I Went to Capture the Experience. The Experience Captured Me.

I went to Washington, D.C., with a pretty straightforward assignment: capture the experience.

As a marketing professional for IC System, I was there for the inaugural ARCP Healthcare Revenue Leadership Summit to take photos, shoot video, create content, and help tell the story of IC System’s involvement.

What I didn’t expect was how much the experience would capture me.

I was proud to be part of ARCP’s first Leadership Summit and excited to see it all come together. From the beginning, there was a different energy to this event. It didn’t feel like a typical healthcare conference.

Finding Value Where I Didn’t Expect It

I’m not the traditional audience for sessions about revenue cycle leadership, healthcare policy, prior authorization, or financial assistance. I’m a marketing person. But I was completely engaged. The educational sessions were some of the most valuable I’ve attended at an industry event. I learned a lot personally, but I also came away with a much better understanding of the world our healthcare clients work in every day.

For me, that matters. The better I understand our clients, their challenges, and the issues affecting them, the better I can do my job as a marketer.

And Then We Went to Capitol Hill

This was probably the part I found most fascinating. We had the opportunity to meet with congressional offices and talk about real issues affecting healthcare providers and patients. What surprised me most were the young interns and congressional staffers we met. They were smart, engaged, prepared, and genuinely interested in what people working in healthcare had to say.

Whatever your politics, I found that encouraging. It made me feel good about the young people choosing to get involved and about our future as a country. It was also just really cool to be there. Walking the halls, sitting down with congressional staff, and watching these conversations happen was something I won’t forget.

It Really Felt Like a Partnership

One of my biggest takeaways was how different the relationship between providers and partners felt at this event.

At a typical conference, there can be a pretty clear line between healthcare providers and vendors. Everyone is friendly and everyone networks, but there is still a separation.

This didn’t feel that way.

Providers and partners were sitting together, learning together, sharing ideas, and talking about common challenges. The feeling was much more, we all have a stake in this, so how do we work together to make it better?

That sense of partnership carried through the entire Summit, including our time on Capitol Hill.

A Great Place to Start

The Phoenix Park Hotel was also a perfect setting for the first Summit. It’s a historic boutique hotel near Capitol Hill with a lot of character, and its smaller, more intimate atmosphere made it easy for conversations to continue outside the scheduled sessions.

It fit the event. There was something special about being there for the very first ARCP Leadership Summit. If this event grows into what I think everyone there believes it can become, we’ll always be able to say we were there for the first one.

I went to Washington representing IC System and our marketing team with a mission to capture the experience.

I came home with plenty of photos and video, but also with a better understanding of the revenue cycle community we serve and a real appreciation for what can happen when providers and partners come together around a common goal. I went there to capture the experience.

Turns out, the experience captured me.