The Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association (HCEA) brings together healthcare companies, associations, and convention partners to host better tradeshows. However, its former membership category names didn’t properly reflect each of those groups and left members unsure about which category they belonged in.

To correct that, HCEA recently announced new names.

“By changing the names, we think this really not only reflects who our members are, but really showed our overall goal of member engagement, listening to our members, and a stronger positioning of HCEA on our values and what we offer to members,” HCEA Executive Director Amy Lotz, CAE, said in an interview with Associations Now.

HCEA’s three membership categories now include: Corporate members, formerly regular members, are organizations and companies that manufacture or distribute healthcare products or services. Association members, previously associate members, are healthcare associations that organize conferences. And industry partner members, formerly supporting members, are organizations that provide products or services related to healthcare meetings.

Lotz said these new names will help members better understand which group they should join. “I think they’ll have a greater sense of pride and connection by using a name like corporate rather than using a name like regular,” she said. “That makes sense to them.”

In the last year, since a move to a new AMC, HCEA has been undergoing a strategic analysis of its operations, which has resulted in redesigning the website, updating its newsletter, and rebranding its conference. Enhancing the membership experience is the next step in this process.

“Membership is the result of doing everything else well, so we feel like we are doing very well in our other areas, and this name change is part of that reflection of refocusing on membership,” Lotz said.

In a press release announcing the new names, HCEA President Don Schmid said the categories better represent its members. “HCEA is a unique organization in that we have three membership categories which complement each other,” he said. “Each member offers a different perspective of synergistic insights that enable other category members to improve their skill sets in the medical tradeshow industry. The name reclassification is a more reflective description of each category of membership.”

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