Our 2025 Conference Co-Chairs Share: How We Picked Our Conference Theme

We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 25th annual Kellogg Business of Healthcare Conference: Broadening the Aperture, Expanding Perspectives Around Innovation in Healthcare. When brainstorming the theme, we wanted to make sure we incorporated the viewpoints of the healthcare student body as well as the expert faculty members at Kellogg. To that end, our brainstorming involved three main activities:   

Step 1: Survey the student body 

First, we created a survey and posted it on slack in various healthcare-related channels, receiving over 50 responses. One key question discussed was around breadth: on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being very specific and 5 being very broad), how broad would the optimal KBHC overarching theme be? Here, 50% of respondents said they preferred a theme that is moderately broad, and 30% said in the middle of broad and specific. Our takeaway here was we should strike a balance between breadth and specificity but err on the side of breadth. Another key question we asked was around diversity of sub-segments covered: on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being not at all interested, 5 being extremely interested), how interested are you in the following sub-segments of healthcare? Subsegments here included Healthcare Investing, Digital Health/ Health Tech, Providers/ Services, Pharmaceuticals, Med Devices, Payers, and Pharmacy. Around 50-90% of students showed moderate to extreme interest in all sectors, indicating to us that diversity in segments covered would be critical.  

KBHC Exec Members discuss potential themes for the upcoming 2025 conference.

Step 2: Live brainstorm with Kellogg Business of Healthcare Conference executive team 
 
Second, we had an in-person brainstorming session with our second-year executive team. We first started with panel brainstorming, as the panels are the meat of the conference. Our team generated over 75 panel ideas across 8 sectors. We then came together as a group to identify trends, debate ideas, and prioritize results, aligning on a preliminary set of 10-12 panel topics. After the panel brainstorm, we moved onto the theme, doing a similar brainstorming and prioritization exercise. From all of this, we landed at Broadening the Aperture. 

Step 3: Healthcare at Kellogg Faculty Meeting: 
 
Lastly, once we had our initial hypothesis on theme and panels, we sat down with the Healthcare at Kellogg leadership team, including Professors Paul Campbell, Craig Garthwaite, and Pete McNerney. From this conversation we were able to land on a finalized set of panels + theme, as well as brainstorm potential star speakers to participate. 

Conclusion 
We appreciate the participation of the healthcare student body/ faculty at Kellogg in helping select discussion topics and are confident that this collaborative process will foster engaging and relevant conversations for all participants.