Walkin in Memphis! Marketing Tidbits and Highlights from the 2008 UCAOA Fall Conference.

The Fall 2008 UCAOA Conference went great! It's a great chance for physicians to earn CME's as well as professionals in the Urgent Care industry to come together and learn from each other...and we manage to have some fun while we're at it!

I went to a great Marketing lecture by Sam Yates of Yates & Associates that touched on the importance of a strong web presence via Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- or boosting your website's ranking in searches targeted toward your desired audience. I was not surprised that not many in the audience were familiar with SEO, or even had a website. He threw out a couple compelling statistics- 75% of college students and young adults use the internet for their first stop for health care information... and did you know that 62% of buying decisions are made from web-based research? Maybe we should consider our web-exposure when trying to reach emerging generations as well as a very integral part of our target market...those who want to buy! Thanks Sam for a great lecture- I didn't even attempt to cover all of the great tips you included.

We also had a great time seeing some of our favorite exhibitors, meeting new clients as well as greeting others face to face that we've built relationships over the phone. We were happy to introduce our partnerships with Pharmalink and VaxServe of Sanofi Pasteur as exceptional vendors to the urgent care community. We met other potential partners and spoke with prospective clients about discounts offered to them on products and services through the FindUrgentCare Vendor Network. Thanks Becky and everyone at the UCAOA and John at PME Expo services for such a great conference!

Other Highlights: Walking down Beale street and hearing some great blues. Street acrobats and even acrobats in bars. The ducks in the Memphis Peabody Hotel that March down from the elevator and across the red carpet to play in the fountain. Experiencing some down home barbeque- just about every meal except for breakfast over the course of 3 days. Bread pudding. The sunset view from the top of the Memphis Peabody. Spotting Priscilla Presley. Touring Graceland.

Elvis lives!- Graceland Tour.---->


Amy and Elvis (left) at the Urgent Care America/ UCAOA party on top of the Peabody- just in time for the sunset.

Go Green or Go Home!! Great health tips and advice for becoming eco-friendly

I am one of those people you see in the local market scanning the labels on my groceries for those ugly more-than-four-letter-words like "hydrogenated oil", "yellow #8909793838295...etc.","high fructose corn syrup"... and those sneaky words that end in "ose" or "itol" that basically mean SUGAR! I find pleasure from decoding tricky marketing tactics like "no trans fat per serving"- which basically means that in terms of one serving, there is a low enough content for the FDA to allow them to use that label.

Want to be more informed about the benefits of going organic and see what's up with all the hype surrounding "going green"? I found a great blog by a company called Earthpure Organics. Browse topics that discuss which fats are good fats, or find out the benefits of being one of those people who carries the cloth bags into the grocery store...besides the fact that it's sort of hip right now, anyway you catch my drift. If you're into learning more about the subject, check out this blog: http://nextgenvending.blogspot.com/. Enjoy!