The 2016 IHE-Europe Connectathon is drawing to a close with traditional German Hospitality. The Thursday evening social event for Connectathon attendees, at the adjacent rewirpowerSTADION – home of VfL Bochum - had a soccer based theme. Attendees displayed their football skills in the comfort of the lounge – albeit at table football! Days 4 and 5 are always particularly hard work at the Connectathon and this year is no exception – with over 2,600 transactions to check from approaching 120 systems and over 80 companies it is only natural that relationships – which are entirely professionally managed, might become frayed or in some cases broken - as Monitors and vendors work to validate all those interoperability transactions. Feedback received from new and returning vendors has been encouraging – one of the new vendors praised the organisation, friendship and camaraderie of their fellow vendors even extending to “having great fun!” One returning vendor - following a seven year absence - was full of praise for the strides made from the availability and resilience of the test tools and robustness of the network to the physical space to operate in and the advice given by Monitors - they had improved enormously. The “helping each other approach” comes across strongly and extends to the key role that Monitors’ play in assisting vendors with their testing. Eric Poiseau paid tribute to the Monitors for their time and their commitment, “without them there is no Connectathon,” he said and the staff of the ZTG Centre for Telematics and Telemedicine and IHE-Germany have been superb in their organisation of the logistics and Eric’s own team have been outstanding in their dedication and enthusiasm! The Connectathon seems to have been a success in every area and for vendors and Monitors alike. Everyone has seen, learned and benefitted and there is huge positivity albeit in tough economic times.
The Connectathon family is already looking forward to the IHE-Europe Connectathon 2017. IHE-Italy and Claudio Saccavini along with his Arsenàl.IT team will welcome you to Venice on April 3-7, 2017.
