These speakers not only set the stage for this annual conference and exhibition but they speak to the big three themes – social networking, HIT, and politics – entangled in this Year of the Dragon, which promises to live up to its name: lots of flame, drama and the continued push for luddites to give up the cave for a digital platform.

HIMSS 2012, held Feb. 20-24 in Las Vegas, with the theme of “Linking People, Potential and Progress,” is focusing on advice on meeting Stage One Meaningful Use requirements and the challenges of new technologies, whether it be privacy and compliance issues in cloud computing or questions about mobile healthcare.

Fitting its cause as a not-for-profit organization focused on the optimal use of information technology and healthcare management systems, HIMSS tracks new and growing areas in healthcare IT that could bring the biggest value to the healthcare community. New at the conference this year is a global executive forum bring together eHealth investments and strategies from Asia Pacific and European countries as well as a leaders and innovators program that discusses the all-important key issue: “Does IT have a positive ROI in healthcare?”

The healthcare community is increasingly specialized, with more diverse practice settings, a clustering that HIMSS refers to as communities of professions, whether it’s Latinos, emerging professionals, federal health sector, management engineering or nursing informatics. The life sciences arena, for example, has the opportunity to address areas of critical importance during roundtables and education sessions on using data for research purposes, and the EHR battleground, where drug safety, liability and efficacy all convene for leverage.

Of course, if you’re not able to attend HIMSS12, another cutting edge option is offered for the first time, Virtual HIMSS12, a virtual platform that provides a glimpse of the annual conference and exhibition from any location, including the ability to access interactive activities, real-time and on-demand.