31st Annual Executive War College
April 28-29, 2026
New Orleans • Hyatt Regency Hotel
For you and your clinical lab or pathology management team, this must-attend two-day event is unique because it emphasizes success stories and case studies that will help your lab survive—and thrive—despite the industry’s changing landscape. More than 90 sessions and 146 speakers, panelists, and lab experts will be at the podium sharing the inside story of how their respective lab organizations are succeeding.
Important presentations will cover the major trends in today’s healthcare system and describe specific ways these developments either hurt or help the financial stability of laboratories.
Whatever your special interest, you’ll find it! Each day’s sessions cover the full gamut of lab strategy, lab management, lab operations, finance, sales, marketing, managed care contracting, regulatory, CLIA updates, legal/regulatory compliance, coding/billing/collection innovations, AI, digital pathology, whole genome sequencing, and even merger & acquisition activity involving lab companies.
Add it up! Our Executive War College provides you everything you need to guide your laboratory to success. In two-information-filled days, you get the latest in lab management, inside news on breaking trends, and the opportunity to network with the keenest minds in laboratory medicine. Join us and 1,000 of your peers in New Orleans on April 28-29 and be part of the biggest laboratory management summit on the planet!
Insights from Industry Leaders on Why You Should Attend!
For more than three decades, Executive War College has become THE essential, must-go-to conference for obtaining information designed to solve the latest challenges in diagnostics, clinical lab and pathology management.
Need testament to that statement? Well, in 2025, more than 1,000 attendees came to New Orleans and left after giving the event a 97% approval rating.
It’s you, our EWC community, that make this event so special, and we are grateful for the insight and energy you bring to it every year.
Executive War College 2026 will give you access to all the thought leaders, experts, and analysts you need to develop the right strategies for your lab.
Stay tuned to this site for updates as new session topics and speakers are confirmed. We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!
2025
Executive War College Audio Recordings
Now available for pre-order!
Listen to the event’s incredible insights to improve your lab business whenever you want!
- Order the digital download Audio Recordings set now
- Share their expertise with your entire management team
- Build an information library with the best in innovative lab management
Enroll for EWC 2026
April 28-29, 2026
Questions – We have answers, and your point person is Amanda Curtis
acurtis@darkreport.com
What kind of EWC experience do you want to have?
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Our EWC Headquarters Hotel, the Hyatt Regency New Orleans
The Hyatt Regency New Orleans is looking forward to welcoming and hosting our conference guests and will provide discounted guest room rates for the conference dates.
601 Loyola Ave, New Orleans, LA
What Our Attendees Are Saying
Julie Ramage
Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting
Sanjay Timbadia
Tucson Medical Center
Dustin Suntheimer
GoPath Diagnostics
Browse Photo Highlights from Executive War College
Why You Can’t Miss Attending EWC 2026
- “EWC is the greatest goldmine of easy to implement, practical solutions for the modern laboratory.”
- The EWC gathering provides a collegiate environment to learn and collaborate with your peers. (If Aristotle was alive today he would have attended.)
- We openly address the issues facing our industry and provide insight into solutions that effectively reduce your cost while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of your work product.
- You will return from the Executive War College with the tools necessary to affect the changes necessary to help your laboratory move from a survival mindset to Thrive Mindset.
- EWC is a content driven event that is narrowly programmed to provide real world solution for small pathology laboratories to be successful. We will navigate, propose, and present solutions to the urgent issues that continue to challenge our industry (staffing, rising cost, tightening margins, regulations and more)
- Each year EWC has over 90 sessions planned on relevant topics that affect your ability to be successful in your laboratory and business. These sessions are lectures, group panels, and special events that are relevant to our industry. Additionally, there is a full day of add on events and workshops for you to choose from.
- The mission of the Executive War College is to provide a learning environment that allows all to discuss, debate, and network with 1,000 of your peers including the industry’s pre-eminent pathologists, laboratory administrators, and executives.
- Attending the 2026 Executive War College is an investment you’ll make for your lab in 2026 and beyond, and will transform the way you and your lab does business
See you in New Orleans,
Robert Michel
Founder and Director
Success is not an option, it is an Imperative!
170+ Expert Speakers can’t all be right… or can they?
EWC is your best place to learn solutions for your laboratories’ unique challenges. Expert speakers discuss powerful new practices that can positively impact your bottom line. Each session and panel discussions cover subjects such as: 1) Transitioning to precision and genetic medicine 2) The integration of clinical care and/or healthcare big data 3) Navigating narrow and exclusionary payer networks. With 116 sessions and panels, there is something for everyone!
Executive War College is the largest gathering in one place of lab and pathology leaders
Phrases like: Unique… One of Kind… indispensable … Not to be missed… have been used to describe the Executive War College’s annual gathering. They suggest the impact that attending the college can have on you, your career, and your laboratory. With a record crowd in 2024 of 1,026 attendees, EWC also delivers on the promise to give you the best networking in the lab profession!
Change your mindset from Survive to Thrive
Your unprecedented access to peers and industry leaders is another source of great value for your time and investment. Our collegial environment encourages straight talk, clear understanding, and insider perspectives on lab successes and setbacks. These conversations will provide you with the knowledge and the confidence to thrive in this current clinical laboratory and diagnostics marketplace.
Attendance in the 2025 Executive War College is an exponential mental growth explosion!
Learning opportunities at EWC widen your perspectives on success in these challenging times. Each day you are with us, you’ll add to your personal leadership and management skills. You’ll return to your laboratory charged with ideas, enthusiasm, and ideas. It’s why attendance in EWC is a must for every lab leader wanting to stay abreast of market developments and everything new and useful in laboratory management. EWC’s learning opportunities include: management master classes, lab executive roundtables, intimate workshops, lab case studies, and exciting post-seminar workshops, along with rich networking opportunities. Executive War College is the essential investment that helps you prepare your lab to not only survive, but thrive even as healthcare itself is being transformed by new care models, big data, and precision medicine.
2025 Benefactors
2025 Sponsors
