by Nick Jacobs

Tony said that he would write a summary of the happenings at the Consumer Health World Blogging Conference, and he did. Here's my take, overall, for as hard as everyone tried, it would have been cheaper for me to snail mail each participant a copy of my last blog with cash inside the envelope. When you consider the airfare, hotel, meals and tips, plus all of the money invested in my time by my employer, we are into some fairly serious numbers.

Truthfully, it reminded me of the first year that we did patient evaluations through a leading U.S. company that was completely insensitive to small hospitals. It cost so much to hire the company, and to use their forms and evaluations, that we could have stood at the door and handed each exiting patient a crisp new $100 bill and said, “So, how was your stay here?” I’m sure we would have gotten an even better set of responses than we had already.

The good news about this event was that there were savvy people in attendance who created podcasts, streaming videos and other means of communicating, and the people who were there were gracious, polite, serious and engaged.

Truthfully, as the earth’s first hospital CEO blogger, I feel a little like Christopher Columbus. I’m sure that eventually my peers will get this. They will somehow learn about the power of viral marketing, and realize that the earth is flat, but, like Chris, the big money, big acceptance, land grab, and recognition will probably comes years after I am just a memory in the blogsphere. They will say, “That Nick was certainly ahead of his time. He was such a genius.” Okay, maybe it won’t be that nice, but I’ll bet at least my grandkids will say that. Okay, maybe not.

Just so you know, this was NOT sour grapes. I got to hang out with some nice people, meet and work up close and personal with my hero, Tony Chen, had a two day reprieve from work reality and loved every minute of it. Besides, I’ve lived to see Elvis on Ed Sullivan, The Beatles, Man’s First Step on the Moon and me blogging. My share of the excitement is right up there with the best of them.

So, let me close by saying, “First is not always the best, but, when you’re first, you do get a much better view of the scenery.”