CHUG @ Centricity Live.
Posted : January 13, 2016 12:37 pm
From my experience the best part of the conference is connecting with other users, face to face, and talking through issues and/or upcoming projects to see how others are approaching (or have approached) them. At the conference you'll always be able to find someone who has already started the next thing on your 5 year plan - and they will have advice! Everyone loves to share what works (and especially what doesn't).
The customer collaborations are my personal favorite, I just wish they were a little more directed to encourage more conversation - you could get stuck at a "shy" table and then feel a little pressure to not just get up an leave your peers.
Posted : January 14, 2016 3:28 am
We went to the one in Orlando last year, this was a first time with the combined conference. If you read the decriptions VERY closely, you can really pin point what is information that you will need and what is just a sales pitch. The lab is my favorite resource. To just sit with the GE folks with the product and show them what we are attempting or what we need to do. That alone is worth the trip, sometimes.
Posted : January 19, 2016 4:12 am
