Breaking In: How to Land a Spot on the HLTH 2025 Stage

Sara Payne [00:00:10]:

Welcome back to the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets excellence. I'm your host, Sara Payne. And today's episode is a must listen for anyone dreaming of stepping on to health care's biggest stage, health. With speaking submissions for health twenty twenty five opening May 1, the timing of this episode couldn't be better. I'm joined by Jody Tropeano Green, head of content at health, to pull back the curtain on what it really takes to land a spot on the conference agenda. In her role, Jody leads the development and implementation of the event agendas for both the annual health US and vive events, including over a 50 sessions, various specialty programs, and the highly selective speaker application process. I can't wait to pick her brain today. So we'll start by diving into the hot topics shaping this year's conference and why this year's theme, heroes and legends, is calling for bold, transformative ideas.

Sara Payne [00:01:10]:

We'll also touch on what applicants need to know about speaker expectations and how to stand out in an incredibly competitive field. If you've ever wondered why some submissions rise to the top and others don't, this conversation will leave you with a clear and honest view of what it takes. Jody, welcome to the show.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:01:28]:

Thanks for having me.

Sara Payne [00:01:29]:

Yeah. Absolutely. Let's jump right in. So health has built a reputation for spotlighting what's next, not just what's now. I'm curious how you and your colleagues approached setting this year's conference themes. And if you could share, walk us through some of those themes on the docket for this year as well, that would be great.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:01:51]:

Yeah. So we set the theme heroes and legends, as you mentioned. So taking a little bit of a nod from ancient Greece and kinda celebrating these big bold thinkers who were also a bit of risk takers. They went, you know, outside of conventional wisdom. They were often kind of given the side eye or called crazy, but they persisted anyway, and they went on to, you know, cement their names in the history books. So we're looking for those types of big bold leaders this year. You know, we're living in really uncertain times to say the least. That sound like a cliche, but, you know, the the news cycle is is pretty alarming every day.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:02:33]:

So this will be a historic time in our country's history, our world's history. So we're thinking about specifically our industry's history and how do we make this a positive time in health care's history? How do the leaders coming to our event focus on kind of what's important and and leave that noise aside and and focus on serving patients in the best way possible, utilizing technology in the smartest way possible, and kind of writing our own history at this point in time. So we thought it was important to take a little bit more of a positive outlook and, you know, turn our our sites forward rather than rehashing what will have been in October, a very eventful summer, I'm sure.

Sara Payne [00:03:18]:

For sure. Yeah. I love I love this emphasis on on positivity and really sort of coming together as an industry, to really chart a better path forward, for for our nation and the world, particularly as it as it pertains to to health. Can you highlight some of the key topics that will be an important focus at the conference this year? You've got a full list. People can check out the full list up on the website, of course.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:03:48]:

Do you

Sara Payne [00:03:48]:

mind just walking through a few of those that you've selected as as key topics for this year?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:03:53]:

Yeah. I guess, and, you know, we'll have so many stages at the event, some with their own particular themes. For example, we'll have a stage dedicated just to employer sponsored health. So, you know, picking apart everything that's important to benefits and total rewards leaders. We'll have a stage dedicated just for pharma and life sciences. We'll have a stage just for diagnostics, just for AI. So we kinda dive deep in those particular areas. But I guess, you know, for for today, I'll mention something I'm excited about is what we're doing on Sunday of the event.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:04:27]:

So Sunday is when the event kicks off. Our show floor isn't open yet, so it's really a content focused day. We'll have several insights programs running on, you know, some of the program rooms starting in the morning. Those are very popular, so definitely check them out. And then for our main agenda, we we thought, why don't we focus on three core topics for Sunday and really go deep on those three core topics? So we picked cardiometabolic disease and GLP ones being one of the topics. We picked caring for our aging population as the second, and then we picked women's health as the third. So we just felt there was a lot to say in those three areas, you know, thinking about caring for the aging population in particular. We have a huge boom in in the Medicare population right now.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:05:17]:

We don't necessarily have the infrastructure to care for them. We don't have the the workforce to care for them. We don't quite know how we're gonna pay for this booming aging population. There's a lot of question mark, and I think it's actually an opportunity for technology to step in and fill some of those gaps. Yeah. So that's what we wanna highlight there. For women's health, we we wanna focus, yes, reproductive, maternal health, that's important, and we will cover that. But there's also so much else that we need to be talking about.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:05:45]:

Why are women getting neurodegenerative diseases at a higher rate? Why do heart attacks present differently in women? These are a lot of questions that we actually don't quite have the answers for yet, but I think there's a lot of really smart leaders out there that will feature that are starting to kinda peel away that onion that is women's health. And then for cardiometabolic disease and GLP ones, I mean, it's it's changing every day. What these, you know, miracle drugs, if you wanna call them that, what they can do, what they can't do, what we don't know yet, how we'll pay for them, who's paying for them, all of the direct to consumer companies kind of jumping in to fill some of the access gaps. You know, what does this all mean? Where is this all going? And, I think we'll have a lot of amazing companies to kinda fill in those, those blank spots for us.

Sara Payne [00:06:34]:

Absolutely. Well, kudos to you and your team for picking those three. I mean, hue each of them huge topics and important topics in and of themselves, and all three have a very close linkage from a policy perspective

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:06:49]:

Mhmm.

Sara Payne [00:06:50]:

As well. What what what's getting funded, what's getting coverages, that type of stuff. And so, I think we'll continue to see in the coming months here even between May and October how this conversation is gonna evolve on all three of those areas for sure. Yeah.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:07:04]:

Yeah. We always have to leave a little room of to be flexible based on what's happening between when we set the agenda topic to when October rolls around. We never want anything to be stale. So we we do a good job with that, and we work with our speakers directly to make sure they can kinda weave as they need to as as new things pop up.

Sara Payne [00:07:25]:

Love that for sure. Can you give us a sense, Jody, for what kinds of voices or new perspectives you're hoping to see emerge? And and not just across those three, themes for Sunday, but across the program as a whole Mhmm. For the conference. Are there any, from your perspective, maybe underrepresented voices or perspectives that you're really hoping to see on the stage this

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:07:54]:

year? Yeah. You know, I think one group in particular that I'm looking for, if anyone's out there that falls in this group, definitely apply to speak. But some, angry ex government officials, I think they will have quite a lot to say. You know, a lot of times when they are in that official role, they there's a huge laundry list of things that they are just not allowed to say on stages like ours. But, many of them are freshly out of those roles. Many of them are really upset of on how things have kind of turned out in the last a hundred days. So, I'd like to feature their voices where they can be a lot more candid, and I think our attendees will get a lot of valuable insight from them. So that's one group.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:08:43]:

You know, as far as the the startup ecosystem, we we get a really great number of applications within the startup ecosystem. I think a lot of them will be AI focused. So I'm curious to hear from companies that are just not touching AI, that have something else, that that they're working on that maybe is not, in that kind of, administrative AI bucket, which I think we'll see a lot of in the applications. Just something different.

Sara Payne [00:09:12]:

Yeah. I think, you're mentioning these these former government, officials. I think your your registration rate just spiked, at the chance to maybe get to hear from some of those folks. So yeah. Smart smart idea to to come in and I

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:09:29]:

mean, across the board, I just want people who are fired up. So Yeah. Either an ex government official, a founder, a clinician, like, people who are just really fired up and they're ready to be really candid on our stage.

Sara Payne [00:09:42]:

Yeah. They're gonna they're gonna say it like it is. They're gonna speak the hard truths that need to be said for sure. Are there any new session formats or or programming changes that, applicants or or companies should be aware of in terms of of new program that you're bringing to the conference this year?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:10:00]:

Yes. So, quite a bit of new things this year. We're we're really, you know, just like we're saying, we're we're writing the next chapter in health history. I think we're we're writing the next chapter in HLTH health's next, history too. So we've traditionally done our main agenda sessions as panels, a lot of panel discussions. We we've kinda shied away from doing many presentations on the the main stages. But this year, we're we kind of realized people are sick of the same old panels over and over again and just a bunch of talking heads, not really, you know, making any major point up there for forty, forty five minutes. So we're trying to just shake it up a little bit.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:10:41]:

They may look like a panel optically, but there is a different angle to a lot of our formats this year. So, for example, we're doing a type of format called the challenge arena is what we're calling it. So we'll have, the ability for attendees ahead of the event to submit specific challenges that they're having in their day to day. And it could be from any type of position within the health care ecosystem, just something that they're facing that they'd love to hear an expert opinion on how to solve that challenge. So we'll kinda sort through the list of challenges that we get, and we'll put together groups of speakers that are in kind of the same arena. So maybe it's a a panel of three chief AI officers from a health system, and we choose a challenge from the list that we think they're uniquely positioned to solve. So we'll tell them individually what the challenge will be, but they don't have a chance to talk about it together until they're on stage at health. So it's almost like live brainstorming.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:11:42]:

We see these three experts and hopefully solve someone's problem out there in at the same time. So so that's one format. Another one, we're doing a power panel is what we're calling it. And, this is where we'll pose kind of an existential question of some sort, like, just a big a big general problem that we're having in the industry or maybe a debate like question. So say we're talking about, direct to consumer GLP ones that we mentioned before, and we pose the question, like, are they is this harmful or helpful? Is this solving an access problem? Is it reducing costs, or is it opening up a whole other can of worms of problems? And we get three leaders that maybe see this a little bit differently. So it's it's not necessarily a debate. They'll each have a chance to kind of answer the question at the very start of the session. So each would go up.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:12:37]:

They'll have, let's say, three minutes each to give their answer to this question. And then they sit down together and they talk through it. They say, well, I think you are right here. You're wrong there. I love your idea here. Let's expand upon that a bit. So let's cut through the BS and get right to the point of the conversation at the very beginning of the session. That's that's the point of the power panel.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:12:56]:

I can go on. There's there's many more, but they're all on our website. We have, well, descriptions of each of these formats.

Sara Payne [00:13:03]:

Yeah. I love the creativity and innovation you guys are bringing to these new session formats. I think it's going to help keep the event very dynamic and engaging, for attendees. So kudos to you all for for getting creative and and bringing new things to the table. Let's talk more about the speaker submissions. I've heard you say that submissions should reflect the speaker's authentic voice and not be an over polished corporate narrative. Mhmm. What does that look like? Right? Like, you know, I think we can look at that and say, yeah.

Sara Payne [00:13:40]:

Okay. An authentic, voice. What does that actually look like in in practice, and how can submitters make sure that their authenticity is coming through, Jody?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:13:51]:

Yeah. I mean, I think all too often we'll read through applications. There's one question we ask every year. Like, what makes you unique? Why are you different than any other person in a similar role to you at another company? Why should we pick you? And so many times, the answer to that question will be what their company does rather than what they do and their unique perspective. So, I mean, that's that's a surefire way for us to just kind of move on to the next application, because it tells us that on stage, you would just pitch your company rather than your own unique voice on whatever topic we we land on. Yeah. And I think also bringing in the entirety of your experience rather than what you're doing at this very moment.

Sara Payne [00:14:35]:

Good point.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:14:35]:

What did you do before this? What was your first job in health care that you learned a lot from? Like, we kind of want that whole holistic, you know, perspective on that person and how all of their different roles has led to their current opinion. And I think people with really unique backgrounds from outside of health care are interesting too. We we love that. Like, if someone is was in the fintech world for forever and they now feel like they can solve health care payments because of their experience in that other industry, I mean, that's a a tall problem to solve, but you know what I mean.

Sara Payne [00:15:09]:

Yeah. No. This is this is really great advice, and I think, you know, people mean well, right, in in in applying for these things, but sometimes there may be an inadvertent oh, they want my bio, an inadvertent copy paste because someone's busy, not because they're, you know, trying to be inauthentic, but this is this is just really great advice for people to to make sure that their submission stands out.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:15:33]:

Also, I think, you don't need to write everything that comes to mind. You can be really brief in your answers, but just really to the point. Sometimes those stand out the most to us. Like, someone who can say a lot in not a lot of sentences, it means they'll they'll be great on stage.

Sara Payne [00:15:50]:

Yeah. Yeah. More of that mic drop kinda moment.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:15:53]:

Yeah.

Sara Payne [00:15:54]:

I know that speaking experience matters in these applications. But for for newer voices who maybe haven't been on a a a ton of stages but have something really valuable to contribute to the conversation in some of these areas that you've been talking about, what is your advice for making sure that their digital presence shows that they're ready for the health stage? What can they do there?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:16:19]:

Yeah. I mean, I think LinkedIn is such a great tool for that. That's probably the first place that we go after we read through someone's application. We wanna see who they're engaging with, what they're posting, if they're commenting, on popular posts and kinda getting into a conversation with someone in the comments on LinkedIn, not in a controversial way. Well, maybe maybe a controversial way is okay depending on the Depends. Depends. Yeah. So I I think just someone who's, like, really putting themselves out there and putting their opinion out there on social media is a good sign that they'll be great on stage too.

Sara Payne [00:16:54]:

Such a good reminder. Yep. Make sure that they've got that that presence behind it. So let's let's build on that a little bit. From a submission standpoint, what are the top one to two things that really separate a submission that gets selected from one that doesn't?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:17:12]:

So we do ask a question in the submissions on, what their controversial take is on any given topic within health care. Wow. I sound like such a shit stir on this podcast so far. I'm not sure.

Sara Payne [00:17:25]:

I don't think you do at all.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:17:27]:

Yeah. But, basically, we we just want people with the strong opinions. They're always better on stage. They're not going to just agree with whatever their fellow panelists said and then say the same thing in a different way. They'll push back, and and that's the only way change is going to happen. That's the only way we'll solve any problems is if people are willing to kinda constructively debate with each other. So that question is really important for us, and some people really knock it out of the park and they go there. And some people really shy away from that question.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:17:59]:

So I would say don't ignore that question. Think about it, and we won't share your answer with anyone. So, you can be as controversial as you'd like.

Sara Payne [00:18:09]:

Love it. What is a common mistake that people make when submitting proposals? I mean, we've we talked about a couple.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:18:16]:

Yeah. Another one that comes to mind is that they they propose an entire session within the application. And we don't really have any questions that lends to that answer, but, you know, we're not looking for that. We we do build our agenda internally. We come up with the session topics internally. We work with our speakers that we choose to fine tune them for sure. But it's just it would be too many cooks in the kitchen if we were taking all of these full panel suggestions. So I would say just focus on bigger topic buckets.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:18:49]:

Don't try to pitch an individual session.

Sara Payne [00:18:52]:

I know that solution providers and vendors often face a tougher path to getting on stage, and I think most people understand that. What's your advice to them? Some will make it on stage, but for those who don't, are there other avenues that they should be exploring if they want to have a presence at health?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:19:11]:

Yeah. It's a great point. I mean, it it's just the how it is. I think if you're going to an event, you likely don't wanna listen to strictly solution providers. Some of them are wonderful, and we will definitely have a lot of them speaking. But we wanna make sure that most of our speakers are coming from, you know, the health systems, the payers, the pharmaceutical manufacturers, the heads of benefits, you know, the people really, driving a lot of this forward that are partnering with a lot of these solution providers. So, you know, maybe there's less real estate to go around for these solution providers on the program. So I would say don't sleep on the sponsored specialty program opportunities.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:19:52]:

We have so many of them. They're so wonderful, and they're really meant for you to showcase what your company is building. So, you know, if I know it's a a budget issue for some companies, but our sponsorship team is wonderful and will work with any company in their budget. But I would say, you know, don't don't have the mentality. If I'm not chosen to speak, I'm not going to engage with this event at all. We have so much else going on for you to maximize your experience at the event through our meeting programs, the specialty programs. Even just being there and networking, I think, is still valuable.

Sara Payne [00:20:26]:

Yeah. I appreciate the accessibility factor there that there's many different avenues, for getting the most out of a health conference for your company. And you've also mentioned that past investment, in the health community, whether that's demonstrated through attending, sponsoring, exhibiting, it matters. And and I appreciate you being candid about that. You know, people people want to know. You said it isn't always gonna be a leading factor, but if two people on paper are, you know, look look look the same, you might you're gonna go in the direction of someone who's demonstrated an investment. Can you tell us a little bit more, about why that's important and your overall perspective on that?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:21:09]:

Yeah. And I do wanna make it clear, we are not pay to play on our main program. That is something that we are very proud of, so we we don't waiver on that. You know, we're like church and state with speaking and and sponsorships. I I don't know who our title sponsors are at this point. So I'm I'm really choosing this based on merit. But like you mentioned, if we are looking at, one spot on a panel and there are two companies that we're deciding between, both are amazing, we could go in either direction, and it would be a win in either direction. We do look and see their their historical engagement with the event.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:21:45]:

Have they been attending for many years? Have they been sponsoring before? Do they see a value in our event? And we'll we'll nod on the side of the company that's been supporting us. Because at the end of the day, like, we we wanna support companies that are supporting us, and I think, hopefully, that's reasonable.

Sara Payne [00:22:03]:

I believe it is. And it makes sense. I mean, you you're this is a community. Right? It it it is an event, but it's also a community, and you want people who've been in the community and understand the the evolving conversation that has happened over time. Right? So that they understand the perspective of what how do we level this up and make it new, right, and and actually drive a conversation forward. So that totally makes sense. We also talked about how, you know, maybe about half of the earned speaking slots come from this call for submissions, the open submissions that that open May 1. For somebody who might get a no this year because you are getting you are getting hundreds of submissions.

Sara Payne [00:22:51]:

Thousands. Thank you for the correction there. I believe it. Thousands of submissions. If someone gets a no this year, what is your advice for coming back even stronger next year? Again, you've given so much great advice, so far. Anything else you would add?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:23:07]:

Yeah. I I would encourage them to still attend. I would encourage anyone interested in speaking to register to attend now. The ticket prices are much lower than what they will be once we respond to all the the speaker applications, and we will refund your ticket if you're chosen to speak since speakers do get a complimentary pass. So I would say attend. Go to the sessions. Jot down what some of these amazing speakers are doing that you like, and try to emulate that. Maybe talk to them, and then maybe even reference that in your application for next year.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:23:39]:

It just shows that you're you're really taking this seriously, and we love giving new people a chance on stage. Like, we love to be the place that creates these new thought leaders that everyone is inviting to their events then. So, you know, it it's nothing against anyone personally. I I I it pains me so much to decline applications. It's the worst part of this job by far because everyone is building such incredible things out there, and there's so much passion. Just not enough, days or real estate on the agenda to go around.

Sara Payne [00:24:10]:

Absolutely. And it is it's a huge event already. Right? Even if you even if you were to, say, double your foot footprint, which I'm not saying you need to, but you'd still have to decline people because he got thousands of submissions. Mhmm.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:24:26]:

And, I will mention too to check out our health community, which is our year round platform. We host roundtables on there, webinars on there. So there are opportunities to engage with us year round past just the event.

Sara Payne [00:24:38]:

Such a great reminder. Okay. I'm I'm asking a hypothetical question, which I realized isn't really hypothetical because you are actually sitting in the position to select these speakers and design these panels. But let's just say all the stars align, Jody, and you could design your absolute dream panel for health twenty twenty five, what conversation would you love to see happen on stage? And you kind of already showed us one, which is these former government officials that are are willing to speak some hard truths up on the stage. Anything else come to mind?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:25:17]:

Yeah. I mean, Atul Gawande is top of my list for this year. I feel like he is someone we've always wanted to speak, and I think this year of any year, he will have a lot to say. So, he's up there for me. And then Oprah Winfrey in conversation with Michelle Obama. That would be incredible.

Sara Payne [00:25:37]:

Again yeah. You land that one, your registrations are gonna go through the post.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:25:42]:

I'm working on it. Mhmm. So that's a that's a big one. You know, I I actually we're trying to do and I won't name company names for this, but I hope it comes to fruition. We're trying to do the the series of fireside chats that we're calling these frenemy sessions this year. So two true market leaders in a specific category within digital health, the CEOs or founders of those companies in a conversation together, kind of about the art of competition. I Yeah. If we are successful with a few of them that we have in mind, I'll be really excited about those sessions.

Sara Payne [00:26:22]:

I love that. So great. Okay. We're gonna end on a fun lighter note, Jody. If you could personally select the musical performer for the closing party at Health, and let's pretend for a minute that you had unlimited budget, who would you wanna see take the stage?

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:26:43]:

Just because I watched the live stream of her Coachella performance, but Lady Gaga, oh my gosh, her performance was incredible. If she just did a fifth of that at health, I would die happy.

Sara Payne [00:26:56]:

That's an amazing one, and I, for sure, would be there at as close to the front row as possible. I heard good things about her Coachella performance. For me, I I was leaning Lizzo.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:27:09]:

Oh, yeah. She she would be great. We actually we may have had an opportunity to have her a very long time ago before she blew up, and we, dropped the ball on that, which we heard that deeply.

Sara Payne [00:27:22]:

Yeah. I mean, she's she's from mini the Minneapolis area, originally, and I'm a Minneapolis gal. So I was gonna go local with that one. Otherwise, I know you guys go with a lot of kind of more retro picks. Yeah. And I would totally be down for a Destiny's Child reunion at House.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:27:40]:

Well, we did have Michelle Williams one year. So we had one third. Just gonna be part of it. Yeah. I mean, that would be a dream. We we do try to touch on the the nostalgic factor a bit with who we choose, and, I think our audience has appreciated that over the years.

Sara Payne [00:27:56]:

Yeah. Nostalgic. That's a better word than retro. So thank you. Thank you for that. Well, Jody, this has been a a very insightful conversation today. Thank you for giving our viewers a clear view of what it takes to step onto the stage at health, and thank you also for all the work that you and your team do to really push the health care industry forward.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:28:15]:

Yeah. I appreciate you having me. This is fun.

Sara Payne [00:28:18]:

So, folks, the speaking submissions are now open. So send in your best ideas for health twenty twenty five. Don't miss this opportunity. And, Jody, before we wrap, we should definitely put in a plug for people to register for the conference early as well.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:28:30]:

Yes. Yes. Please do. Hope to meet you all in Las Vegas.

Sara Payne [00:28:35]:

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Jody, for being here today.

Jody Tropeano Greene [00:28:38]:

Thank you.

Sara Payne [00:28:40]:

Thanks for tuning in to the Health Marketing Collective where strong leadership meets marketing excellence because the future of health care depends on it. We'll see you next time.