Activity based funding, now and beyond: IHACPA conference 2023
A truly integrated team effort enabled us to expertly deliver a three-day conference, packed with in-person and online presentations, workshops and talks, from start to finish.
The brief
In healthcare, activity based funding is exactly what it sounds like: a method for funding hospitals, based on the work they do – the number and types of patients they treat. It’s a big job and an even bigger conversation that needs to be had, on an ongoing basis and involving a number of key players. The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) and their annual activity based funding conference provide the opportunity to do just that.
In the ten years it’s been running, the multi-day conference has become the primary forum for health professionals across Australia and abroad to come together to explore and debate the best uses of activity based funding. Year on year, these discussions revolve around how activity based funding can support timely access to health services, improve the value of public hospital care, and ensure a sustainable and efficient network of public hospital services.
The 2023 conference was the first time the event would be held both in person and online since the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the first time the aged care sector was part of the conversation. High attendance numbers and a slick, polished event that was efficiently and seamlessly run were considered crucial measures for success.
The idea
Think HQ was engaged to manage and deliver ‘The Future of Funding’ conference from start to finish, encompassing a three-day program of workshops, keynotes, concurrent sessions and panel discussions.
Our scope included:
- Development of the conference theme and visual identity
- Set up and management of EventsAIR, the online events platform
- Management of pricing and tickets
- Management of all speakers, panelists and other personnel
- Stakeholder engagement and third party supplier management
- Development of all marketing activities, including social media and paid media partnerships
- Content production (video/photography)
- End-to-end management of the onsite conference.
The scale of work involved required a dedicated project team that spanned several Think HQ teams, uniting PR, content, social media, design, production, and of course events expertise.
From the outset, we worked closely with EventsAir to capture all program information and ensure an easy and engaging viewing experience for virtual attendees, while also managing stakeholders and venue personnel to coordinate the in-person conference.
Speaker management was another significant undertaking, with Think HQ closely supporting every speaker with presentation preparation and conducting a total of 83 speaker briefings.
Our design team worked their magic to produce a stylish, elevated visual identity for 2023 that was rolled out across all conference touchpoints, including marketing assets such as social media tiles and email marketing imagery, as well as conference materials – signage, presentations, lanyards, and more. No detail was spared, with even the floral arrangements colour coordinated to the conference look and feel.
To promote the conference and awareness of IHACPA’s key role in the activity based funding space, we developed and executed a comprehensive marketing plan inclusive of owned and paid strategies to target our ideal audience of attendees across health, hospital and aged care segments.
The outcomes
The 2023 conference was a huge success, with attendees providing overwhelmingly positive feedback and over 70% confirming they would attend the conference in future. Standouts were the quality of speakers, the relevance of the content, and the overall quality of the event production.
The conference welcomed 518 attendees over the course of three days, with 321 attendees in person and 197 online.
The majority of ticket sales were the result of our dedicated email marketing efforts, with owned and paid marketing transitioning our audiences from awareness to conversion and successfully positioning IHACPA as the preeminent voice in activity based funding.
IHACPA CEO Michael Pervan was full of praise for Think HQ’s work on the 2023 conference, highlighting the important conversations, connections and knowledge sharing around activity based funding that were able to take place, thanks to a superbly managed event.
