ORLANDO, FL – For Heather Skipper, it's not the cost of the shoes that counts, it's the comfort level.

Helping man the booth for Health Care Dataworks at HIMSS11 on Tuesday morning, Skipper was animated and engaging as she chatted up conference attendees, scanned their badges and explained how the Columbus, Ohio data-warehousing company can help provide hospitals and health systems with business intelligence solutions.

Skipper, wearing four-inch heels and pacing back and forth on the hard floor of the Orange County Convention Center, is just one of thousands of dedicated souls who were working the convention floor on Day 2 of the conference while trying hard not to think of their aching feet and backs.

"The shoes I had on yesterday cost about $400 more than the ones I'm wearing now, but these are so much more comfortable. It's about the comfort at this point."

Skipper and colleague Ben Welch are seven of the Health Care Dataworks employees in Orlando helping to man the small booth in the 3200 row.

Welch said his company's first experience with a booth at HIMSS has been a big success.
"We're very pleased. Yesterday we had a lot of folks come through and scanned a lot of badges," Welch said.

Like Skipper, Welch had a smile on his face despite his second marathon day of booth duty.

"Every now and then, we'll walk over and stand on thick good carpet," Welch said, pointing to several booths around HCD.

Carpet was a topic of conversation on Tuesday with several booth workers. While some of the smaller booths featured little to no padded footing, several of the larger booths were swimming in comfort.

Enjoying some of the thickest padding on the convention floor, Jill Shewmaker of Allscripts had no complaints. In fact, the Allscripts booth has been a hit, with a constant flow of conference attendees.

"We've been really busy, which is great. It keeps the energy going," Shewmaker said. "We've had lots of traffic coming through, meeting current clients and engaging with perspective clients. It's been great so far."

In addition to being one of the largest and most impressive booths at HIMSS11, Allscripts also has one of the largest staffs working the floor. According to Shari Cox, Director of Corporate Events, Allscripts had 68 people working the floor on Tuesday morning. And almost each of them was engaged with attendees.

"We have the best booth on the floor and people are loving it," Cox said. "We're having a great time."

The constant flow of people can be attributed to a terrific location. Allscripts is in one of the premier spots on the convention floor. With a bustling Cisco booth also sharing space on the 2200 row of the convention center, there were times on Tuesday morning when people couldn't walk down the aisles.


"The amount of people is amazing," Shewmaker said.

Further off the main convention corridor, things were busy -- but slower -- for Ahmad Samah of Minneapolis-based Crash Plan Pro, a company that offers continues backup for home and office computers.

While Allscripts had 68 people working its booth, Samah was going it alone in booth 3589. He'll be by himself all day on Wednesday as well.

"I'm a soldier," Samah said. "I'm doing well, having a good time."

Despite seeing less traffic in his location, Samah said that Crash Pro has had a great time in its first HIMSS experience.

"We're doing well," Samah said as he handed out gift cards for free crash plans. "I'm surviving, but the carpet sucks."