Sadly, I won’t be attending HIMSS this year – too many big projects. I can’t say I have ever taken full advantage of the event, but as I get older the networking means more to me.

There is going to be another blogger meet-up at HIMSS this year. Last year we pulled something together at the last minute and it was really enjoyable. I found those in attendance to be sincere people that were at HIMSS to discuss healthcare IT. Thanks to Shahid Shah for keeping this going. Shahid is also writing the HIMSS conference official blog, check it out.

Did anyone else get this invitation to lunch with Steve Ballmer? I ask the question for two reasons:

• this could be a setup to kidnap me since I am Microsoft’s biggest critic in healthcare.
• I was wondering if one would really get face time with Ballmer, or if I would be in a crowd of 1,000 other schmucks.

I wonder how much time Ballmer does stuff like this. I am sure he does a great meet and greet.