a change that led to many new important developments for the organization. From 1986 to 1990, rapid growth and expansion took place. Membership increased by 43 percent, Annual Meeting attendance increased nearly 100 percent and member services grew dramatically. On January 1, 1990, at the beginning of its 60th anniversary, HCEA added the word "Convention" to its title, becoming the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association to reflect the wider range of activities of HCEA's members. Then in 1994, HCEA published a prototype study on the value of healthcare exhibiting. Also, HCEA held a joint seminar with the International Pharmaceutical Congress Advisory Association (IPCAA) in Vienna. Additionally, HCEA's Guidelines on International Healthcare Exhibitions & Congresses were first published in 1995. The latter half of the 1990s saw even more rapid changes. In 1998 HCEA and IPCAA were instrumental in forming the Healthcare Congress Alliance, an international body dedicated to developing tools and documents to increase efficiency in global healthcare congresses. Then in 1999, HCEA launched the Healthcare Convention Marketing Summit, a one-day educational meeting held in January that focused on high-level peer-to-peer learning. The 21st century HCEA began the next century with several new programs. For example, HCEA's Research Grant Program was created to fund academic research on the healthcare exhibiting industry. The first study from that program, conducted by Dr. Jeff Tanner of Baylor University, was completed and published in 2005. Also, an e-mail newsletter, now known as HCEA Edge, was launched to bring up-to-date industry information directly to the members. And in 2004, HCEA launched the Online Directory of Healthcare Meetings & Conventions. In 2005, HCEA celebrated its 75th anniversary, and a number of new member benefits and services were unveiled to commemorate it. For instance, a members-only online resource center was introduced, and a staff initiative to conduct exhibitor training for exhibitors at healthcare conventions was launched. In January 2007 HCEA debuted landmark research on the state of the healthcare exhibitions industry. The groundbreaking research analyzed over 15,000 healthcare meetings over the previous decade, and included information on professional attendance trend analyses for all reported medical meetings, medical meetings defined by size categories and medical meetings defined by therapeutic specialties. This research study has become an annual project for HCEA and continues to provide valuable perspective for members planning their marketing strategies. In addition, HCEA introduced other industry benchmarking resources including the HCEA 100 Index Report, which identifies