Gary C. Cupit, PharmD, president and CEO of biopharmaceutical company Rejuvenon, Bridgewater, N.J., will give the opening keynote presentation at the Second Annual Pharmaceutical Meeting Planners Forum. Organized by Medical Meetings and the Center for Business Intelligence, the conference will convene March 20 to 21, 2006, at the Philadelphia Marriott. Cupit, an 18-year pharmaceutical industry veteran who has also worked at Novartis, Knoll Pharmaceutical, and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, will give an overview of the trends shaping the pharmaceutical industry and how those trends will influence meeting management in the future.

The second keynote address will be given by James G. Sheehan, Associate U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice. Sheehan, who is based in Philadelphia and has litigated a number of pharmaceutical industry cases, will provide an update on federal scrutiny of pharmaceutical marketing practices — including meetings — and explain what planners need to know to protect their companies.

During the third keynote address, Michael C. Pucci, vice president of external advocacy, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, N.C., will discuss how pharmaceutical companies can improve their public image through community partnerships and philanthropy, and explore the role of meetings in those initiatives.

The program, aimed at mid- to senior-level planners, will also include sessions on how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act affects meeting planning; creating effective advisory/consultant and investigator meetings; organizing international meetings; and using meeting technology.

For more information, see the ad on page 62, visit www.pharmameetingplanners.com, call (800) 817-8601, or e-mail cbireg@cbinet.com.