Medtrade West Concludes its Final Edition

This week’s show in Phoenix enjoyed attendance growth, but now the event’s director York Schwab fixes his attention on the coming October Medtrade East event in Atlanta and Medtrade’s evolution into a single show for 2023.

• By David Kopf
• Apr 07, 2022

The Medtrade team began the final edition of this week’s Medtrade West with some big news and ended the event on a high note.

On Monday morning, the first day of the show, held at the Phoenix Convention Center, Medtrade announced that it was consolidating the east and west events into a single event starting in 2023. Then, after the show wrapped up on Wednesday, Medtrade reported the event saw a 21percent increase over last year’s Medtrade West in Phoenix.

All told, it was a good end to the last Medtrade West, said Medtrade Show Director York Schwab.

“I think we delivered a great event this week,” Schwab told HMEB. “Every conference session I peeked my head into was full, and the engagement was great. We had the most attended AAHomecare Update that I can remember. The expo hall was busy late into the afternoon.

“I feel satisfied closing this chapter, and I’m super excited about an annual event in the future uniting both coasts together,” he added.

And when it comes to the 2023 Medtrade, the prime topic of conversation among attendees and exhibitors was where and when would the 2023 event be held. On both accounts, Schwab said he and his team is keeping mum for now. The most Schwab would share is that when it comes to location, Medtrade 2023 will not return to Atlanta and that the Medtrade team is considering centrally located, business friendly transportation hubs for the event’s host city.

“We have irons in the fire and obviously don’t want to announce anything before it’s determined,” Schwab said. “But it’s really exciting to get something over the line that’s been asked of us for probably a decade.”

While this week’s edition of Medtrade West enjoyed solid attendance growth, it still made the most sense to go to one event that will be the “must attend” event of the year, according to Schwab.

“I saw the growth of this show [Medtrade West] continuing, to be honest,” he said. “But for the industry, we really wanted to focus on one event. The concept of ‘less is more’ is really going to ring true.”

Will a single annual Medtrade make for a longer event? Probably, but at the same time, Schwab noted it would be critical to right-size the event, which will likely run three or four days.

“It’s certainly a balancing act,” Schwab explained. “Since Covid especially, people have gotten much more protective of their personal time. Whereas years ago, people would go to an event for four or five days, we have found they’re not as willing to give as much of their time.

“But I think that with one event, we are certainly going to have to make sure we can get everything accomplished that people want to get done, without rushing or going too long,” he added.

More immediately, Schwab said his team is working to ensure that the upcoming Medtrade East, slated for October 24-26 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center, will give attendees a memorable experience at what will be its final edition, as well. To that end, Medtrade recently implemented a new call for speakers method designed to help ensure the event’s educational content is timelier and more responsive to industry developments.

“We’re looking forward to our last event in Atlanta,” Schwab said. “It’s been our home for a long time, and we want to give it a great send-off with a great event.”