What's your personality type?

It seems all any of us in the HME industry can talk about these days is in-person events (We are, after all, at the time of this writing, still waiting for the DMEPOS final rule; otherwise, that might be the dominant talking point). Will in-person events happen? Will people go to them?

Certainly by July, the time of the industry’s first planned in-person event – Medtrade West, July 12-14 at the Phoenix Convention Center – all those who want to be vaccinated will be vaccinated, and York Schwab, associate show director, told HME News that masks will be required.

(Was I the only one who, upon hearing that registration was open for Medtrade West, Googled to see if there was still a mask mandate in Arizona? There isn’t; the governor lifted it in March.)

So, vaccines, masks – those should put people who aren’t at ease, more at ease.

And I know the good folks at Emerald Expositions and the Phoenix Convention Center are going to do whatever is in their capacity to make the venue safe. For one, they say online that they’ve allotted 30 minutes in between sessions to sanitize rooms.

But I think the biggest factor in determining whether or not a person jumps back into in-person events might be their personality.

Are you an extrovert who has struggled with more than a year of working from home? If so, and your company allows it, you’re probably already back in the office and back on the road conducting in-person meetings.

Are you an introvert who has enjoyed communicating primarily through Teams calls and Slack messages? If so, and your company allows it, you’re probably still waiting and seeing.

From my conversations in the past few weeks, there are people in both camps.

But based on the results of this month’s HME Newspoll, which is a far more scientific approach to answering the question of whether or not people plan to attend one or more in-person events this year, the majority of you are ready to get out of dodge. (Is that a saying everywhere, or just here in Maine?)

We made the decision to hold the HME News Business Summit virtually again this year (more on that soon!) out of an abundance of caution.

Caution, by the way, is a good way to describe my personality. That’s why I’m sending Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty to Medtrade West! Be sure to say hello to her there, but don’t try to give her a hug – that’s not her personality, even before the pandemic.