For the past 15 years, Pharma Forum has been one of the mainstay conferences for medical and pharmaceutical event planners in North America who want to remain current on industry trends, regulation changes, and other elements that affect their work. This year, show owner CBI (which will become Informa Connect by late 2019) is starting a new event—Pharma Meeting Management Europe—to provide the same type of educational and networking benefits to European-focused event planners.
Set for October 22-23 at the Marriott Auditorium Hotel in Madrid, Spain, Pharma Meeting Management Europe will host nearly 200 attendees who plan events aimed at European HCPs, researchers, and other medical personnel, as well as corporate employees in the pharma and device niches. More than a dozen large exhibitors will be on hand, too.
Erica Vallecorsa, senior program manager for CBI out of the Boston area, is in charge of the new event, given her familiarity with past Pharma Forum events in the U.S. MeetingsNet (also part of Informa Connect) caught up with Erica recently to ask her a few questions about the features of Pharma Meeting Management Europe.
Q: What was the rationale behind starting a show in Europe? Are regulations or industry issues changing rapidly over there? Or is it just an untapped market?
A: A bit of both, actually. But we have had many requests from industry people in Europe to start a show like this, so we are excited to bring the Pharma Forum framework overseas.
Q: Are there issues that European-based medical and pharma planners deal with for their events that are different than what U.S.-based planners might face?
A: Yes. Regional regulations are different in the EU versus the U.S., and strategic meeting management is a critical topic in Europe. So, we will certainly focus much of our content on those areas.
Q: Will this European event be a lot like your Pharma Forum in the U.S., or will there be different elements, or perhaps a different format altogether?
A: Overall, it will have a very robust agenda similar to Pharma Forum. We have 10 life sciences companies representing a broad range of expertise who will present content. Attendees will experience case study presentations, breakout sessions, panel sessions with audience polling to guide the discussion, plus small-group workshops and extended exhibit hours to facilitate networking.
Q: What is one content highlight you’re excited about?
A: We have Darren Cawley from Ireland as our keynote speaker. He’s a patient who was diagnosed with renal failure unexpectedly at age 20, and has dealt with that for more than a decade. He did years of dialysis and had two kidney transplants, and his story about a patient’s physical and psychological journey through disease management and through the medical system is very instructional and motivating.
To learn more about the inaugural Pharma Meeting Management Europe, visit the event’s home page: http://www.cbinet.com/conference/pc19492
