ViVE 2026 in LA felt different the moment I walked in. The sunshine alone was a welcome upgrade from last year’s arctic‑like Nashville weather, but the real shift was in the tone of the ViVE show. The buzzwords were still floating around, but this year they came with a dose of accountability, interoperability, and AI that actually does something. With 7,000 attendees across health systems, payers, startups, and investors, the scale felt right—big enough to matter, small enough to find the people you came to see.
Agentic AI Moves from Hype to Hands-On
If 2025 was the year everyone talked about AI, 2026 is the year that agentic AI takes the wheel. Nearly every booth showcased frontier-model tools that don’t just analyze—they act. One CEO summed it up perfectly: AI agents may soon feel as normal as IoT devices once did. That felt true walking the floor.
Sessions With Substance
The sessions I attended made one thing clear: digital transformation and making AI work, is no longer optional or experimental. Leaders from HLTH, CHIME, CMS, and major health systems hammered home the same message—interoperability, integrated diagnostics, and enterprise-wide AI readiness are now the baseline, not the aspiration.
Funniest Moment: The Great CIO Migration
CHIME events paired with ViVE are always a big draw for CIOs, but this year it came with a bit of comedy. Watching CIOs beeline across the showroom floor to the safety of Club CHIME—where vendors are heavily screened—was pure entertainment. One vendor joked that their booth’s lucky placement near Club CHIME earned them more CIO face time than they’d ever expected.
Booth Trends: Minimalism Wins
No giant booths. Very few sad little booths in sad corners. And there was a noticeable rise in vendors who attended without a booth at all. The message was clear: be at ViVE but be thoughtful about whether you need a booth. Presence mattered more than square footage.
A B2B Show at Its Core
ViVE markets itself as a place to meet buyers, but the reality is more nuanced. True buyers were few and far between to my eye. What ViVE is, though, is a fantastic B2B show—if partners matter to your strategy, you can get a lot done in a short amount of time.
The Bottom Line
ViVE had a good vibe—upbeat, productive, and full of meaningful conversations. I connected with clients, future clients, partners, and friends. I learned about new issues and offerings. And the high-quality in-person time with several Get-to-Market Health clients was the highlight of the week. Overall, it was time well spent. See you next time, ViVE.
