More and more association and b-to-b publishers are trying to link their digital content with events. It’s a way to connect with an audience after they leave the showfloor, while providing one-stop, multichannel sponsorships for advertisers.
UBM Tech has shifted in that direction after dumping its print publications recently, but they’re not the only ones trying it.
MedTech Media, a division of Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Media, has launched a traditional news site on the strength of one of its fastest growing events. The site, mHealth News, covers the use of mobile technology in healthcare and is closely partnered with the mHealth Summit produced by HIMSS Media.
"We’re leveraging the mHealth Summit brand to enable attendees to extend the experience 365-days-a-year," says Jack Beaudoin, managing director of MedTech Media.
mHealth Summit drew more than 4,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors to its last show in December of 2012. It’s grown seven-fold since 2009, Beaudoin says, tapping into a bustling market.
The idea behind mHealth News isn’t new, but the direct connection to a co-branded event is. MedTech Media is building on previous iterations of its mobile healthcare technology sites-this is the third since 2009. Most recently the site lived as mHIMSS, an association-based page Beaudoin says the site’s scope of coverage had outgrown.*
Similarly, mHealth Summit has dabbled in content creation in the past, but it hasn’t offered anything on a daily news level.
"The path that we took to get here is not [one we’ve taken before]," he says. "We’ve been more traditional where we’ve launched a print publication or online news site [as a standalone]. The mHealth News site is the first where we’re really trying to leverage an existing event and the enthusiasm that surrounds it."
mHealth News and mHealth Summit are maintaining separate sales teams, but they’re offering integrated sales packages across their digital and experiential properties. Audience development and attendee marketing will be even more closely tied, Beaudoin says.
*Editor’s note: The original version of this article suggested the site had outgrown its "market" rather than its "scope of coverage."
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