On today’s special episode, we’re revisiting one of our audience favorites: a candid conversation with Jody Tropeano Greene, Head of Content at HLTH. In light of the Call for Speakers opening for HLTH 2026, this episode is especially timely and an absolute must-listen for anyone hoping to make it onto the stage next year.

As the architect of HLTH Conference content and the person reviewing every speaker application, Jody provides an insider’s look at what truly sets successful submissions apart from the rest. She dives deep into why most applications fail, the elevated standards expected for 2026, and how this year’s “Age of Intelligent Healthcare” theme is shaping the agenda. Get ready for practical, actionable advice on crafting a compelling submission, understanding what leadership looks like in this new era of healthcare, and why authentic, bold, and sometimes controversial perspectives are more important than ever.

We also explore this year’s key content pillars, new session formats designed to spark real conversations, and what it means to move beyond the safe and surface-level to offer proof, candor, and substance. Whether you’re a longtime attendee, a first-time applicant, or a health tech innovator seeking a bigger platform, Jody’s advice could be the difference-maker for your application.

Key Takeaways:

1. Authenticity and Boldness Are Essential: Jody emphasizes that the most successful speaker submissions are those that present a strong, candid point of view and avoid overly-polished or safe talking points. It’s not what your company does, but what you stand for as a leader that will get you selected. Submissions that read like corporate pitches are quickly passed over in favor of those that offer truth, leadership, and even a bit of controversy.
2. Theme Focus: The Age of Intelligent Healthcare: The 2026 HLTH conference raises the bar by demanding real-world, proof-driven insights around AI’s tangible impact on health outcomes. The agenda is intentionally designed around major industry challenges, including the aging population, advances (and unknowns) surrounding GLP1s, and under-discussed dimensions of women’s health. Flexibility in the program ensures Health spotlights what’s truly timely and relevant.
3. Diverse Voices and Fresh Perspectives Wanted: Underrepresented and unconventional perspectives are highly valued, from recently-departed government officials ready to speak candidly, to founders and clinicians with the courage to take a stand. Unique backgrounds even from outside of healthcare are prized for the fresh thinking they bring.
4. Session Formats Are Evolving: HLTH is moving beyond standard panels towards dynamic formats like the “challenge arena,” where leaders solve real attendee-submitted problems live on stage, and “power panels” that push speakers to address big existential questions with direct, sometimes opposing takes. The goal: foster candid discussion and real solutions, not just polite agreement.
5. Preparation and Persistence Matter: Besides strong applications, a visible, authentic digital presence (especially on LinkedIn) can help demonstrate you’re stage-ready even if you’re a newer voice. If you don’t get selected, attending the conference, engaging in year-round community activities, and learning from top speakers will strengthen future applications. Past and ongoing engagement with Health also plays a role in tie-breaker decisions for speaker selection.

Thank you for joining the Health Marketing Collective. Don’t miss your chance to apply for a spot at HLTH 2026. Be bold. Be authentic. The future of healthcare and who gets to shape it depends on you.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome back to the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence. We're coming to you today with a special episode. The Call for speakers for Health 2026 is about to open, and most speaker applications fail for the exact same reasons. They sound like a company pitch, they play it safe, and they completely miss what the selection committee is looking for. With the Call for speakers opening May 1, I wanted to re release one of the most valuable conversations we've had on this podcast. My conversation with Jody Tropiano Green head of content at Health. She's the one reviewing your application. In this conversation, she gets really candid about what immediately disqualifies a submission, what separates the people who get selected from the ones who don't, and why.

Having a strong and even controversial point of view is often the thing that makes an application stand out. You'll hear Jodi reference last year's theme and topics, but don't get hung up on that, because the real value in this conversation isn't what Health focused on, it's how they think, what they look for, what they reject, and why some applications rise to the top when others don't. That part hasn't changed. The theme for 2026 is what they're calling the age of intelligent healthcare, where AI isn't theoretical anymore, it's being deployed, it's driving real outcomes, and it's forcing the industry to confront what's working and what isn't. The bar is higher this year. Less polished talking points, less safe surface level perspectives, more real world proof, more candid hard conversations. Because the leaders shaping this next era of healthcare aren't hedging, they're taking a stand. So if you applied last year and didn't get selected, this is your chance to take a harder look at your approach.

Earning a spot on that stage isn't just about having something to say, it's about knowing how to say it in a way that actually cuts through. Enjoy the episode and be sure to take Jody's advice to heart. If you've ever wondered why some submissions rise to the top and others don't, this conversation will leave you with a clear and honest view of what it takes. Jodi, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's jump right in. So Health has built a reputation for spotlighting what's next, not just what's now. I'm curious how you and your colleagues approached setting this year's conference themes and if you could share walk us through some of those themes on the docket for this year as well, that would be great.

Yeah. So we set the theme heroes and legends, as you mentioned. So taking a little bit of a nod from ancient Greece and kind of celebrating these big bold thinkers who were also a bit of risk takers, they went, you know, outside of conventional wisdom. They were often kind of given the side eye or called crazy, but they persisted anyway and they went on to, you know, cement their names in the history books. So we're looking for those types of big, bold leaders this year. You know, we're living in really uncertain times, to say the least. I sound like a cliche, but, you know, the news cycle is pretty alarming every day. So this will be a historic time in our country's history, our world's history.

So we're thinking about specifically our industry's history and how do we make this a positive time in healthcare's history. How do the leaders coming to our event focus on kind of what's important and leave that noise aside and focus on serving patients in the best way possible, utilizing technology in the smartest way possible, and kind of writing our own history at this point in time. So we thought it was important to take a little bit more of a positive outlook and you know, turn our sights forward rather than rehashing what will have been in October. A very eventful summer, I'm sure.

For sure. Yeah, I love, I love this emphasis on positivity and really sort of coming together as an industry to really chart a better path forward for, for our nation and the world, particularly as it, as it pertains to, to health. Can you highlight some of the key topics that will be an important focus at the conference this year? You've got a full list. People can check out the full list up on the website, of course. Do you mind just walking through a few of those that you've selected as, as key topics for this year?

Yeah, I guess. And you know, we'll have so many stages at the event, some with their own particular themes. For example, we'll have a stage dedicated just to employer sponsored health. So, you know, picking apart everything that's important to benefits and total rewards leaders. We'll have a stage dedicated just for pharma and life sciences. We'll have a stage just for diagnostics, just for AI. So we kind of dive deep in those particular areas. But I guess, you know, for, for today I'll mention something I'm excited about is what we're doing on Sunday of the event.

So someday is when the event kicks off. Our show floor isn't open yet. So it's really a content focused day. We'll have several insights programs running on, you know, some of the program rooms starting in the morning. Those are very popular, so definitely check them out. And then for our main agenda, we thought why don't we focus on three core topics for Sunday and really go deep on those three core topics. So we picked cardiometabolic disease and GLP1s being one of the topics. We picked caring for our aging population as the second and then we picked women's health as the third.

So we just felt there was a lot to say in those three areas. You know, thinking about caring for the aging population in particular, we have a huge boom in, in the Medicare population right now. We don't necessarily have the infrastructure to care for them. We don't have the workforce forced to care for them. We don't quite know how we're going to pay for this booming aging population. There's a lot of question marks and I think it's actually an opportunity for technology to step in and fill some of those gaps. So that's what we want to highlight there. For women's health, we want to focus, yes, reproductive, maternal health, that's important and we will cover that.

But there's also so much else that we need to be talking about. Why are women getting neurodegenerative diseases at a higher rate? Why do heart attacks present differently in women? These are a lot of questions that we actually don't quite have the answers for yet. But I think there's a lot of really smart leaders out there that will feature that are starting to kind of peel away that onion that is women's health. And then for cardiometabolic disease and GLP1s, I mean, it's changing every day what these, you know, miracle drugs, if you want to call them that, what they can do, what they can't do, what we don't know yet, how we'll pay for them, who's paying for them, all of the direct to consumer companies kind of jumping in to fill some of the access gaps. You know, what does this all mean? Where is this all going? And I think we'll have a lot of amazing companies to kind of fill in those, those blank spots for us.

Absolutely. Well, kudos to you and your team for picking those three. I mean, huge, each of them huge topics and important topics in and of themselves. And all three have, have a very close linkage from a policy perspective as well. What's getting funded, what's getting coverage, is that type of stuff. And So I think we'll continue to see in the coming months here, even between May and October, how this conversation is going to evolve on all three of those areas.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. We always have to leave a little room to be flexible based on what's happening between when we set the agenda topic to when October rolls around. We never want anything to be st. So we do a good job with that and we work with our speakers directly to make sure they can kind of weave as they need to as new things pop up.

Love that for sure. Can you give us a sense, Jodi, for what kinds of voices or new perspectives you're hoping to see emerge? And not just across those three themes for Sunday, but across the program as a whole for the conference. Are there any, from your perspective, maybe underrepresented voices or perspectives that you're really hoping to see on the stage this year?

Yeah, you know, I think one group in particular that I'm looking for, if anyone's out there that falls in this group, definitely apply to Speak, but some angry ex government officials, I think they will have quite a lot to say. You know, a lot of times when they are in that official role, they. There's a huge laundry list of things that they are just not allowed to say on stages like ours. But many of them are freshly out of those roles. Many of them are really upset on how things have kind of turned out in the last 100 days. So I'd like to feature their voices where they can be a lot more candid. And I think our attendees will get a lot of valuable insight from them. So that's one group.

You know, as far as the startup ecosystem, we get a really great number of applications within the startup ecosystem. I think a lot of them will be AI focused. So I'm curious to hear from companies that are just not touching AI, that have something else that they're working on that maybe is not in that kind of administrative AI bucket, which I think we'll see a lot of in the applications, just something different.

Yeah, I think you're mentioning these, these former government officials. I think your, your registration rate just spiked at the chance to maybe get to hear from some of those folks. So, yeah, smart, smart idea to.

I mean, across the board, I just want people who are fired up. So they're an ex government official, a founder, a clinician, like people who are just really fired up and they're ready to be really candid on our stage.

Yeah, they're going to, they're going to say it like it is they're going to speak the hard truths that need to be said, for sure. Are there any new session formats or programming changes that applicants or companies should be aware of in terms of new program that you're bringing to the conference this year?

Yes. So quite a bit of new things this year. We're really, you know, just like we're saying, we're, we're writing the next chapter in health's history. I think we're writing the next chapter in HLTH Health's next history too. So we've traditionally done our main agenda sessions as panels, a lot of panel discussions. We, we've kind of shied away from doing many presentations on the, the main stages. But this year we're, we kind of realize people are sick of the same old panels over and over again. And just a bunch of talking heads, not really, you know, making any major point up there for 40, 45 minutes.

So we're trying to just shake it up a little bit. They may look like a panel optically, but there's a different angle to a lot of our formats this year. So for example, we're doing a type of format called a challenge arena is what we're calling it. So we'll have the ability for attendees ahead of the event to submit specific challenges that they're having in their day to day. And it could be from any type of position within the healthcare ecosystem, just something that they're facing that they'd love to hear, an expert opinion on how to solve that challenge. So we'll kind of sort through the list of challenges that we get and we'll put together groups of speakers that are in kind of the same arena. So maybe it's a panel of three chief AI officers from a health system and we choose a challenge from the list that we think they're uniquely positioned to solve. So we'll tell them individually what the challenge will be, but they don't have a chance to talk about it together until they're on stage at health.

So it's almost like live brainstorming between these three experts and hopefully solve someone's problem out there at the same time. So that's one format, another one, we're doing a power panel is what we're calling it. And this is where we'll pose kind of an existential question of some sort, like just a big, a big general problem that we're having in the industry or maybe a debate like question. So say we're talking about direct to consumer GLP1s that we mentioned before and we Pose the question like, are they, Is this harmful or helpful? Is this solving an access problem? Is it reducing costs? Or is it opening up a whole other can of worms of problems? And we get three leaders that maybe see this a little bit differently. So it's not necessarily a debate. They'll each have a chance to kind of answer the question at the very start of the session. So each would go up, they'll have, let's say, three minutes each to give their answer to this question. And then they sit down together and they talk through it.

They say, well, I think you were right here. You're wrong there. I love your idea here. Let's expand upon that a bit. So let's cut to through the BS and get right to the point of the conversation at the very beginning of the session. That's, that's the point of the power panel. I can go on. There's, there's many more, but they're all on our website.

We have now descriptions of each of these formats.

Yeah, I love the creativity and innovation you guys are bringing to these new session formats. I think it's going to help create, keep the event very dynamic and engaging for attendees. So kudos to you all for, for getting creative and bringing new things to the T. Let's talk more about the speaker submissions. I've heard you say that submissions should reflect the speaker's authentic voice and not be an over polished corporate narrative. What does that look like? Right. Like, you know, I think we can look at that and say, yeah, okay, an authentic voice. What does that actually look like in practice? And how can submitters make sure that their authenticity is coming through? Jodi.

Yeah, and I think all too often we'll read through applications. There's one question we ask every year, like, what makes you unique? Why are you different than any other person in a similar role to you at another company? Why should we pick you? And so many times the answer to that question will be what their company does rather than what they do and their unique perspective. So I mean that's, that's a surefire way for us to, to just kind of move on to the next application because it tells us that on stage you would just pitch your company rather than your own unique voice on whatever topic we land on. Yeah. And I think also bringing in the entirety of your experience rather than what you're doing at this very moment. Great point. What did you do before this? What was your first job in healthcare that you learned a lot from? Like, we kind of want that whole holistic, you know, perspective on that person and how all of their different roles has led to their current opinion. And I think people with really unique backgrounds from outside of healthcare are interesting too.

We, we love that. Like if someone is. Was in the fintech world for forever and they now feel like they can solve healthcare payments because of their experience in that other industry, I mean, that's a tall problem to solve, but you know what I mean.

Yeah. No, this is really great advice and I think people mean well right. In applying for these things, but sometimes there may be an inadvertent. Oh, they want my bio. An inadvertent copy paste because someone's busy, not because they're trying to be inauthentic. But this is just really great advice for people to make sure that their submission stands out.

Also, I think you don't need to write everything that comes to mind. You can be really brief in your answers, but just really to the point. Sometimes those stand out the most to us. Like someone who can say a lot in not a lot of sentences. It means they'll be great on stage.

Yeah. Yeah. More of that mic drop kind of moment.

Yeah.

I know that speaking experience matters in these applications, but for newer voices who maybe haven't been on a ton of stages, but have something really valuable to contribute to the conversation in some of these areas that you've been talking about, what is your advice for making sure that their digital presence shows that they're ready for the health stage? What can they do there?

Yeah, I mean, I think LinkedIn is such a great tool for that. That's probably the first place that we go after we read through someone's application. We wanna see who they're engaging with, what they're posting, if they're commenting on popular posts and kind of getting into a conversation with someone in the comments on LinkedIn. Not in a controversial way. Well, maybe, maybe a controversial way is okay. Depending on the. Depends.

Depends.

Yeah. So I, I think just someone who's like really putting themselves out there and putting their opinion out there on social media is a good sign that they'll be great on stage too.

Such a good reminder. Yep. Make sure that they've got that, that presence behind it. So let's, let's build on that a little bit. From a submission standpoint, what are the top one to two things that really separate a submission that gets selected from one that doesn't?

So we do ask a question in the submissions on what their controversial take is on any given topic within healthcare. Wow, I sound like such a shit Stir on this podcast. So far I've let you, I don't

think you do at all.

But basically we just want people with the strong opinions. They're always better on stage. They're not going to just agree with whatever their fellow panelists said and then say the same thing in a different way. They'll push back. And that's the only way change is going to happen. That's the only way we'll solve any problems is if people are willing to kind of constructively debate with each other. So that question is really important for us and some people really knock it out of the park and they go there. Um, and some people really shy away from that question.

So I would say don't ignore that question. Think about it. And we won't share your answer with anyone. So you can be as controversial as you'd like.

Love it. What is a common mistake that people make when submitting proposals? I mean, we've, we've talked about.

Yeah, another one that comes to mind is that they, they propose an entire session within the application and we don't really have any questions that lend to that answer. But, you know, we're not looking for that. We, we do build our agenda internally. We come up with the session topics internally. We work with our speakers that we choose to fine tune them for sure. But it's just, it would be too many cooks in the kitchen if we were taking all of these full panel suggestions. So I would say just focus on bigger topic buckets. Don't try to pitch an individual session.

I know that solution providers and vendors often face a tougher path to getting on stage, and I think most people understand that. What's your advice to them? Some will make it on stage, but for those who don't, are there other avenues that they should be exploring if they want to have a presence at health?

Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, it's just how it is. I think if you're going to an event you likely don't want to listen to strictly solution providers. Some of them are wonderful and we will definitely have a lot of them speaking, but we want to make sure that most of our speakers are coming from, you know, the health systems, the payers, the pharmaceutical manufacturers, the heads of benefits, you know, the people really driving a lot of this forward that are partnering with a lot of these solution providers. So, you know, maybe there's less real estate to go around for these solution providers on the program. So I would say don't sleep on the sponsored specialty program opportunities. We have so many of them, they're so wonderful and they're really meant for you to showcase what your company is building. So, you know, if I know it's a budget issue for some companies, but our sponsorship team is wonderful and we'll work with any company in their budget.

But I would say, you know, don't have the mentality if I'm not chosen to speak, I'm not going to engage with this event at all. We have so much else going on for you to maximize your experience at the event through our meeting programs, the specialty programs, even just being there and networking, I think is so valuable.

Yeah, I appreciate the accessibility factor there that there's many different avenues for getting the most out of health conference for your company. And you've also mentioned that past investment in the health community. Whether that's demonstrated through attending, sponsoring, exhibiting, it matters. And I appreciate you being candid about that. You know, people, people want to know. You said it isn't always going to be a leading factor. But if two people on paper are, you know, look, look the same, you might, you're going to go in the direction of someone who's demonstrated an investment. Can you tell us a little bit more about why that's important and your overall perspective on that?

Yeah, and I do want to make it clear we are not pay to play on our main program. That is something that we are very proud of, so we don't waver on that. You know, we're like church and state with speaking and sponsorships. I don't know who our title sponsors are at this point, so I'm really choosing this based on merit. But like you mentioned, if we are looking at one spot on a panel and there are two companies that we're deciding between, both are amazing. We could go in either direction and it would be a win in either direction. We do look and see their, their historical engagement with the event. Have they been attending for many years? Have they been sponsoring before? Do they see a value in our event? And we'll, we'll nod on the side of the company that's been supporting us because at the end of the day, like we, we want to support companies that are supporting us.

And I think hopefully that's reasonable.

I believe it is. And it makes sense. I mean, you're. This is a community. Right? It is an event, but it's also a community. And you want people who've been in the community and understand the evolving conversation that has happened over time. Right. So that they understand the perspective of what.

How do we level this up and make it new. Right. And actually drive a conversation forward. So that totally makes sense. We also talked about how, you know, maybe about half of the earned speaking slots come from this call for submissions, the open submissions that, that open May 1st for somebody who might get a no this year, because you are getting, you are getting hundreds of submissions. Thousands. Thank you for the correction there. I believe it.

Thousands of submissions. If someone gets a no this year, what is your advice for coming back even stronger next year? Again, you've given so much. Great advice so far. Anything else you would add?

Yeah, I would encourage them to still attend. I would encourage anyone interested in speaking to register to attend. Now, the ticket prices are much lower than what they will be once we respond to all the speaker applications. And we will refund your ticket if you're chosen to speak, since speakers do get a complimentary pass. So I would say attend, go to the sessions, jot down what some of these amazing speakers are doing that you like and try to emulate that. Maybe talk to them and then maybe even reference that in your application for next year. And it just shows that you're, you're really taking this seriously. And we love giving new people a chance on stage.

Like, we love to be the place that creates these new thought leaders that everyone is inviting to their events then. So, you know, it's nothing against anyone. Personally, I, I, it pains me so much to decline applications. It's the worst part of this job by far because everyone is building such incredible things out there and there's so much passion, just not enough days or real estate on the agenda to go around.

Absolutely. And it is, it's a huge event already. Right. Even if you, even if you were to say double your footprint, which I'm not saying you need to, but you'd still have to decline, people, because you've got thousands of submissions.

And I will mention too, to check out our health community, which is our year round platform. We host roundtables on there, webinars on there, so there are opportunities to engage with us year round past just the event.

Such a great reminder. Okay, I'm asking a hypothetical question, which I realized isn't really that hypothetical because you are actually saying, sitting in the position to select these speakers and design these panels, but let's just say all the stars align, Jodi, and you could design your absolute dream Panel for Health 2025. What conversation would you love to see happen on stage? And you kind of already showed us one, which is these former government officials that are willing to speak some hard truths up on the stage. Anything else come to mind?

Yeah, I mean, Atul Gawande is top of my list for this year. I feel like he is someone we've always wanted to speak. And I think this year of end year, he will have a lot to say. So he's up there for me. And then Oprah Winfrey and conversation with Michelle Obama. That would be incredible again.

Yeah, you land that one, your registrations are going to go through the house.

I'm working on it. So that's a, that's a big one. You know, I actually we're trying to do, and I won't name company names for this, but I hope it comes to fruition. We're trying to do the series of fireside chats that we're calling these frenemy sessions this year. So two true market leaders in a specific category within Digital Health, the CEOs or founders of those companies in a conversation together kind of about the art of competition. I. If we are successful with a few of them that we have in mind, I'll be really excited about those sessions.

I love that. So great. Okay, we're going to end on a fun, lighter note, Jody, if you could personally select the musical performer for the closing party at Health, and let's pretend for a minute that you had unlimited budget, who would you want to see take the stage?

Just because I watched the live stream of her Coachella performance, but Lady Gaga. Oh my gosh, her performance was incredible. If she just did a fifth of that at Health, I would die happy.

That's an amazing one. And I for sure would be there at as close to the front row as possible. I heard great things about her Coachella performance. For me, I, I was leaning Lizzo.

Oh, yeah, she. She would be great. We actually, we may have had an opportunity to have her a very long time ago before she blew up and we dropped the ball on that, which we regret deeply.

Yeah, I mean, she's, she's from mini, the Minneapolis area originally, and I'm a Minneapolis gal, so I was going to go local with that one. Otherwise, I know you guys go with a lot of kind of more retro picks, and I would totally be down for a Destiny's Child reunion at Health.

Well, we did have Michelle Williams one year, so we had one third just kind of together. Yeah, I mean, that would be a dream. We do try to touch on the, the nostalgic factor a bit with who we choose, and I think our audience has appreciated that over the years.

Yeah, Nostalgic That's a better word than retro. So thank you. Thank you for that. Well, Jodi, this has been a, a very insightful conversation today. Thank you for giving our viewers a clear view of what it takes to step onto the stage at health. And thank you also for all the work that you and your team do to really push the healthcare industry forward.

Yeah, I appreciate you having me. This was fun.

So, folks, the speaking submissions are now open, so send in your best Ideas for Health 2025. Don't miss this opportunity. And Jodi, before we wrap, we should definitely put in a plug for people to register for the conference early as well.

Yes, yes, Please do. Hope to meet you all in Las Vegas.

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Jodi for being here today.

Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in to the Health Marketing Collective where strong leadership meets marketing excellence because the future of healthcare depends on it. We'll see you next time. Sa.