Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association
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The Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association (HCEA) is a professional association founded in 1930 dedicated to improving the industry of healthcare conventions, medical meetings and healthcare exhibit marketing.
[edit] History of HCEA
HCEA was originally founded as The Medical Exhibitors Association during the Michigan State Medical Convention in Detroit, Michigan on June 25, 1930. According to historical archives, 12 charter members established a treasury by personal donations of $100 each. During the first year, MEA membership reached 22.
In the early 1930s, information about select medical meetings began to be compiled by MEA, and in 1934, the first directory of healthcare conventions was published, later to be known as the HCEA Directory of Healthcare Meetings and Conventions.
MEA supported a wartime convention program with the U. S. Office of Defense and Transportation during World War II, and by 1948, the HCEA Directory listed statistics on 78 medical meetings.
In 1951, MEA joined forces with convention managers to hold the first Joint Conference on Medical Conventions (JCMC). This group of convention managers would later organize as the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA).
In 1973, the Medical Exhibitors Association officially became the Health Care Exhibitors Association. By 1982, the HCEA Directory contained statistical information on 902 medical meetings. Then, in 1984, HCEA and PCMA held their last jointly-held JCMC meeting.
By 1993, the HCEA Directory listed more than 2,500 meetings, growing since 1934 to be the most comprehensive repository of healthcare meeting and convention information in the United States.
In 1995, HCEA’s Guidelines on International Healthcare Exhibitions & Congresses were published. In 1998 HCEA was instrumental in forming the Healthcare Congress Alliance, an international body dedicated to developing resources for global healthcare congresses.
Entering into the 2000s, HCEA began publishing official research from its years of industry data collection, including the industry's first ten-year report on medical meeting trends covering over 15,000 reported healthcare events. HCEA also created the HCEA 100 Index, a collection of the U.S. healthcare industry's bellwether medical conventions.
