Pulse held its third annual national User Group Conference on February 23-26, 2005 at the beautiful and historic Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter of New Orleans. For 117 years, this majestic hotel has hosted movie stars, dignitaries, royalty and political kingpins, and offered the perfect blend of southern hospitality, old world grandeur and casual elegance for this event.

Attendees were treated to four days of informative training classes, new product introductions, entertainment and a lot of fanfare that the City had to offer. We were especially pleased to find out Robert Redford and Peter Falk were filming the movie “Retirement” in the lobby of the hotel, so our attendees had ample opportunity to see the stars up close and personal for several days, adding to the excitement of the event. Response to the conference has been fantastic. Karlen Jones, Director of Clinical Operations for Grene Vision said, “I found the meeting extremely informative and I’m very excited about working with the Pulse team to enhance our use of Pulse products here at Grene Vision Group and improve our alliance and partnership going forward.”

The conference kicked off with an opening reception Wednesday evening in the beautifully restored Queen Anne ballroom of the hotel. This was a great opportunity for the Pulse staff and nearly 200 attendees to introduce themselves to one another in a casual setting. There were delicious hors d’oeurvres and food stations as well as cocktails for everyone to enjoy. After that, everyone was free to wander over to Bourbon Street to enjoy the sights and sounds of the City.

Thursday morning opened with a delicious breakfast followed with our opening session lead by our president, Mr. Basil Hourani. Mr. Hourani gave a brief but informative presentation on the state of Pulse and healthcare technology overall. He did a wonderful job describing the Pulse system past, present and future. After that, it was on to the workshops!

The majority of the conference was made up of detailed product training classes, new product overviews and informative sessions covering a variety of topics of interest to all healthcare professionals. One of our most popular sessions related to the release of our Version 11 software coming this spring. We also offered roundtable sessions where certain specialties could meet with their peers and discuss the challenges and solutions facing practices in that specialty.

In addition, we established a separate Support Kiosk room where attendees could sign up for one-on-one help with our support help desk personnel. This area was a great success, and the room was busy the entire time.

Attendees created their own schedules according to the needs of their individual practices. The classes were taught by our experienced trainers, sales and technical staff. We felt they had the high level of industry experience and knowledge necessary to fulfill the function, and the feedback from the attendees was tremendous.

Pulse invited several preferred vendor companies to exhibit and demonstrate their products to the attendees. “These companies were chosen because they compliment our products and help our clients run their offices more efficiently. We knew our clients would benefit from their presence at the conference, and the feedback we received reinforced this. We look forward to more of this type of activity in the future. Anything that works for our clients will be built into future conferences,” comments Dan Breit, Director of Marketing for Pulse

Friday morning general session started with an informative talk by Mr. Dan Stech from MGMA. He discussed benchmark standards within medical practices, and gave the attendees a tremendous amount of information which they could take back to their practices and utilize on a daily basis.

Friday was also casual day. Attendees were able to pay two dollars to wear jeans, and Pulse matched the contributions for a charitable cause. This amount was forwarded to Lucien Roberts of Neurological Associates in Richmond, Virginia to purchase two fishing boats for survivors of the tsunami disaster. This was a wonderful and noble cause that we thank all attendees and Pulse associates for embracing.

Saturday was a free day for the conference. Attendees boarded a tour bus and started the day with a tour of the city. After enjoying the sites of the city, they boarded the historic Steamboat Natchez and enjoyed the sights and sounds of river life to see the bustling activity of the nation’s second largest port.

“We are very excited about the tremendous feedback we received from our clients after this conference,” said Basil Hourani, President of Pulse said, “We are already beginning to plan our next year’s conference, and it will have even more classes and activities than this one. We value the feedback we receive from our clients, and it has all been very positive. The venue and city all contributed to the success of this conference. Our clients leave feeling very motivated about what they learned here this week.”

A heartfelt thank you to our clients, vendors, and employees for participating in our third annual User Group Conference and helping to make it a great success. Dates and location for the 2006 conference will be announced soon.

• Share