As we celebrated the Alliance's very successful 2026 Alliance Industry Summit (AIS) 2026 in New York City and continue to embrace innovation in continuing professional development, I find myself reflecting on a question many organizations have wrestled with over the past several years: Why do we still gather in person?

At first glance, the answer seems obvious. We gather to learn. We attend educational sessions, hear from experts, discover emerging trends and gain new knowledge we can bring back to our organizations. Education has always been at the heart of our meetings.

However, I would argue that education, while critically important, is not the primary reason live meetings continue to thrive.

The real value of live meetings is human connection.

Think about your most impactful conference experience. Chances are that the session itself was valuable, but what stayed with you long after the conference ended was something else. Perhaps it was a conversation that continued in the hallway after a presentation. A discussion over coffee with someone facing the same challenge in their organization. A mentor who offered guidance at just the right moment in your career. Or a new professional relationship that evolved into a collaboration, friendship or career opportunity.

Those moments rarely appear on a conference agenda, yet they are often the most important outcomes of attending.

As professionals in continuing education, we sometimes make the mistake of viewing learning and networking as separate activities. In reality, the most powerful learning often occurs through interaction with our peers. Adult learners bring a wealth of experience to every educational encounter. When we create opportunities for learners to share those experiences, test ideas, challenge assumptions and solve problems together, learning becomes far more meaningful and durable.

This has important implications for how we design live meetings in the future.

If knowledge transfer is the only objective, there are many effective ways to accomplish that through webinars, podcasts, online modules, articles and asynchronous learning experiences. Technology has made education more accessible than ever before.

The unique advantage of a live meeting is not the lecture. The unique advantage of a live meeting is the interaction.

That is why I believe we must continue evolving beyond traditional lecture-centric conference models and create more opportunities for active participation. Roundtables, facilitated discussions, case-based learning, problem-solving workshops, peer-to-peer exchanges and collaborative learning experiences leverage what live meetings do best, bringing professionals together to learn from one another.

The future of live meetings is not simply delivering content in a physical room. It is creating environments where meaningful conversations occur, ideas are tested, relationships are formed and communities are strengthened.

For Alliance members, this concept is particularly important. We are a profession dedicated to designing learning experiences that improve healthcare. We know better than most that learning is fundamentally a social process. The exchange of perspectives, the sharing of experiences and the opportunity to engage directly with colleagues are powerful drivers of growth, innovation and change.

As we look ahead, I hope we continue to challenge ourselves to design meetings that maximize interaction and engagement. The strongest conferences will be those that view education not as a one-way transfer of information, but as a catalyst for connection.

Ultimately, people do not travel across the country simply to hear information they could access elsewhere. They travel to connect.

Innovation is also essential to the long-term success and sustainability of live meetings. As meeting professionals, we cannot simply continue doing what we have always done and expect attendance and engagement to remain strong while costs continue to rise. This year's AIS meeting provided an excellent example of thoughtful innovation. For the first time, the meeting was held at Memorial Sloan Kettering rather than a traditional conference venue. There was no headquarters hotel, no room block and no food and beverage minimums. Understandably, the approach made many organizers and attendees nervous. Participants were responsible for arranging their own accommodations, whether through hotels along the subway line, Airbnb rentals or staying with family and friends in the area. Despite those concerns, the meeting achieved record attendance.

The lesson is not that every organization should abandon traditional conference models. Rather, it is that we must be willing to challenge assumptions and explore new approaches that lower barriers to participation. Nothing is perfect, and every innovation carries some level of risk. Yet if we are serious about making live meetings accessible and affordable, we must be willing to test new ideas, learn from the results and adapt. In this case, the risk was worth taking. As costs continue to increase for both organizations and attendees, our profession must remain open to creative solutions that preserve what matters most: bringing people together to learn, connect, collaborate and build professional communities.

It is through innovation and building connections that the most meaningful learning often occurs. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for February 18-21, 2027, in Orlando, Florida! The Conference Committee is preparing an innovative, great experience for you!

Vince Loffredo, EdD
President, Board of Directors
Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions