Images courtesy of Henry Domke

The HEALTHCARE DESIGN conference was pulled off successfully, with a slew of sessions, roundtable discussions, exhibitor presentations, and board meetings all crammed in the four-day event in Washington, D.C., this week.

I’ve only been in, although peripherally, the healthcare building industry for less than two years, yet it was obvious to me and others whom I talked to that the HEALTHCARE DESIGN conference keeps getting bigger and better: more exhibitors, more attendees, and more enlightening up-to-date educational sessions—not to mention the increased potential for networking through the conference’s first online social network.

OK, so the hotel ran out of hot water for a day and the conference water bottles were made from PVC. Replacing the usual throwaway plastic bottles, they did at least represent an effort to push the conference toward a more sustainable track, which, as most of you know from experience, takes years of staff education and culture change on all levels of the company.

This conference also marks the second conference that HEALTHCARE DESIGN magazine decided to cover using video. This year we went a more “on the floor” amateur route—or should I say a more YouTube-esque method—by taking along our own camcorder and editing our own video. I was able to capture major points from a couple of sessions; people-on-the-street interviews about the healthcare building industry, the keynote speech by Mickey McManus, president, CEO, and a principal of MAYA Design, Inc., and scenes from the student design charette. Look for these videos in the coming months.

Check out photographer Henry Domke’s page for more photos of the event: http://www.henrydomke.com/custom/HCD08.

Use the comment function below to share your experiences—the good and the bad—of the conference.