I feel fortunate to have attended the recently concluded fall 2016 Medtrade show in Atlanta. It reminds me that the more things change, the more they remain the same. This is true even with great forward advances in technology.

I attended my first Medtrade show in 1993. Times were tough for many people because of extreme weather. In March that year the Great Blizzard of 1993 struck the eastern U.S., bringing snowfall and severe weather from Quebec all the way to Cuba. And I remember the great flood of 1993 that started in April and flooded large portions of the American Midwest.

But on the business front, the economy was improving. In December the unemployment rate fell to 6.5%, the lowest since January of 1991. This was the year that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passed the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

I found that first Medtrade show I attended exhilarating on many fronts. The people I met were encouraging. The products I saw were the newest of the new. Walking into the show was breathtaking and on the show floor you could see and touch any product you want related to home healthcare. For someone like myself, a proud manager of a hospital owned DME company, it was THE PLACE to be to get great information and to make great contacts.

And all these years later, it’s still THE PLACE to be. It’s different today in some respects. Technology breakthroughs have had an impact. In 1993, for example, there were no cell phones. We used pay phones and dropped coins into metal slots. It was all about connecting at Medtrade then and it’s about connecting at Medtrade today—although at a faster pace because of advances in electronics and the ability to present information swiftly and imaginatively on computer screens.

But at the root of it all, Medtrade is the same today as it was in 1993. There is no better opportunity to meet home healthcare customers face to face than at this show. There is no better place to make home healthcare contacts than at this show. There is no better place to grow professionally in the home healthcare field than at this show.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s all about connecting and Medtrade is THE PLACE to connect best in home healthcare.