The first workshop of its kind ever in the country was successfully organized in Bangalore . A beautiful resort in Bangalore played the host for the workshop. Vivek Shukla, a well known Healthcare Marketing Strategy Consultant led the one day workshop on June 30 th, a pleasant Saturday in Bangalore.

53 people from various places and various backgrounds attended the much awaited event. There were people from the Marketing, Business Development & Administrative teams of :

Apart from the Marketing Professionals from hospitals, there were top management personnel and promoters of hospitals as well.. representing..

Students from Hospital Management Institutes also showed a lot of interest and attended the workshop with great zeal. The Institutes that participated include :

'The significance of such workshop in the Indian healthcare scenario cannot be ignored. Hospitals promoters have little or no idea of strategic marketing. "My mission is to equip healthcare providers in India with world class marketing tools." said Vivek Shukla.

Paniel Jayanth, Head - AMEN Business Solutions announced that they were already planning to take this workshop to other big cities of the country. The next one could either be in Hyderabad or Chennai. "We are working on a very unique strategy which would enhance the quality of healthcare management in the country", said Mr. Paniel. He along with his team also plans to introduce such workshops, seminars and conferences in various topics and fields of Healthcare Management.

The one day workshop covered all major aspects of strategic marketing. The participants were divided into groups of four people each and were given real life case studies and one assignment during the course of the day. As the various marketing concepts unfolded, the complex case studies started to become easier and simpler. By the end of the day, some practical solutions to the cases were developed.

Shukla an avid reader, unleashed some potent marketing tools from world famous books on Brand building, Advertising, Market research, Customer service, etc. He quoted a lot of examples from his erstwhile projects, other industries like airlines, hotels and even FMCG sector to drive home his points. Marketing strategies of international hospitals, especially American hospitals were discussed during the workshop.

The event was co-sponsored by Medicall, a mega exhibition which will be held in Chennai on August 3,4,5. (www.medicall.in )

Official Media Partners for the event were Express Healthcare ( www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com). A complete report on the event would be published in their August 07 Issue..

In the end, the objective of having people see beyond the short cuts and ineffective marketing techniques was successfully achieved. This kind of initiatives can certainly mark a new era in the way that healthcare is promoted in India .