Yuma International Airport –

I am waiting for the first of several flights to begin the long trip home after attending the Mexicali Summit on medical tourism.  There’s a lot of news to report, so this will be the first of several posts on the topic.

As an independent writer – I was kind of in a class by myself at the trade show which featured clinics, hospitals, doctors and medical tourism companies advertising their services.  There were also equipment and insurance companies presenting their products at the three-day event.  Argentina and Costa Rica also had displays to entice medical tourism agencies to consider adding destinations to their current rosters.

While the event was initially planned as an open event – with the public invited to ask questions and look around, a last-minute executive decision by Carlos Arceo to  change from free admission to 40 dollars eliminated the majority of the public audience.

I was still able to meet and talk to several teachers, including a professor at Cetys University who came to the event to see what economic development the medical tourism could bring to Baja California.  I also met and interviewed several other attendees at the conference.

The mayor of Mexicali, Francisco Perez Tejada, along with the outgoing/ and newly elected Secretary of Tourism came out to open the event and shake hands with attendees.

(Story on the conference with photos at the Daily Economic Monitor)

One of the highlights of the entire event was having the opportunity to present Mayor Perez with a copy of my book, in person.  He was exceeding gracious when I approached him.  Imagine my surprise to see him reading the book of the evening news report on the event (at 1:10 in the clip below.)




In fact, I was pleased to be able to offer a copy of the Mexicali book to the mayor of Mexicali, in person just after the opening ceremonies.  He was exceedingly gracious and spent several minutes looking at the book. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.