STEPS, the simulation expo

An exhibition dedicated to simulation and training arrives in Italy and beyond. Its director tells us about the project.

It is a great pleasure to be here today with SIMZINE and thank you for this opportunity. I am Davide Lenarduzzi, Director of STEPS 2022 – Simulation and Training for Patient Safety and I have always followed the evolution of the medical sector with great attention. Together with the PAEDA & Associati team, we take care of innovating and promoting B2B contexts with the greatest added value. We are a cohesive, strong and highly trained team in the exhibition sector, especially b2b. We dedicate all our efforts to creating event formats never before created, which are created solely and exclusively to better serve the sector we represent at all times.

STEPS 2022 – Simulation and Training Expo for Patient Safety is the world’s first medical simulation exhibition. An itinerant event, created and organized within a cruise ship.

The boat is only the means and not the end of the event. This is a point on which we insist a lot.

Listening to the operators of the simulation industry in medicine, for a few years we have noticed their strong need to know not only doctors, nurses and other professionals who already use simulation for their interventions, but also all stakeholders in a much broader way, and also the operators, who are the real decision makers regarding the opening or not of a simulation laboratory in Italy and in Europe. It was precisely through dialogue with them that we understood that we needed a sectoral event that would give the opportunity, on a single occasion, to touch the most important national and international territories.

Actually, it was not us at PAEDA who thought that the world of health simulation operators needed an exhibition like this, but rather it was the operators themselves who suggested it to us through the testimonies we collected at all levels in the healthcare world.

In recent decades, operators and producers in the world of simulation have made great strides and now the artificial materials on which to simulate have qualities almost comparable to those of the real human body. Much is said about the economic problem, but in reality, thanks to the large investments in health, the PNRR and the enormous savings achieved by opening a simulation center (it’s safe and attractive, reduction in cadaver laboratories, etc.) , this investment no longer represents a cost, but above all a very important saving for the health center. The creation of these centers constitutes a great business opportunity also for private structures that, despite not operating in the world of health, want to invest in simulation centers to put them at the service of health.

STEPS was born from a boost of the Italian market, but it will also have a very strong contamination with the French, Spanish and Maltese markets for a fundamental exchange of experiences from which to draw very useful ideas for the entire supply chain. STEPS 2022 is therefore an effective and efficient tool to promote simulation in health care not only because of its tools, products and solutions, but also because it wants to provide an “instruction manual for use” of simulation, from cost management to the impact within the organization, analyzing the necessary financing and everything related to the conception, opening and management of a simulation center or laboratory.

Attention: STEPS 2022 does not overlap with the congresses present in the world today, but rather summarizes and reinforces their message by widening the audience even to topics that are difficult to engage and address at congresses.

Talking to the many operators of this supply chain, we often understood that the problem lay in having to pursue, depending on the specialty and specificity, the numerous congresses present in Italy and in Europe, STEPS instead puts at the center of the project simulation in medicine at a general level involving all the actors, not just the operators who use it.

The great novelty of this exhibition format comes from the deep knowledge of the world of MSC Cruises by PAEDA, the flagship of our country and one of the most important worldwide in its sector. Instead of making the visitor so rooted and sought after by the market movement, STEPS will move towards the visitor and potential customer. Inside the ship, STEPS will take place in an area reserved and closed to other cruise passengers, therefore dedicated exclusively to operators in the sector who will board each port and be able to visit the expo with total peace of mind. An absolutely innovative format that allows you to play central, northern and southern Italy, as well as 3 foreign countries in a single event with a single investment. For the exhibitor it is a certain and inclusive cost of hospitality for a week enjoying, once the activities related to STEPS have been carried out, all the typical services of a cruise ship at the highest world-renowned level. The experience of finding yourself on board a cruise ship at the end of a working day is truly unique and unparalleled.

Also, many companies are thinking of creating events within the event. During that week, in fact, they will concentrate a series of commercial and corporate networking activities, with greater cost savings compared to the ordinary management of promotion and networking, related to investment.