text: What would it be like to attend a customer engagement conference where the presenters, panelists, and audience were truly engaged and shared what they know? I chaired the Customer Analytics and Engagement in healthcare conference in Chicago this week and I found out. It was not like an ordinary conference with fancy slides and polished speakers. It was about real professionals working in the healthcare trenches with a desire to make significant changes and learn from others. I witnessed the walls of silos disintegrate.
  Experts shared their points of view on issues facing healthcare. Topics for discussion included predictive modeling, readmissions, B2C market shifts, behavioral trends, social media, customer experience, engagement strategies, ACOs, provider strategies and more. We had presentations, interviews, and panel discussions on the hottest topics facing the healthcare industry. The audience was truly engaged as tough questions were given to experts on our panels.
  This conference was extremely useful as influential companies in healthcare worked together. Payers, providers, ACOs, and health services companies attended. Humana, Cigna, Aetna, and Anthem represented from the top 5 payers with many Blues attending as well. Dr. Furno represented CMS and talked about the work CMS is doing around readmissions. Stuart Hanson at Citi attended to share what they have learned about B2C in banking and if their experiences could translate to healthcare. Thomas Sondergeld, from Walgreens, shared his insights on engaging the employee workforce with corporate wellness programs. Vijay Murugappan, VP from HCSC, delivered a keynote and shared his thoughts on analytics and technology. Kimberly Higgins-Mays, VP from Aetna, shared her views on Accountable Care Solutions and how Aetna is changing their thinking to adapt to the market shifts in healthcare. Bryan Bennett, predictive analytics adjunct professor, from Northwestern University lit up the panel with insights on predictive analytics. Jim Tincher, customer experience expert, provided insights and an education around persona development and journey maps on Thursdays morning session showing us that a just creating a journey map with bubbles is not enough. These are professionals with diverse perspectives but with one common goal .. to help healthcare get better.