Wasted Words: Improving Content At Conferences

By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma

“We believe this is the most important, the most interesting segment of the biopharma industry, and absolutely wanted to specialize at the intersection between CDMOs and the companies that use their services.”

--- Luke Bilton, co-founder, CDMO Live conferences

Agreed in sentiment, and mission.

Undeniably, development and manufacturing outsourcing is a central component in the business of drug-making, and thus serving patients. 

Our “production business” is operated via intelligently designed models reliant upon effective communications across enterprise relationships.

In-person conferences and other events play a role in facilitating this arrangement, and they deserve the reexamination we have put them through. That you desire to come together in the flesh we established in earlier discussions with Bilton, and his CDMO Live conference co-founder, Chris Kilbee.

But how do you – and exhibiting CDMOs – make the most productive use of your time while at in-person events?

Extensive conference experience informs Bilton and Kilbee that first off, business value is increased when sponsors engage with peers at focused events; where you do business with CDMOs properly curated for that event, and are enlightened by authentic and actionable content.

Through “content design,” they say, the best conferences provide you direct market insights via information aggregation, discussion, and business meetings. Events should be a tool for separating the noise from authentic signals.

For optimal development and manufacturing outsourcing, you require context and specificity, and real-world-tested information from informed voices talking naturally and candidly about strategies and tactics.

You need to hear of real challenges, failures and solutions, CMC specifics, supply-chain pressures, and regulatory expectations.

The Orchestrated Event

Today, our events lean toward either large scale and diverse, or small gatherings of niche settings on the other end of the spectrum. Both these have their place and purpose, but also design limitations.

The former can become diffused (even overwhelming); the latter unproductively restrictive.

However, Bilton and Kilbee say, professionals today judge those in-person events that occupy a middle ground as preferable. These are events large enough to be worth the effort/budget to attend, and focused (curated) to be on-point and respect the limited time of attendees

As Kilbee puts it, a conference host’s ambition should be “having attendees walk away feeling it was the best possible use of their one or two days.”

An important part of that feeling – along with meeting the objectives of discovering, evaluating, and meeting prospective and current CDMOs – is whether the content program will improve your outsourcing activities and clarify thinking going forward.

Impactful event sessions and roundtables are achieved through natural conversation among trusted subject matter experts and peers, and where locution changes the conversations that follow.

For example:

• A speaker alerts an attending sponsor to a sharper question she can pose to a potential business partner in her next meeting
• A roundtable surfaces a problem heretofore hidden under sanitized legal-approved language that clarifies your own contract struggle with a supplier
• A discussion of tech transfer challenges, supply-chain resilience gaps, or a supplier network that broke down and how that was handled helps a biotech start-up avoid the same situations
• An external-manufacturing strategy for an RNA/ADC/mAb/gene-therapy program alters a biotech executive to a manufacturing approach she can immediately run by their CDMO

When an in-person conference delivers this quality of content, it facilitates candid discussions among attendees themselves, amplifying the value of the gathering.

Speaking of his own CDMO Live events, Bilton says, “We’ve established an in-person environment for real conversations between peers about what is and isn’t working for them."

"We build sessions that let people compare notes in real time on the real problems they are trying to solve.”

Curating Is The Cure

Let’s be clear: Virtual engagements are here to stay, as they should be. In fact, Bilton and Kilbee (as well as Outsourced Pharma) host these as well.

Configurations of webinars, podcasts, online-community building and the like have proven an effective means of aiding the business of development and manufacturing outsourcing, and improving communications between CDMOs and drug sponsors (see here).

In-person or virtual you deserve a carefully crafted experience, and these formats offer options that at best neatly complement each other.

But we’ve been focusing on the history and progression of the in-person event – where CDMOs gather along with sponsors and peers.

We've learned just how strongly there remains a category of professional business exchange dependent on physical presence.

The best conferences take advantage of that physical presence by curating – a word Bilton and Kilbee often use –  entire days and evenings, and including content that effectively augments the atmosphere.

Conference curating is multifaceted.

It starts with effective pre-conference preferencing for the attendee's specific objectives, and scheduling business meetings with the appropriate CDMOs.

It means recruiting engaging speakers, establishing panels and roundtables for actionable content, and providing opportunity for questions and discussion. 

Curating also suggests establishing a pleasant, less harried environment – a facilitation of enjoyment, if you will. 

That last component is important.

Outsourcing development and manufacturing isn’t La La Land. It’s not a risk-free activity; it’s hard work often under multiple pressures.  

Attending a conference should not end up part of the struggle to achieve your desired outcomes.

No wasted words, no wasted time.